Chef Juliette
Crème Anglaise
Crème anglaise turns milk, yolks, sugar, and vanilla into a silken sauce that veils the spoon. Stir gently, stop before the boil, and you hold the mother of the sweet-sauce family.
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Greengage or Mirabelle Sauce
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2414, Greengage or Mirabelle Sauce, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Ripe green or golden plums become a clear, satin-smooth sauce with light syrup and kirsch. The lesson is restraint: sieve carefully, skim patiently, and never boil away the fruit's perfume.
Sauces & Condiments
French
Make Ahead
Comfort Food
Dinner Party
35 min
Active Time
35 min cook•1 hr 10 min total
YieldAbout 2 quarts (1.9 liters)
Sauce aux reines-claudes ou aux mirabelles teaches a precise lesson: clarity comes from gentle handling, not merely from passing fruit through a sieve. The finished sauce should be jewel-bright and glossy rather than transparent, with the pure taste of ripe plum carried on a light syrup and the dry cherry perfume of kirsch.
The book could point its saucier toward the apricot-sauce method because the fruit purée, syrup, and fine sieves were already waiting. A home kitchen offers one heavy pan, a fine-mesh sieve, and syrup made in minutes. Here, 4 pounds of fruit becomes about 2 quarts of sauce. The brigade shorthand and the pot of syrup held ready are scaffolding, so they go; the sequence is the dish and stays intact: soften the fruit, sieve it, let it down with syrup, skim it clear, then add kirsch away from the heat. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Do not rush the skimming or attack the sauce with a whisk. Air and hard boiling make it cloudy, while a bare tremble lets the foam gather where you can lift it away. That quiet simmer is the one step that decides the sauce.
The mirabelle version belongs most clearly to Lorraine, especially the orchards around Nancy and Metz, where the small golden plum appears in preserves, tarts, compotes, and eaux-de-vie. The reine-claude has a wider French orchard life, with especially prized fruit grown around Moissac in Quercy, and both plums traveled from household preserving pans into pastry kitchens as sieved dessert sauces. In the classical sense, clear describes a sauce free of foam, skin, and cloudy air bubbles, not a transparent syrup.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
ripe but sound greengages or mirabelles
Quantity
9 cups whole fruit (2.1 liters / 1.8 kg)
washed, halved, and stoned
granulated sugar
Quantity
1¼ cups (300 ml / 250 g)
water
Quantity
1½ cups (360 ml / 360 g)
divided
kirsch
Quantity
¼ cup (60 ml / 56 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| ripe but sound greengages or mirabelleswashed, halved, and stoned | 9 cups whole fruit (2.1 liters / 1.8 kg) |
| granulated sugar | 1¼ cups (300 ml / 250 g) |
| waterdivided | 1½ cups (360 ml / 360 g) |
| kirsch | ¼ cup (60 ml / 56 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •5-quart heavy saucepan
- •1-quart saucepan for the syrup
- •Fine-mesh sieve
- •Food mill with fine disc, optional
- •Shallow skimmer or large spoon
- •2-quart heatproof measuring jug
Instructions
- 1
Sort and stone fruit
Choose ripe fruit with fragrant flesh but no fermentation, mould, or leaking bruises. Wash it gently, halve it, and remove every stone. Cut large greengages into quarters; mirabelles may remain in halves. Keep any clear juice released on the board and add it to the pan.
- 2
Make the light syrup
Put the sugar and 1 cup (240 ml / 240 g) of the water into a small saucepan. Warm gently, stirring only until the sugar has dissolved, then bring it to a quiet boil for 3 minutes. Lift away any pale foam and set the clear syrup aside. If crystals form around the edge, add 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) of the remaining water and warm gently until they dissolve. Ça se rattrape.
Once the syrup boils, stop stirring. Agitation encourages crystals, while a steady simmer keeps the syrup smooth and clear. - 3
Soften the plums gently
Put the prepared fruit into a wide, heavy saucepan with the remaining water, about ⅜ cup plus 2 teaspoons (120 ml / 120 g). Cover and cook over low heat for 8 minutes, until the fruit releases its juice, then uncover and hold it at a bare simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Stop when the flesh collapses readily under the spoon but still smells fresh; browning or a hard boil would muddy both colour and flavour.
- 4
Pass through the sieve
While the fruit is still warm, pass it through the fine disc of a food mill, then through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean saucepan. If you have no food mill, work directly through the sieve in manageable batches with a flexible scraper. Press steadily rather than beating the pulp, and scrape the smooth sauce from the underside. Discard the skins and fibres. Do not use a blender, which chops the skins into the sauce and whips in the air that clarity cannot tolerate.
- 5
Loosen, skim, and correct
Warm the sieved fruit over low heat and add the hot syrup about ¼ cup (60 ml) at a time, stirring slowly after each addition. Stop when the sauce falls from the spoon in a continuous glossy sheet and measures about 2 quarts (1.9 liters); the exact amount of syrup depends on the fruit's ripeness and natural juice. Bring the sauce only to a bare tremble, then skim every patch of foam from the surface. If it becomes too thin, simmer it gently before adding the kirsch until it regains a light coating consistency. Do not race it with fierce heat. Ça se rattrape.
- 6
Finish with kirsch
Take the pan completely off the heat and stir in the kirsch with three or four slow turns of the spoon. Taste once the spirit has dispersed: the plum should lead and the dry cherry perfume should follow. Skim once more if a final veil of foam rises. Serve the sauce warm, at room temperature, or chilled with a bavarois, baked custard, rice pudding, charlotte, or plain vanilla ice cream. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Greengages make a green-gold sauce with fresh acidity; mirabelles give a deeper golden colour and a honeyed perfume. Use one fruit throughout the batch so its character remains distinct.
- •When fresh fruit is out of season, unsweetened frozen greengages or mirabelles are the honest answer. Thaw them in the saucepan, retain their juice, and withhold the fruit-cooking water unless the pan looks dry.
- •Kirsch means dry cherry eau-de-vie, not sweet cherry liqueur. Add it away from the heat, because boiling drives off the aroma the source recipe puts there deliberately.
- •Clarity here means bright colour, clean gloss, and no suspended foam. It does not mean transparency. Skim patiently and stir slowly; cooking well is not cooking fancy.
Advance Preparation
- •Make the sauce up to 5 days ahead. Cool it promptly in a shallow container, cover, and refrigerate; stir slowly before serving so you do not beat air back into it.
- •For warm service, reheat over low heat without boiling. A teaspoon of fresh kirsch stirred in after reheating will restore any aroma softened during storage.
- •The finished sauce can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator, warm gently, and pass it once more through the fine sieve if the texture has separated.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 65g)
Calories
60 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
0 mg
Total Carbohydrates
14 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
13 g
Protein
0 g
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