What Is Madeira Sauce?
Madeira sauce is a classic sauce in French cuisine named after the fortified wine from the island of Madeira. It is a rich and flavorful sauce typically served with beef, lamb, or game dishes.
“A good base lightly flavored with Madeira will produce one of the greatest of all sauces.” Raymond Sokolov, The Saucier’s Apprentice
To make Madeira sauce, you need a base of beef or veal stock, Madeira wine, various seasonings, and aromatic ingredients. The sauce is typically reduced in Madeira wine over medium heat until it thickens and becomes syrupy.
The beef or veal stock is added to the pan along with other ingredients, such as chopped shallots, minced garlic, or herbs. The sauce is then simmered until it has reduced and thickened to the desired consistency.
Madeira sauce has a bold and complex flavor, with the rich, nutty taste of the wine and the savory depth of the stock. It pairs particularly well with hearty meats such as beef tenderloin or lamb chops and is often served with roasted or grilled vegetables on the side.
In addition to being served with meats, Madeira sauce can also be used as a base for other dishes such as stews or braises. It can also be used as a topping for crostini or as a dipping sauce for appetizers.
Madeira sauce is a delicious and versatile sauce that adds depth and flavor to various dishes. Whether serving it with a classic steak or lamb chop or using it as a base for a hearty stew, Madeira sauce will impress and delight your guests.
Madeira sauce is a classic French brown sauce made with Madeira wine, peppercorns, and other essential ingredients.
It is a pepper sauce with Madeira wine added. It is served with beef and chicken, but in today’s kitchens, you can serve it with almost anything.
Let’s start with Madeira, a wine from Portugal first made in the 1400s for export, mainly to France. There, it was part of “their daily diet.” The Portuguese used Madeira wine to withstand a ship’s constant motion.
Winemakers added a little cane sugar and distilled alcohol during fermentation, resulting in sweet to dry wine with a tannish color.
The old way of making classic Madeira sauce took many steps and an extremely long time.
Start with a roux of butter and vegetables like onions, carrots, and celery. Then add beef stock and other vegetables, including mushrooms and tomatoes. Simmer, stir, and skim for hours. Finally, pour through a fine strainer, only to have the whole process start over again with the addition of Madeira wine.
When the winemakers were done, they had an intensely flavorful Madeira sauce, but they may have been frustrated by the time they had spent making it.
Good news! I have a commercial demi-glace product recipe that makes preparing this sauce take 20 minutes or less.
Madeira Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 oz butter or 1/4 stick
- 3 tablespoons shallots finely chopped
- ½ pound mushrooms white or crimini, sliced
- ½ teaspoon black cracked peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig fresh thyme 1/4 teaspoon dried
- ¼ cup red wine
- ¾ cup Madeira wine
- 1 cup demi glace
- ¼ cup heavy cream optional
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Once hot, add butter and then the shallots.
- Sauté the shallots until translucent, about 2 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms and cook until they release their moisture and become tender. This should take about 3 minutes.
- Add the peppercorns, thyme and bay leave to the saucepan and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Now, add the red wine and reduce it by half. This could take 3 - 5 minutes.
- Add the Madeira wine and bring the sauce to a boil. When the wine comes to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer.
- Add the demi glace to the sauce and whisk until well blended.
- Add the optional heavy cream if you are using it. This will add some extra richness as well as calories.
- Reduce this sauce until it is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Serve over your favorite meats and poultry.
For those who love a nice “au Poivre” or peppercorn sauce, you can quickly adapt the Madeira sauce recipe above to make your own. Substitute 1/2 teaspoon of black cracked peppercorns with one teaspoon of coarsely chopped drained green peppercorns in brine.
Depending on your preferences, you can leave or exclude the mushrooms. Then, you have a delightful Madeira Peppercorn Sauce. This sauce goes incredibly well with game meats like elk or venison.
When making great sauces at home that will wow your family and friends, stock reductions make all the difference. Whether it’s a pan sauce using chicken, beef, or fish stock that’s reduced in the pan or starting with a prepared beef/chicken glaze, if you want to create a classic “restaurant quality” sauce, you need to start with a quality stock or glaze.
Making an outstanding stock at home is relatively easy, and I urge you to start making your stocks. However, making a glaze like demi glace (veal/beef) or glace de poulet (chicken) is a lot more complicated and a job you may want to avoid tackling, or at least not that often.
If you want to learn more about demi-glace, what it is, and how to make it at home, check out this demi-glace link. There are links to a few commercial products I’ve tried, which are good alternatives to preparing them at home.
17 Responses
Excellent recipe! I want to copy it when I get home.
J. Pepin made a coffee sauce with Madeira wine.
With a slotted spoon perhaps.
I know what I ask changes your recipe completely but will this work substituting the Madeira with Marsala and omitting the pepper? Thanks.
I’m sure it would work, but I wouldn’t call it Madeira Sauce.
Thank you! I am going to try this recipe at home. I tried the Pasta da Vinci @ Cheesecake Factory for the first time – LOVED the madeira sauce so I’ll enjoy trying to recreate at home.
Thanks for reaching out and please let me know how it works out for you.
Where is everyone finding Madeira wine? My mom is in love with the Pasta DaVinci from Cheescake factory and i cannot find the wine anywhere.
Megan, you should be able to find it in any liquor store or state store. It is readily available.
Megan :
Maderia is classified as a “ fortified “ wine – ie, one to which a distilled spirit is added ; in this case “ Poncha “ is used. ( it is the traditional alcoholic drink from the island of Madeira, distilled from sugar cane to which lemon juices & honey & sugar are added ). That said, your liquor store may display Maderia near Port, Sherry, Marsala or Vermouth, as they too are “ fortified “.
Kind Regards,
Brenda
PS: if you “ luck in “ to getting hold of the recipe from the Cheesecake Factory, go crazy & share it with us !
Hi my name is Keith and I would love to know how to order your book can you please help me?
Hi Keith, if you are referring to How to Make Restaurant Quality Sauces, the entire ebook is posted on my website. The directory is at https://www.reluctantgourmet.com/restaurant-quality-sauces/page/2/
I Loved This recipe And Want To Try It, But Busy Your Recipe Makes Me Hungry, I Want To Eat It
Recipe was a flop on my end. After reducing the 1/4 cup red wine by half, adding the 3/4 cup madeira and 1 cup of demi glace it was way too thick. It calls for too much demi glace. I must have added at least another cup of wine/madeira to thin this down, but the overall taste is overtaken by the bold demi glace. Something is off here.
Sorry to hear this JohnM. I have made this sauce many times and have not had the same issue. Can you tell me what demi-glace product you used and how did you reconstitute it? Thanks.
Madeira wine ranges from very dry to sweet. Which one should I use for the Madeira sauce?
Hi Marilyn, I prefer using dry Madeira for cooking and making sauces.