Gravy suggestions for smoked rib roast

I’ll be doing an au jus with the drippings and red wine.

You've got a couple of days before Christmas. How about stepping it up a bit and making classic demi-glace? The perfect accompaniment to roasted meat!

You can make your stock tomorrow (Tuesday), then make the Espagñole Wednesday, and finally the demi-glace on Thursday.

This seems like a lot of cooking but, its very passive. Just a lot of simmering and waiting. The question you have to answer is, are your guests/ family worth the effort?

BROWN STOCK: Yield 1 gallon

8lbs beef bones
6qts water
1lb mirepoix
2oz tomato paste
4c red wine
1 sachet d'épices
2 oignon brûlé

For the Sachet d'épices:
2ea Bay leaf
4ea Thyme
12ea Peppercorns
6ea Parsley stems
3ea Garlic cloves

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place the bones in a roasting pan and roast for 1 hour, turning and rotating the bones to promote even browning. Remove the bones from the oven and brush with the tomato paste.
In a mixing bowl, combine the onions, carrots, and celery together. Lay the vegetables over the bones and return to the oven. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and drain off any fat. Remove the bones and separate the vegetables. Place the roasting pan on the stove and deglaze the pan with red wine, using a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom of the pan for browned particles. Put the bones, sachet d'épices and oignon brûlé into a large stock pot, add enough cold water to cover the bones by tw inches, and bring the liquid up to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer the stock for 4 hours, skimming regularly. After four hours, add the reserved roasted vegetables and continue simmering an additional 6 hours. Make sure the water level never gets below the top of the bones. Remove from the heat and strain through a China cap or tightly meshed strainer. You should yield 1 gallon of brown stock. If you have more, you can simmer to reduce and if you have less you can add water to make up for the loss. (if I have any on hand, I will add a ham bone or two at the beginning, makes a damn tasty brown stock)

SAUCE ESPAGÑOLE: Yield: 2 Quarts

Base Ingredients:
4oz Bacon
8oz Mirepoix
2oz Mushrooms
2qt Brown stock
2oz Tomato puree

Brown Roux Ingredients:
2oz Clarified butter
2oz Flour

For the Sachet d'épices:
2ea Bay leaf
4ea Thyme
12ea Peppercorns
6ea Parsley stems
3ea Garlic cloves

Directions:
For the Sachet
Place a 3’x3’ square of cheesecloth on the workbench. Gather the ingredients, put them in the middle of a piece of the cheesecloth, pull the ends together, and tie the bag closed with a piece of cooking twine. Make the twine long enough so that it can be tied to the pot handle and it can be easily retrieved.

For the Roux:
Heat clarified butter in a medium saucepan.
Sprinkle flour into the butter and slowly whisk to combine fat and flour.
Cook, stirring constantly until the roux becomes smoother and thins out.
Stir and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the flour is chocolate brown and set aside to cool.

For the Sauce:
Add bacon to a medium sauce pot on medium heat and render the fat from the bacon
Sauté mirepoix and in bacon fat until well caramelized.
Add mushrooms and cook until the liquid is released.
Add brown stock and tomato puree to the sauce pot and bring contents to a low boil
Temper the roux into the stock, whisking constantly to create a smooth texture.
Raise the heat and bring the sauce to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and depouillage the surface of the sauce periodically.
Add the sachet d'épices simmer for about 1 hour to infuse the sauce.
Remove the sachet d'épices after 1 hour and simmer an additional 30 – 40 minutes to reduce.
Strain through a china cap with cheesecloth & reserve.

DEMI-GLACE: Yields 2 qts

2qts Brown stock
2qts Espagñole
1 sachet d'épices:
1ea Bay leaf
4ea Thyme
12ea Peppercorns
6ea Parsley stems
3ea Garlic cloves


In a stock pot, combine the Espagnole sauce, brown stock and sachet d'épices, together, over medium-high heat.
Bring up to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and a simmer until the liquid reduces by half, about 1 1/2 hours. Skim the liquid occasionally, for impurities. Season with salt and pepper.
Strain through a China Cap or tightly meshed strainer. Serve immediately or reserve under refrigeration for future use. To reheat, heat 2oz of water in a small sauce pot, add congealed demiglace and stir until proper temperature and consistency is achieved.

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Fair enough but, it's really not a ton of involved cooking though. it's a lot of passive cooking & time spent waiting. Really easy to execute if you work smart and efficient. This can be achieved by consolidating your prep work, such as cutting your mirepoix for the stock and for the Espagñole while the bones are roasting. Mise en place all of the recipes on day one since that is your longest cooking duration. Separate everything in labeled zip-top bags or storage containers and put them in grocery store bags according to each recipe. That way they will be ready for when you execute the next step.

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Oh I know, that's pretty much what I did and the only reason I even attempted it, along with much help from the French Cooking Academy youtube channel.

I mean you have to be a sadist to attempt any type of classical french cuisine without your mise en place on point.

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Make your own, using the recipe provided or just fortify store bought with a couple scoops of powdered gelatin and a bit of Better than Beef base.

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Escoffier just rolled over in his grave!

Oh, and by the way.....Albufera Sauce is damn good on Turkey. And I'll never make it again

This dude's a trip, but he makes just what you're asking for. Watch the video he links about stock making from store-bought stock.

LINK

That Prudhomme recipe is very good. One of his books has the same recipe with more red pepper (3/4 teaspoon) and jalapenos (1/4 cup), and it is called Very Hot Cajun Sauce for Beef.

It is indeed hot with the full load of spices. Very good when served with his Cajun meatloaf, so I bet it would also be great with rib roast.