Sauce Robert is a classic French sauce that is perfect with rich meat dishes.
Essentially it is an onion gravy, which is delicious with sausages, liver and roast beef.
So easy to make at home too.
Bon appétit.
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❤️ Why you will love this dish
- Delicious with roast meats such as pork, beef, lamb and venison.
- Perfect with sausages and liver.
- Really easy recipe to make.
🤔FAQs
This sauce is a derivative of Espagnole sauce, one of the five mother sauces of French cuisine.
It's flavoured with onions, which cook first in the butter and then in the stock, so it's essentially a tasty onion gravy with the addition of mustard.
Espagnole sauce has a base of brown stock thickened with a roux of butter and flour.
The other derivatives of Espagnole are Chasseur, Chateaubriand, Bordelaise and Duxelle.
Brown stock is made by boiling bones such as chicken, beef, pork or veal.
Typically, in French cuisine, beef or veal bones are used.
The bones are often roasted then used to make the stock, which gives it the brown colour.
A white stock is made from meat bones which are blanched first. This results in a much lighter stock, often referred to as a white stock.
It's amazing how many French sauces we often use today in a much simpler form and sauce Robert is one of them.
My father would always make gravy for the Sunday roast by boiling onions and using the water as the gravy base. Then a stock cube and cornflour were added and combined together before the mixture was added to the drippings from the roasting dish, to make a rich and delectable gravy.
Sauce Robert has many of the same ingredients, but would normally be made with fresh beef stock, or the more concentrated version called demi glace. This is made be reducing equal parts of beef stock and Espagnole sauce. This forms the basis for many other sauces.
Many chefs make their own demi glace from scratch, as it lasts 6 months when refrigerated. However, although I love being in the kitchen, boiling bones for hours on end is not for the faint hearted, so I have found a better solution for the home cook!
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🥘 Ingredients
- Onions - brown or white onions. I tend to buy brown onions as they have a stonger flavour.
- Stock - beef stock made from a beef stock pot or similar. These are concentrated gellies of beef stock, which give a huge amount of flavour and much more depth than a standard stock cube. The stock should be warm or hot.
- Butter - salted or unsalted. Keep in mind that some stock can be very salty, so check the seasoning at the end.
- Flour - plain or all purpose flour.
- Mustard - Dijon mustard, not the brown French style mustard sometimes sold in supermarkets.
- Seasoning - salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
The printable recipe card with full ingredient quantities and instructions can be found at the bottom of the article.
🍽 Equipment
- medium sized saucepan with lid
- wooden spoon
- sharp knife
- chopping board
- sieve
🔪 Instructions
Peel and chop the onions.
There is no need to be very precise as the onions are there for flavour and will be discarded.
⏲️Cooking Time
Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat and add the onions.
Stir to coat the onions in the butter then add the lid.
Cook for about 10 minutes until soft and golden, stirring ocasionally.
Remove the lid and stir in the flour for a minute to cook over a medium heat.
Stir in the hot stock and the mixture should thicken after a few minutes.
Replace the lid and simmer over a low heat for 15 minutes.
Sieve the stock over a bowl and discard the onions.
Return the sauce to pan.
If you prefer the sauce to be thicker, return to a low heat and reduce further.
When the sauce is the desired consistency season to taste and add the mustard.
You may wish to add more mustard to taste.
Serve warm with your favourite meats.
🥗 Side Dishes
Serve with some of these meat ideas
- Slow Roast Lamb Shoulder
- Roast Rib of Beef
- Cannon of Lamb
- Barnsley Chops
- Stuffed Breast of Lamb
- Saddle of Lamb
- Beef Confit
- Bavette Steak
- Côte de Boeuf
- Chateaubriand
- Frenched Rack Roast
- Toad in the Hole
- Slow Roast Belly Pork
🥙 Substitutions
- Onions - for a milder flavour use shallots instead.
- Stock pot - if you can't find stock pots use a stock cube or dissolve some Bovril in hot water.
📖 Variations
- Gluten free - omit the flour totally and cook the onions in the stock. After sieving make a slurry with 2 teaspoons of cornflour and the same of water. Stir in to the stock and cook until thickened.
🍣 Storage
- Refrigerator - cool, cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days.
- Freezer - pack in containers or airtight bags when cool. Freeze for up to 6 months. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator.
- To reheat - add directly to soups or stews or reheat over a medium heat in a saucepan until hot.
🍱 Prepare in Advance
- Make a few days before then cool and store in the refrigerator as above.
Let me know what you think in the comments or you can post a picture and tag me on Twitter @chezlereve, Instagram @chezlerevefrancais, or Facebook @chezlerevefrancais
More French sauces
📋 Recipe
Sauce Robert
Equipment
- medium sized saucepan with lid
- wooden spoon
- sharp knife
- chopping board
- sieve
Ingredients
- 450 g onions
- 500 g beef stock ideally made from a stock pot
- 50 g butter
- 50 g flour plain or all purpose
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard or to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Peel and chop the onions.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat and add the onions.
- Stir to coat the onions in the butter then add the lid.
- Cook for about 10 minutes until soft and golden, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the lid and stir in the flour for a minute to cook over a medium heat.
- Stir in the hot stock and the mixture should thicken after a few minutes.
- Replace the lid and simmer over a low heat for 15 minutes.
- Sieve the stock over a bowl and discard the onions.
- Return the sauce to pan.
- If you prefer the sauce to be thicker, return to a low heat and reduce.
- When the sauce is the desired consistency season to taste and add the mustard. You may wish to add more mustard to taste.
- Serve warm with your favourite meats.
Disclaimer: The nutritional information provided is approximate and is calculated using online tools. Information can vary depending on various factors, but we have endeavoured to be as accurate as possible.
Detailed instructions for this recipe, including step by step photographs, hints and tips, can be found in the main article.
French Sauces
- Sauce Paloise15 Minutes
- Saffron Sauce Grimrod15 Minutes
- Sauce Choron15 Minutes
- Mousseline Sauce or Sauce Chantilly10 Minutes
Food Safety
- Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat.
- Wash hands after touching raw meat.
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods.
- Never leave cooking food unattended.
- Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds.
- Always have good ventilation when using gas.
Do you have a question or did you make the recipe? Please leave a rating as it helps other readers to discover this dish. Your name and email are required to avoid spam comments; they are never used for any purpose or shared with third parties.
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Katherine
This rich sauce sounds incredible - so easy too!
Kathleen
I'm already thinking of ideas how I'm going to use this fabulous onion gravy. It's perfect for many of the main dishes I make.
Lauren
I made the sauce robert for a family roast beef dinner and it came out great. It was very tasty - everyone loved it!
Ned
The flavor was incredible! I've never made this so I was really excited to and it didn't disappoint!
Gianne
Its rich and creamy texture, combined with the perfect balance of sweetness and tanginess, takes your meal to the next level. It's a must-try for all food lovers!