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Reform Sauce

Reform Sauce is a traditional English recipe for a classic Victorian lamb sauce created by Alexis Soyer at the Reform Club made from a stock base with vegetables, ham, vinegar, spices, redcurrant jelly, egg white, button mushrooms and gherkins. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic English version of: Reform Sauce

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

50 minutes

Total Time:

70 minutes

Serves:

6

Rating:

Tags : Sauce RecipesSpice RecipesPork RecipesVegetable RecipesBritish RecipesEnglish Recipes

Reform sauce was created in the 1830s by the great French chef, Alexis Soyer, then Chef de Cuisine of the Reform Club in London's Pall Mall. It was, and remains, a meeting place for politicians after the conclusion of their Parliamentary business. It is a rich and piquant sauce that traditionally should sport a short julienne of cooked salted ox tongue (left out in this recipe), gherkin, hard boiled white of egg, mushrooms and truffle (again left out).

Ingredients:

600ml brown stock (ie lamb or beef stock or Brown Stock
15g butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, julienned
50g lean ham, julienned
60ml red wine vinegar
4 tbsp port
4 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
2 tbsp redcurrant jelly
2 cloves
2 blades of mace
1 bayleaf
4 juniper berries, crushed
pinch of dried thyme
1 tbsp cornflour
white of 1 boiled egg, julienned
6 button mushrooms, julienned and fried until crisp
1 gherkin, julienned

Method:

Melt the butter in a pan and add the shallots, carrot and ham. Cook until they're just beginning to brown then add the red wine vinegar and the port. Bring to a boil and cook rapidly until almost all the liquid has evaporated.

Immediately take off the heat and add the stock, anchovies, redcurrant jelly, cloves, mace, bayleaf, juniper berries and thyme. Stir well to combine then return to the heat and bring back to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook gently for 30 minutes.

Mix the cornflour with 2 tbsp water to form a smooth slurry then add to the sauce. Stir well to combine then bring the sauce to a boil, stirring continuously. Simmer until the sauce has thickened then pour into a gravy boat and set the egg white, button mushrooms and gherkin in the top.

Traditionally this is served with Lamb Cutlets Reform, but it makes an excellent accompaniment to any red meat or game.