Chef Juliette
Apple Sauce
Sauce aux pommes turns four plain ingredients into a softly cinnamon-scented companion for roast duck, goose, or hare. Covered gentle cooking is the whole technique: let the apples slump in their juices, then whisk.
Culinary Explorer
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Reform Sauce
Created by Chef Juliette
Sauce Réforme is the composed sauce of the Reform Club: glossy half-glaze and sharp poivrade carrying a short, fine julienne of tongue, truffle, mushroom, gherkin, and egg white over mutton cutlets.
Sauces & Condiments
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
35 min
Active Time
20 min cook•55 min total
YieldAbout 2 quarts
Sauce Réforme (Reform Club sauce) teaches the difference between building a sauce and finishing one. The half-glaze and ordinary Poivrade must first boil into one glossy, balanced foundation; the julienne completes that foundation but never thickens it. If the sauce isn't right before the garnish enters, the garnish cannot save it.
The original formula assumed a saucier on staff and a stockpot never off the fire, so both finished sauces were waiting when the order arrived. Your honest equivalent is to prepare or thaw those components in advance, then unite them in one heavy saucepan. This home batch keeps the book's exact two-to-one balance and doubles every garnish weight to produce about two quarts. The brigade's holding pan and repeated service reheating are scaffolding and can go. The two finished sauces, their proportions, and the final garnish are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
The one step that matters most is the cut. Make every element Julienne-fashion, meaning match-shaped rods, then cut those rods short enough to ride neatly on a spoon. Long strips tangle around the cutlet; thick ones turn a polished sauce into a chopped relish. Fine and short, mon chou. That is Sauce Réforme.
Sauce Réforme belongs to the dining room of London's Reform Club on Pall Mall, not to any French province, and it was made for mutton cutlets served à la Réforme. Its architecture is French classical: half-glaze sharpened with ordinary Poivrade, then completed with a precise garnish of tongue, truffle, mushroom, gherkin, and egg white. Its passage from an English club table into the French written canon is an Anglo-French exchange often mistaken for a regional French sauce.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
finished half-glaze sauce
Quantity
4 cups (950 ml / approximately 970 g)
finished ordinary Poivrade sauce
Quantity
2 cups (475 ml / approximately 485 g)
gherkins
Quantity
¼ cup (60 ml / 28 g)
drained and cut Julienne-fashion and short
hard-boiled egg white
Quantity
1 large (about 2 tablespoons / 30 ml / 28 g)
cut Julienne-fashion and short
cooked salted tongue
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 57 g)
cut Julienne-fashion and short
black truffle
Quantity
⅓ cup (80 ml / 57 g)
drained if preserved and cut Julienne-fashion and short
cooked button mushrooms
Quantity
¾ cup (180 ml / 57 g)
well drained and cut Julienne-fashion and short
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| finished half-glaze sauce | 4 cups (950 ml / approximately 970 g) |
| finished ordinary Poivrade sauce | 2 cups (475 ml / approximately 485 g) |
| gherkinsdrained and cut Julienne-fashion and short | ¼ cup (60 ml / 28 g) |
| hard-boiled egg whitecut Julienne-fashion and short | 1 large (about 2 tablespoons / 30 ml / 28 g) |
| cooked salted tonguecut Julienne-fashion and short | ½ cup (120 ml / 57 g) |
| black truffledrained if preserved and cut Julienne-fashion and short | ⅓ cup (80 ml / 57 g) |
| cooked button mushroomswell drained and cut Julienne-fashion and short | ¾ cup (180 ml / 57 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •4-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan
- •Flat-edged wooden spoon
- •Sharp chef's knife
- •Stable cutting board
- •Kitchen scale accurate to 1 gram
- •Warm sauceboat
Instructions
- 1
Cut the garnish
Blot the gherkins, tongue, truffle, and cooked mushrooms dry before cutting. Slice each ingredient Julienne-fashion into slender match-shaped rods about 1⁄16 inch (1.5 mm) thick, then shorten them to roughly ¾ inch (2 cm). Cut the egg white last with clean drawing strokes so it remains in distinct strips instead of crumbling. Keep the five garnishes separate while you work, then combine them gently.
Uniformity matters more than speed. If a few strips are thick or long, recut them now; once they enter the dark sauce, every clumsy piece becomes conspicuous. - 2
Unite the sauces
Put the finished half-glaze sauce and finished ordinary Poivrade sauce into a 4-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan while both are still cool. Whisk until evenly combined, scraping into the corners of the pan, then set over medium heat. Beginning cool lets the two sauces loosen together without a dense layer of half-glaze catching on the bottom.
- 3
Boil to nappé
Bring the combined sauces to a full but controlled boil, stirring frequently with a flat-edged wooden spoon. Boil for 8 to 12 minutes, or until the sharpness of the Poivrade settles into the half-glaze and the sauce reaches nappé, coating the back of a spoon in a glossy layer that holds a clean line drawn through it. If it remains thin, keep boiling. If it tightens into a sticky glaze, take it off the heat immediately and whisk in warm water 1 tablespoon at a time until nappé returns. Ça se rattrape.
Do not mistake thickness for strength. Sauce Réforme must coat a cutlet and still flow around it; a paste may be concentrated, but it is no longer a sauce. - 4
Complete the sauce
Lower the heat until the surface barely trembles. Fold in the short julienne of gherkin, egg white, salted tongue, truffle, and mushroom, distributing every element through the sauce without beating up the fragile egg white. Warm for 2 to 3 minutes only. Do not return it to a hard boil: prolonged cooking toughens the tongue, dulls the gherkin, and sends the truffle's aroma out of the pan.
- 5
Sauce the cutlets
Give the Sauce Réforme one final stir from the bottom and check that the julienne remains suspended rather than sinking beneath an oily surface. Spoon it generously over hot mutton cutlets à la Réforme, making certain each serving receives all five elements of the garnish. Bring the remaining sauce to the table in a warm sauceboat. Cooking well is not cooking fancy. À table!
Chef Tips
- •This formula begins with two finished components. Half-glaze provides body and depth; ordinary Poivrade supplies pepper, vinegar, and aromatic sharpness. Stock thickened at the last moment is not their equivalent, and collapsing the two preparations into one improvised gravy changes the dish.
- •Use a ruler for the first few pieces of julienne if your eye isn't trained yet. Aim for rods about 1⁄16 inch (1.5 mm) thick and ¾ inch (2 cm) long. After three or four, your hand will understand the size.
- •Fresh black truffle is splendid when it is truly in season. At other times, a properly preserved whole black truffle is the classical pantry's honest answer. Drain it well and keep the liquid for another sauce; bottled truffle oil cannot replace the truffle here.
- •Taste before reaching for salt. The half-glaze, Poivrade, gherkins, and salted tongue all arrive seasoned, and their concentration increases during boiling.
- •Serve Sauce Réforme with mutton or lamb cutlets and a restrained vegetable garnish. A mature red Bordeaux has enough structure for the meat and enough composure for the truffle.
Advance Preparation
- •The finished half-glaze and ordinary Poivrade sauce can be prepared well ahead, chilled separately, and reheated together for this recipe. They may also be frozen in measured portions, which is the home kitchen's honest equivalent of a stockpot kept constantly ready.
- •Cut the garnish up to 4 hours ahead. Keep the gherkin and egg white in separate covered containers from the tongue, mushroom, and truffle so the vinegar does not travel through the whole garnish.
- •The two sauces may be combined and reduced earlier on the day of serving. Reheat gently, correct the nappé consistency, and add the julienne only at the finish.
- •Refrigerate leftover completed sauce promptly and use within 2 days, reheating over gentle heat. For longer storage, freeze the combined sauce before adding the garnish; egg white, gherkin, and mushroom lose their clean texture after freezing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 53g)
Calories
40 calories
Total Fat
2 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
1 g
Cholesterol
10 mg
Sodium
260 mg
Total Carbohydrates
3 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
2 g
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