Demi-Glace sauce is a classic French sauce that is used in Japanese cooking too. This versatile and delicious sauce is full of flavor with a deep rich beef taste that will elevate any dish. It can be used on its own, as a base for other sauces, soups and stocks, or added to Japanese dishes such as Hayashi rice and stewed hamburger.
Classic demi glace takes a long time to cook, involving multiple steps from simmering and straining to reducing. But you can learn how to make it at home with an easy shortcut!
Table of contents
What is Demi-Glace sauce?
This decadent French sauce is a combination of one part Espagnole sauce and one part beef stock. It is a thicker rich brown sauce that pairs particularly well with meat dishes like roasts and Japanese hamburger steak. It has an intense depth of flavour that delivers a powerful punch to a dish, which is why it’s something chefs and home cooks love to use in the kitchen. Demi-glace is usually also used as a base for other sauces or added to soups, stews, stocks, and gravy to enhance the flavours.
In Japan it is commonly used for “yoshoku” western style dishes such as Hayashi rice and Omurice. Making this sauce generally involves a lengthy process of stewing roasted beef/veal bones, vegetables, and herbs then simmering for many hours. It is then strained and finally simmered again until it reduces to half the original amount. Reducing the sauce needs to be done carefully and slowly in order to avoid burning the demi glace This unfortunately takes a lot of time, but luckily I have a shortcut below!
What is demi glace used for in Japan?
So why is this classic French sauce in a Japanese food blog? Because we enjoy all sorts of cuisines in Japan and often adapt things to suit Japanese pallets. Japanese people have taken this rich sauce from French cuisine and used it in a way that suits our tastes. In Japan, the sauce is often used for Yoshoku recipes. Yoshoku refers to dishes influenced by western style cooking. A typical and well-known example of Yoshoku is Omurice and Fried Shrimp (Ebi Fry). Often Yoshoku recipes call for demi-glace sauce to be used in them, for instance, Hayashi rice. This dish is made from thinly sliced beef, onion, mushroom, green peas, red wine, and demi-glace base sauce. It’s very delicious and a classic way we use demi-glace in Japan.
Canned Demi-Glace sauce in Japan
Demi-glace sauce is a very common thing to be used in Japan. Since it is so time-consuming to make from scratch, canned demi-glace is readily available in supermarkets in Japan. I certainly have used the canned version to cut down time and make cooking meals easier. However, I have never found canned demi-glace in Australia so I had to find a solution.
Easy Shortcut for Demi-Glace sauce using instant pot
As previously mentioned, Japanese demi-glace sauce is made from roasting beef and veal bones and simmering and reducing to make brown stock. That stock is then used to make Espagnole sauce- a combination of beef stock, mirepoix (onion, carrot, celery), tomato paste, and roux. Making the sauce takes many hours. I usually don’t mind to put some effort into great food, however I don’t always have time to spend that long. So I decided to use an instant pot method and I’ve adopted a recipe from a cookbook that I bought in Japan called “Yoshoku”. Instead of using bones, I use ground beef and cook it altogether in the Instant Pot (instructions in the recipe card). Another way to cut down time making demi-glace are to use store-bought beef stock.
Instant pot alternatives
If you don’t have an instant pot, you can use a pressure cooker. The Instant Pot has many functions so the sauteeing and simmering can all be done in the one pot. However, without the Instant Pot, a frying pan can be used to sautee before adding to the pressure cooker. If you don’t have a pressure cooker nor an Instant pot, then you need to simmer the sauce for 7-8 hours.
How to store the sauce
If you don’t alter the recipe, it will make about 1-1.5 liters of sauce. I usually divide it into two to three 500ml batches, pour them into ziplock bags and store in the fridge or freezer. It stores for 1-2 days in the fridge and about a month in the freezer. It can be used for Hayashi Rice, Hamburger stew, or to drizzle over Omurice.
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Demi Glace Sauce デミグラスソース
Ingredients
- 30 g bread flour
- 30 g plain flour
- 1.5 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion chopped or 90g
- 1/2 carrot chopped or 90g
- 1 bunch celery chopped or 90g
- 100 g cherry tomato
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 bottle Pasata sauce 700ml *1
- 1 litre water
- 500 g ground beef
- 1.5 tbsp olive oil
- 375 ml red wine *2
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- Combine bread flour and plain flour in a small mixing bowl.
- Microwave for 4 min on 500-600w taking the bowl out and stir in order to brown evenly. Set it aside.
- Heat 1.5 tbsp olive oil in an instant pot and add onion, carrot and celery.
- Set the instant pot to “saute” for 30 min to brown the vegetables.*3
- When the vegetables are browned (at about 15-20 min in) add browned flour and 1/4 cup of olive oil.
- Stir all constantly when all mixed well add pasata sauce and water.
- In a separate frying pan, heat 1.5 tbsp olive oil and cook ground beef.
- When the ground beef is cooked add red wine to the frying pan and bring it to boil.
- Turn the heat off and add the ground beef and red wine into the instant pot.
- Put instant pot lid on and set pressure cooker for 30 min on high. *4
- When the 30 min pressure cooker cycle end, release the pressure.
- Using a sieve, drain and separate the liquid sauce into a pot. Make sure all the liquid is squeezed out by pressing the solid against the sieve.
- Bring the sauce simmer over medium heat, and keep shimmering to reduce the sauce by half. *5
- If it is not used straight away, divide it into 500ml batches in ziplock bags and refrigerate or freeze for later use.
Hi! Can you please recommend a good brand of wine for this? I’ve tried making 2 dishes with red wine and they were bad so I’ve been scared to try making anything with red wine. Thank you!
Hi lauren I used cheap red wine for cooking. i like sweet wine so used “cienna” or “dolcetto” of brown brothers in Australia.
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I’m the waste not want not type and I thought the wine and tomato-soaked meat and veg still tasted pretty good, so I heated them with another jar of passata and some Italian herbs to make a very nice chunky ragu for pasta.
I thought the leftover beef and veggies tasted pretty good all infused with the flavours of red wine and tomato. I heated the mixture with another jar of passata, some onion and garlic powder and Italian herbs to make a bonus ragu sauce for pasta, and it was quite delicious.
What do you usually do with the ground beef you remove from the sauce?
Hi lily, I discarded it because all the good part is extracted into the sauce but if you have a dog or pet, they will eat them.
I really appreciate finding your recipe – there are only a handful of Japanese demi-glace recipes on the net, so it’s awesome of you to publish this. I understand that this is meant to be the quick and easy version and I think that if you do split the roux making and stock making into two separate parts, you could make your stock on day 1 without flour, refrigerate it, and then remove the congealed fat the next morning. Then you could make your roux in a few minutes and combine them to finish. This would allow you to make a much healthier version of this sauce because you won’t have to consume all the fat contained in 500g ground beef. Another idea – perhaps instead of using 700g passata and then reducing the stock after cooking you could just use a couple tablespoons of tomato paste and this should reduce/elminate the need to reduce the stock after pressure cooking.
What do you think?
I agree. I make my own stock using beef bones the day before, keep them in the fridge and scoop out the congealed fat the next day. The reason is that I hate getting my mouth all greasy eating greasy food. On the second day (the day I complete the hayashi rice process) I make roux using flour + butter in a saucepan. It takes about 20 mins but oh man the deep flavour coming out of the browned flour is so good.
Loved this article. I learned a lot in this and i definitely agree with this combination of freshness that you made. You should post more about this on your blog.
Thank you for the comment and 5 star rating 😀
Hello Shihoko,
My name is Erika and I am a student at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Texas. I am studying Food Science and Nutrition and in one of my classes, called Cultural Foods, I have chosen your amazing country as my area of interest to study Japanese traditional foods and health concerns. I have a few questions for you and would love to learn as much as I can. Please let me know if you are willing to answer questions about food and food climate.
Thank you.
Hi Erika Sure, If I can help 😀
During the time you lived in Japan or visited, or if you still have family there, did a weather event effect you and/or the food supply?
Is Japan using genetic profiling to design diets?
What was the longest distance you ever had to travel to get ingredients for your recipes?
And finally, currently Japan, what season is it and what foods are being grown, any specials foods during this season?
Thank you so much for agreeing to answer questions! I greatly appreciate any answers you can provide.
Hi Erika
During the time you lived in Japan or visited, or if you still have family there, did a weather event effect you and/or the food supply?
No not really, most ingredients we get from nearby supermarket. But to some extent, “Yes” my mother has a little veggie patch and we get fresh veggies.
Is Japan using genetic profiling to design diets?
No, I have never used. Just eat what is in season and fresh produce. But somehow Japanese doing something right in terms of diet 😀 to live so long.
What was the longest distance you ever had to travel to get ingredients for your recipes?
In Japan, about 1km In Australia to get Japanese ingredients, logest I traveled is about 25-30km.
And finally, currently Japan, what season is it and what foods are being grown, any specials foods during this season?
It is Spring. Bamboo shoots, green peas, a lot of different vegges and skipjack tuna, snappers are in season. Specials is cherry blossom flower in Spring. Check out Sakura cherry blossom sable cookie recipe 😀
Thank you for another great way for me to use my Instant Pot! This sauce is everything!!
Thank you Renee 😀
Oh, my gosh, this is SO much better than what you can buy in the store! I made it in my IP and it worked perfectly!
Thank you Liz. I am glad it worked well for your IP 😀