Pfefferrahmsoße

Pfefferrahmsoße belongs to the Gasthof table and the home pan, not to a feast day. You see it beside steak, pork medallions, Schnitzel without breading, mushrooms, or Bratkartoffeln, fried potatoes. In the Rhineland and west it often comes with brandy and green peppercorns; further south the cream can be heavier, sometimes with mushrooms; in the north you'll see it sharper and leaner with more stock. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders.

The sauce works only if you reduce in the right order. Brandy first, so the raw alcohol edge cooks off. Stock next, so the browned pan juices loosen and become sauce instead of staying stuck to the steel. Cream last, then runter mit der Temperatur, down with the temperature, because cream boiled hard turns greasy and dull before the pepper has done its work.

Use the pan you cooked the meat in, or make it with butter and shallot if there is no meat. Weggeworfen wird nichts: the brown bits in the pan are not dirt, they're the base. Nicht aus dem Glas. A jar gives you salt and starch. This gives you pepper, fat, stock, and the taste of the pan.