Deglazing

What fond is

When meat or vegetables brown in a pan, some of what browns sticks to the metal rather than staying on the food. Those stuck-on brown patches are the products of the same browning reactions that made the food taste good — concentrated, dried onto the surface, and enormously flavoursome.

They are also water-soluble, which is the whole trick. Add any liquid to a hot pan and the fond dissolves off it in seconds with a little scraping. That liquid is now the base of a sauce.

The only fond that is not worth recovering is black fond, which is burnt rather than browned and will make the sauce bitter. Brown is good; black means wash the pan.

The technique

1. Take the browned food out of the pan and set it aside to rest.
2. Pour off excess fat if there is a lot, leaving a spoonful or two behind.
3. Soften any aromatics — shallot, garlic, onion — in that fat for a minute.
4. Add the liquid with the pan still over the heat. It will hiss and steam violently, which is what should happen.
5. Scrape the base immediately with a wooden spoon or a flat-edged spatula. Everything should lift within twenty or thirty seconds.
6. Reduce the liquid until it is as concentrated as you want, then finish it — butter, cream, mustard, herbs, a squeeze of acid.

What to deglaze with

Wine

The classic. Red for beef and lamb, white for chicken, pork and fish. Cook it long enough to lose the raw alcohol edge — a couple of minutes.

Stock

Neutral and safe. The default when you want the meat to be the flavour.

Beer or cider

Excellent with pork and sausages. Watch for bitterness in hoppy beers, which concentrates.

Vinegar

A splash only, and it lifts everything. Sherry vinegar with beef is particularly good.

Brandy, whisky, vermouth

Small amounts, strong effect. Take the pan off the heat before adding spirits.

Water

Perfectly acceptable. The fond is the flavour; the liquid is just the vehicle.

Cream

Works, but add it after the fond has been lifted with something thinner, or it can split.

Where it fits

• After searing a steak or a chop — deglaze, reduce, whisk in cold butter, and you have a restaurant sauce in three minutes.
• Before a braise. Browning the meat, softening the vegetables and deglazing is the standard opening of every stew worth eating.
• In a roasting tin after a joint comes out, which is what gravy is.
• After frying mushrooms or onions, where the fond is vegetable rather than meat and just as useful.
• Repeatedly, while caramelising onions, adding a splash of water each time the base browns and scraping it back in.

Common questions