The secret recipe of the entrecote sauce (cafe de paris)

After years of searching for the secret recipe of the entrecote (cafe de paris), we found many ones posted online, and many recreated by well known chefs. We have tried many recipes, some were close to the real thing, and some were far in taste.

After some research we found a recipe posted by someone, who was in the quest to recreate the real sauce. He found it in a swiss cooking book and he says that very similar to the recipe that his father owned when he used to work as chef at a hotel in London.

We tried it and we made some changes to it after trial and error. And the taste is extremely similar.

Here are the ingredients and recipe as we did it

Note:

- Some fresh herbs can be substituted with dry herbs if not found fresh

- For dried herbs, measuring, always divide by 8 to get the dried herb equivalent, for example if a recipe calls for 100g fresh mint, you can put 100/8 = 12.5g dried mint

Ingredients:

1 kg butter

60g tomato ketchup

25g Dijon mustard

25g capers (in brine)

125g brown onion

50g fresh parsley

50g fresh chives or 6g dried

5g dried marjoram

5g dried dill

5g fresh thyme, leaves only or a pinch dried

10 leaves fresh tarragon or a pinch dried

Pinch ground rosemary

1 garlic clove, chopped very finely

8 anchovy fillets

1 tbs good brandy

1 tbs Madeira or Porto or wine with a pinch of sugar

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp sweet paprika

½ tsp curry powder

Pinch cayenne or hot red pepper

1 tsp white pepper

juice 1 lemon

zest of ½ lemon

zest ¼ orange

12gm salt

Method:

Mix all ingredients with the exception of butter in a glass bowl and leave to marinate for 24 hours in a warm part of the kitchen (a slight fermentation occurs). 

Purée the mixture in a blender so it is very fine, like a paste.

Melt the butter till a foam appears (do not burn) and mix with the purée.

Use the blender to have a homogenous mix. Cover and store in the fridge. Once hardened, take it out and roll it into logs using cling film and you can store it in the freezer for long time.

To serve cut a portion from the log, melt it in a pan and pour it over the steak.

For for a creamier taste.

Put whipping cream in a pan, on low heat and reduce to half, then add the cafe de paris over it to melt. 1 part reduced cream to 2 parts butter, the butter has to be double the quantity of the reduced cream. Pour over steak.

Enjoy!