Salmis Sauce

Ingredients

• 150 g mirepoix (fine vegetable base)
• skin from the bird or game carcass
• bird or game carcass, chopped
• 3 dl white wine
• 8 dl demi-glace (rich meat reduction)
• 4 dl fond de cuisine (cooking stock) appropriate to the dish
• mushroom cooking liquid
• truffle essence
• 50 g butter

Instructions

1. Gently sauté the fine mirepoix in butter. Add the skin stripped from the bird's legs and the chopped carcasses of the birds or game being prepared.
2. Wet with white wine and reduce by two-thirds. Add the demi-glace and simmer gently for three-quarters of an hour, then pass through a fine sieve with firm pressure to extract the full essence of the aromatics and carcasses.
3. Extend the resulting coulis (rich, strained reduction) with cooking stock appropriate to the dish's final use. If the game is lean and the sauce is to be prepared as a meatless dish, replace the stock with mushroom cooking liquid.
4. Skimming regularly, continue cooking for three-quarters of an hour to one hour, then reduce the sauce by a good third. Adjust the consistency and quantity by adding more mushroom cooking liquid and truffle essence as needed.
5. Pass through fine cheesecloth. Finish with a light mounting of butter if desired—the final addition of about 50 grams of butter per litre is optional.