Café Paris Sauce

Marco_B_rtolo_148609

Hi!

I'm trying to get the perfect Café de Paris sauce that's used in the "Brasseries", but all the recipes have flaws.

One of the hardest parts is the emulsification method of the butter sauce...

Has anyone tried to make this?

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Angelo_197648

I don't have Brasseries so I can't look it up, if you post the recipe maybe we can offer suggestions. I will say though, there is debate over the Cafe de Paris sauce

tshewman

as I understand it, it's a compound butter with herbs, anchovie etc. The emulsification will need to take place over alow heat whisking in the butter a small cube at a time. Once done, you should be able to maintain it or set it in the fridge to set. Perhaps I'm not understanding the question....??

Marco_B_rtolo_148609

Todd, thanks for the reply. The question is about the real technique behind this increbible sauce. The most piece of acurate information that i've found is this:

There are two styles of the sauce. The one attributed to Café de Paris is a pre-made compound butter that contains a great many ingredients that sound neither authentic or French. When that compound butter is place atop the steaks, it melts and forms pools of butter. There are many pictures of this online.

The sauce from restaurant L'Entrecote in St. Germain des Pres is much different — the butter stays in solution and the butter sauce is packed with herbs, so much so the sauce is green. It’s definitely a Bearnaise-style sauce, and to make it, you use the same technique as you would to make a béarnaise.

It contains anchovies, and I've read several times that the sauce contains chicken livers (perhaps for richness) but I've never detected any liver flavor. Marrow might be an addition, though I doubt it because of the labor and expense involved, and L’Entrecote restaurant must make 30 liters of this stuff per evening.

Here are three recipes: The first is the one I think is the closest. The second is quite similar and contains whole eggs. Last, for comparison is the Café de Paris recipe for the compound butter, which is not the same sauce at all.

1. This is the closest I've found, and tastes just like it:

1/4 cup dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc

2 tablespoons minced shallots

4 anchovy fillets, chopped

1/4 cup low-sodium beef broth or homemade chicken broth

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chervil

Either using the pan the steaks were cooked in, or another pan:

Add the wine to pan (and deglaze, if necessary, stirring up the brown bits). Add the broth, shallots, anchovies, and cook until the liquid reduces to a glaze. Remove from heat, whisk in the butter 1 T. at a time, then add the herbs.

2. This version has egg yolks, more like a béarnaise/liaison hybrid:

1/4 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup white-wine vinegar

1/4 cup finely chopped shallots

2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon, divided

3 large egg yolks

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste

Boil wine, vinegar, shallots, and 1 tablespoon tarragon in a small heavy saucepan until liquid is reduced to 2 tablespoons, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve set into a medium metal bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids. Whisk yolks into vinegar mixture, then set bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and cook, whisking constantly, until yolks have thickened slightly (do not scramble). Whisk in butter 1 piece at a time, adding each piece before previous one has melted completely. Remove from heat and whisk in lemon juice, remaining tablespoon tarragon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper (or to taste). Serve steaks with sauce.

3. The Café de Paris compound butter

1 lb. butter, soft when ready to use

1 oz. catsup

1/2 oz prepared hot mustard

1/2 oz. capers

2 oz. shallots, roughly chopped

1 oz. parsley, roughly chopped

1 oz. chives

1/2 t marjoram, dried

1/2 t dill weed, dried

1/2 t thyme, dried

10 tarragon leaves

pinch rosemary

1 clove garlic

4 anchovy filets

1 t cognac

1 t maderia

1/2 t worcestershire sauce

1/2 t paprika

1 t curry powder

4 grains black peppercorns (my note: 4 grains? - 4 peppercorns?)

juice of 1 lemon

zest of 1/2 lemon

zest of 1/2 orange

1/4 t salt

Combine all the ingredients (except the butter) into a bowl and let it

stand in a warm place for 24 hours. Grind into a puree and fold into

the soft butter.

Nevertheless it doesn't allow to make the sauce we have at "Brasserie de l'Entrecote'

tshewman

The emulsification portion would be similar for all in that after the liquid is reduced, turn the heat to low and add the butter slowly while constantly whisking. this should help with emulsifying. Beurre blanc sauces are very much the same technique. Same with compound butters. The difference with the sauce, is the butter to liquid ratio (in the case of #1, the chicken stock), but the technique is essentially the same. Does that help?