Why Have I Never Done This Before?
I love steak. Always have, always will. When I’ve cooked steak at home (on a griddle pan of course), I’ve just picked up whatever packet sauce is near the steak. I even once tried this:
It was not good. In fact, it was extremely not good. Just because gravy is acceptable in granule form, peppercorn sauce is most definitely not acceptable (trust me on this).
This Boxing Day, we’re mixing it up and instead of having a roasting joint like normal, we’re having steak, lamb and gammon (me, other half, offspring). We bought the steak and lamb from our regular, local butcher. It then occured to me that it was a bit silly to have such a fine steak with a peppercorn sauce, out of a packet. I mean, they’re OK. They sort of do the job of adding some flavour, but it didn’t seem right. I had looked into making my own peppercorn sauce some time ago, but never did it for some reason. Probably couldn’t be bothered. And then I decided…
Not this time. Not this Christmas.
The Ingredients
As with all recipes, there’s quite a bit of variation. However, most peppercorn sauce recipes have the following:
- Brandy
- Beef stock
- Peppercorns
- Double cream
- Onions (or shallots)
- Garlic
- Dijon mustard
I like all of those ingredients so I bought them all. I’m thinking if goes well, and it tastes good, I’ll get two portions. One for this steak, one for another. The internet informs me that freezing homemade peppercorn sauce is completely fine.
The Cooking Bit
Oh dear. This didn’t go to plan, at all. Still, I managed to salvage the sauce and it’s delicious. Here’s what happened.
- In a small saucepan I fried a finely(ish) chopped brown onion in a bit of sunflower oil and butter for about two minutes.
- Next, I added two minced garlic cloves along with 2 tsp of whole black peppercorns. Some recipes suggest you pestle and mortar them. I decided not to. Fried this lot for about 20 seconds.
- Added 2 tbsp of brandy and fry for 10 seconds.
- Added 2 cups of beef stock. In my case this was OXO stock pots. Added a bit of freshly ground salt and pepper. Brought to a boil.
- Added 2 tsp of dijon mustard and ½ cup of double cream.
- Brought back to the boil
At this point the sauce looked like this:
Everything looked good I thought. All I’ve got to do now is simmer for about 20 minutes, until it’s thickened up. Give it a taste, marvel at my brilliance and put it in a jar to cool fully, ready for Boxing Day.
Well no, that’s not what happened.
I started simmmering at 13:18 (I always check the time). Twenty minutes in at 13:38, the sauce has not thickened at all. It’s like bloody water! And getting darker and darker. I forget exactly when, but I think this next photo was about forty five minutes in…
It’s got to be the cream! I need to add more!
I say to myself.
I add another ¼ cup of cream, turn up the heat and hope for the best.
Things are now looking a bit better but I reckon I’m down to a quarter of what I started with. Not half. I decide to put the sauce in a jar and probably have another go tomorrow, from scratch. After all, it’s my first attempt at peppercorn sauce, and I’ve got two full days before I need it.
An hour or so later, I wonder if adding another ¼ cup of double cream could save this batch? I mean, I don’t really want to start again if I can avoid it.
Energised by this new idea, I grab another saucepan, add the so far disappointing sauce and the extra ¼ cup of double cream. Mixing them together gives me this:
Not bad.
I cook for about five minutes, taste (nice), and put back in my jar:
Lessons Learned
- Even a homemade peppercorn sauce that has gone wrong is better than anything out of a packet. Very rich, full of flavour.
- Peppercorns soften up nicely. Maybe it was the extra cooking time.
- It was worth it, even if it didn’t go to plan
Update on 2024-12-27
Well, it wasn’t sitting right that things had gone wrong so I decided to start again on Boxing Day. I made the following changes:
- Used a frying pan instead of saucepan
- I believed having a wider cooking area would give better results and would make it easier to test that the sauce was thick enough:
- I used a full cup of double cream from the outset (all other ingredients the same). Also, I simmered at about medium heat, instead of a very gentle simmer:
After the 20 minutes simmering, the sauce was ready as shown by the scrape test:
Did the all important taste test, and this was even better! As a bonus, I’ve also got two portions, as originally planned:
All that’s now left is a photo of this on the steak. By the way, I think this is the biggest steak I’ve had in my life. It wouldn’t fit on the plate (part of it is on top of the main cut).
If you’ve made it this far, you’ll be pleased to know that, finally, after a few days and a few mishaps, we’ve made it to:
