Depends where you live and what is available in your area. Rich, quality dark stocks are hard to find. It's best to make your own and is much more satisfying. Cheers!

As a new member and virgin cook this was one of the first recipes I tried after having gone through the lessons on how to pan fry and pan sauces (needing to put my new knowledge to work). I even went out and bought a SS pan. I also substituted the meat with Scotch Fillet (you guys call it rib eye I think), but otherwise it was identical. Seriously, I've never had such good meat eating outside of a restaurant! I'm in love with Rouxbe! Now I think I need to go and learn to make my own stock.

This is one of my favorites. Glad you liked it and that your new skills lead you to success. Cheers, Joe.

I've got to tell you, for a mom with two toddlers, I feel like a gourmet chef with this one. How fun to light the brandy on fire! My husband makes a homemade quince brandy that was beautiful for this. My only beef was that the peppercorns didn't smash up well. I just pulsed then a few times in the coffee grinder and then for the steak they worked well. However, I ended up straining the sauce so that any hiding whole peppercorns would be extracted. That worked well. We've stopped going to restaurants thanks to Rouxbe.com and are saving lots of money by cooking so well at home.

Hi Rouxbe. Today was my first day using your cooking school and I absolutely love it!! I cooked the Peppercorn Steak recipe and it was delicious. The only problem was that I had trouble getting the sauce to thicken. Any Suggestions??

Thank you so much
-Susie :)

There are a few reasons why this could have happened (store-bought stock/broth, heat source etc). But before I go into any detail I would just like to know if you have watched the "How to Make a Pan Sauce" lesson and also read through the discussion of that lesson? I ask this as this is discussed in that particular forum thread quite a bit.

Once you read through that and/or watch the lesson let me know if you still have the same question, if so I would be more than happy to help you out. Cheers!

I have 9 family members staying with me who all love steak, I bought a whole fillet, made my own stock and had a go at doing this for them, thought it might have been to ambitious for so many, but was a great success, people who normally have well done steaks, now converts to medium rare, they all agreed better than any restatement. Thanks again for great lessons and techniques. :)

I have never actually seen anything at the store called "Heavy Cream". I've asked the grocers and between us pretty much decided that heavy cream and whipping cream are the same thing. I notice that in this recipe you have clearly stated that whipping cream can be substituted for heavy cream, which leads me to believe that they are NOT the same thing. Can you set the record straight for me? Is there a difference?

It often depends where you live. In the U.K. for instance, dairy creams can often called different things. Here in Canada we can generally, only find whipping cream, which has a fat content between 30-36% M.F. (milk fat). Sometimes these contain stabilizers and emulsifiers in them to help them hold their form when whipped.

In some parts of the world you can also buy heavy cream (sometimes called heavy whipping cream). This usually has a M.F. between 36-40%.

The important thing when buying cream for cooking is to look at the M.F. % on the container. Hope that helps to clear things up. Cheers!

My kitchen has a microwave hood over the stove. I don't want to lose the flavor of the brandy, by am afraid of igniting it onmy electric stove. Can it just be added and reduced to burn off the alcohol instead igniting it?

You do not have to flambe, but the flavor of the alcohol will in fact be stronger. Cheers!

…but the steaks were a hit! First time I flambeed anything (intentionally), but took the precautions. Used NY strips instead of ribeye—simply delicious!

Y'all have quickly become my fave site! Thank you RouxBe!

I'm curious that in this recipe, you aren't employing the flip often method mentioned in the course. I'm assuming it is due to the peppercorns?

You could still certainly use the flip often method when following this recipe. Just be gentle when flipping the steaks, as to not flake off all of the crushed peppercorns. Cheers!