This recipe is really delicious, especially when prepared as you recommend it, with that delicious concentrate of chicken, served with rosemary potatoes and all were in a high-class French restaurant, THANK YOU, I am happy with their recipes and tips.

Could I make this sauce in advance and reheat it when I am ready to serve the steak?

Could I substitute red wine with either red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar? The red wine sauce is FANTASTIC but rather expensive to make.

Pan sauces are à la minute (at the moment) sauces made in the same pan in which ingredients (in this case the steak) have been sautéed, seared or pan-fried. The sucs from the pan lend great flavor to the sauce. Therefore if you were to do this ahead of time, you would not achieve the same flavor.

As for the red wine being expensive, it is not very much wine and it is not something you cook everyday. You can use other liquids, but again you will achieve different results.

For more information on all of this, I suggest you watch the How to Make a Pan Sauce video.

Hope this helps!

Thank you so much, Dawn, for the clear explanation! The pan sauce video is indeed a great help!

Happy new year and thanks for this awesome recipe. Seriously, it was easily the best steak I've eaten, and has given me a new standard. I did, however, have a couple of issues with the sauce - mostly, I think, because I used store bought (and not dark) stock. First of all, it took a long time to reduce, and even after I reduced it, it did not have a syrupy consistency. So, here is my first question: what is the best way to keep the steaks warm without drying them out while I wait for the sauce? Second, does the sauce get the syrupy consistency just from reducing the stock, or does it require the butter to get the right consistency? Also, I was hoping you could tell me what are typically considered dry reds, and is it a good idea to cook with the same wine that you drink, especially since the latter might/should be a little pricier? Thanks again.

Hi Robert. Glad you liked the steak.

If you have a good stock, making this sauce for two 2 to 4 people should only take about 5 to 10 mins (or less). The steaks should be fine if tented on a rack for this amount of time. If you need a bit more time, just pop them in an oven on the lowest setting (after the 10 min rest outside - not right away). You can also add them back to the completed sauce for a quick reheat (20 seconds a side just to get them hot again).

As for reducing the sauce, store bought stocks often do not contain enough gelatin to give the sauce the sauce-like consistency you are looking for. I'd strongly suggest you make a nice dark chicken stock and try this again. The butter will add a bit of thickness to the sauce but you should be almost there prior to finishing with butter.

Cheers, Joe.

I gave the recipe a try! The steak turned out great. I couldn't get the sauce to a syrupy state tho. I followed the water test to get the pan at the right temps...which on my gas range was actually at "low". The ball formed perfectly and was pretty cool to see! Do I need to increase the heat after adding in the wine? It would bubble a little and took a long time to even reduce. My steaks ended up getting cold as I struggled on the sauce. My sauce was runny but I was so hungry and ate as is, was still very good.

Hi David, glad you liked the steak...as for the sauce not reducing fast enough or enough for you? I think you are correct that perhaps the heat was not high enough.

I suggest watching the lesson on How to Make Pan Sauces in the Rouxbe Cooking School. This will shed some light on the whole sauce making process. Cheers!

Fantastic recipe! This recipe goes to show simplicity is the foundation of TRUE flavor.

I used rib-eye steaks (just happened that they looked particularly good and well aged in the Butcher's Showcase that day) and the dish presented itself beautifully with outstanding taste, the guests will definately be requesting this one again. I decided to add crispy lardons and toasted pine nuts with a subtle balsamic / olive oil vinigrette to personalise it from the original recipe....

The rib-eye never fails...Definately my favorite pick for full, robust beefy flavour!!!

WELL DONE (actually med. rare).

Danny

I used NY sirloin strips to make this dish tonight...with the red wine sauce, of course! I flipped the steak only once, cooking for one and a half minute for each side. And it turns out perfect! Love it! :)

I see from the previous recipes that Rib-Eye and NY Sirloin were used for this recipe. Are these cuts of meat OK or would you recommend another one?

Jorge

Either of these cuts would work well in place of tenderloin. Happy Cooking!

I used fillets for this recipe and they turned out to be excellent.

About the Flaming Recipe. I managed to burn the recipe (smoke and all) as I turned the wrong (electric) burner on. No damage to the house :)

Jorge.

PS if you need translations from Spanish to English please let me know. ...and the flag is the Cuban flag.

Now I have read from several people that the sauce didn't come out right. Either to thin, or split etc. The Rouxbe staff have said that it was the gelatin content that was the problem. What I did was use a the small container of More Than Gourmet Demi-glace Gold, 2.5 oz unit, and one cup of water. I went ahead and heated this up on the stove in a very small saucepan until it was mixed. That is all. I didn't reduce it or do anything else at this stage. If you use that in the sauce to replace stock...it will come out perfectly. The flavor was out of this world, and I am so glad I used this instead of Chicken Stock or anything else really. If you do not have the time or inclination to make your own veal stock for this recipe, use this instead. It is incredible.

I made this dish for company on the weekend, knowing that my sauce would be thinner because I didn't have the time to make stock. But even with the thinner sauce these were an absolute hit and not at all difficult to make.
Thank you

Hi,

This is a wonderful recipe, I love pan sauces that allow you to use the bids from the cooked meat, however, I was wondering what the best way is to cook for a larger crowd (say 10 people for instance).
- If I cook all the steaks in the pan before making the sauce, the bids are likely to burn
- If I cook a batch, deglaze the pan then start over, looks like it's going to take forever :-)
- I could probably use more pans, but that will hurt my budget
How do restaurants do it? and what is the best way for the home cook to do it?
Thank you!

Hi Daniel,

Couple of options for you.

1. You could sear a single larger piece of beef and slice it (e.g. a whole beef tenderloin). You'd sear it, then place it in a roasting pan and then make the sauce from he sucs in the pan that you seared.

2. You could sear off the ten steaks in a single pan in batches of 3 or 4 steaks. Sear at a bit higher heat so you get that nice crust relatively quickly, then place on a cooling rack over a baking tray. Once they are all seared, you can then place them into an oven and cook them all to desired doneness (this is how restaurants cook for larger groups). Just make sure you protect the sucs from burning between batches. If the sucs get too dark, deglaze, scrape the bottom and then reserve the deglazing liquid on the side. The clean and bring your pan back to temperature for the next batch and repeat. This likely won't be needed but as long as protect the sucs and save your pan juices from the deglazing step, you're all set. By the way, you can even sear the day before if you like and then just bring your steaks to room temperature before placing in the oven to finish cooking.

Hope this helps.
Joe

If I want my steak to be medium, how high should my oven temperature be and for how long should it be cooked?

I would cook this at about 300 / 325 degrees. As for how long, this is an answer I cannot provide. Every oven will be a different temperature, and how long you first cook it in the pan will also vary. If you want it medium, you will need to cook it until you see the first signs of blood escaping from the first piece of meat (no longer). Likely about 8 mins or so. Feel free to flip them once during the cooking as well (just like in the flip often method to redistribute the internal juices). Don't forget to let rest afterwards. Trust your instincts.

I'm still not sure how to decide when to reach for a cast iron pan and when to use a stainless steel one. In this recipe, for instance, the cast iron pan is heated over med-hi heat and the heat is turned down when the meat is added because it is a thick piece of meat and will take time to cook thru. Now if this recipe was the flip-once method I would explain this by saying the cast iron holds a lot of heat and that one side will be browned as the pan transfers heat to the steak, then the pan cools so it doesn't burn the side and cooking continues. However the recipe calls for flip-often. So if one side isn't going to rest on the hot pan for very long, why was cast iron chosen and not stainless steel? Or am I just over-thinking this :-)

Whether you reach for cast-iron or stainless-steel pan, you can perform the flip-once or flip-often method in either. Cast-iron is often better at producing even heat compared to many stainless-steel pans. The great thing about cooking is that there are many ways to do things and many different pans to cook with. By showing each, we want people to understand that there is flexibility in cooking. The most important thing is to learn the technique and to learn how to adapt cooking times, etc. no matter what the equipment. Focus on what is happening to the food IN the pan...not on the pan itself. Does that make sense? Cheers!

Use a filet mignon or a ribeye. I used a sirloin tip roast cut into steaks because that is what I had. Good flavor but does not lend itself well to pan frying. Way too chewy.

Also I could not get the sauce to thicken. I am attributing that to using store bought chicken stock because again that is what I had on hand.
The flavor was spot on though!
It would reduce down but never really thicken but I am assuming that is due to the lack of gelatins in the store bought variety as mentioned earlier.
I had it a good strong simmer but it was apparent it would have just simmered completely dry in the pan without getting any thicker.

Overall a fantastic learning experience!

I used scotch fillet in the turn often method even though i over cooked it a little it was still nice and juicy and i made the dark chicken stock for the first time the red wine sauce turned out perfect and it was beautiful loved it thanks guys.

I would like to know what one could substitute for wine in making the pan sauce for this recipe? Some people may be sensitive to the sulfites in wine (or just not like the flavor)
Thank You