Soubise sauce is an

onion sauce Onion sauce is a culinary sauce that uses onion as its primary ingredient. Some onion sauces may use several types of onions in their preparation. Some onion sauces are brown in color, while others are white. Many various ingredients may be use ...

thickened with

béchamel sauce Béchamel sauce or Biratta cream (, ) is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine, made from a white roux (butter and flour) and milk, seasoned with ground nutmeg. Origin The first recipe of a sauce similar to béchamel is in the book by ...

, pounded cooked rice, or cream.James Peterson, ''Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making'', 4th ed., 2017, , p. 520 It is generally served with meats, game, poultry and vegetables. It was formerly often used to coat meat. It is first documented in 1836. It has many variations, the simplest including just onions, butter, and cream.

History

The sauce is said to take its name from

Charles de Rohan, Prince de Soubise Charles de Rohan, 4th Prince of Soubise (16 July 17151 July 1787), Duke of Rohan-Rohan was a French aristocrat, soldier, and minister to kings Louis XV and Louis XVI. He was the last male of his branch of the House of Rohan, and was great-gran ...

Auguste Escoffier Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur, and culinary writer who popularised and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-A ...

's recipe adds a thickened béchamel to butter-stewed onions. For a variant with rice and bacon fat, Escoffier cooks a high-starch rice (such as Carolina rice) with fatty bacon, onions and white

consommé In cooking, a consommé is a type of clear soup made from richly flavoured stock or broth that has been clarified, a process that uses egg whites to remove fat and sediment. Consommé has three English pronunciations: traditionally in the UK ...

, then purées the onions and rice before finishing with the usual butter and cream.

Tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

purée seasoned with paprika or curry can be added to either variation, but Escoffier notes that béchamel is preferred to rice for its smoother consistency. The 19th-century Anglo-Italian cook

Charles Elmé Francatelli Charles Elmé Francatelli (180510 August 1876) was a British chef, known for four cookery books popular in the Victorian era, including ''The Modern Cook''. He trained in Paris under Marie-Antoine Carême , Antonin Carême and became one of Lon ...

serves the sauce over boiled

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera's native range is restricted to Eura ...

with potato

croquettes A croquette (; ) is a deep-fried roll originating in French cuisine, consisting of a thick binder combined with a filling, which is then breaded. It is served as a side dish, a snack, or fast food worldwide. The binder is typically a thick bé ...

Eliza Acton Eliza Acton (17 April 1799 – 13 February 1859) was an English food writer and poet who produced one of Britain's first cookery books aimed at the domestic reader, '' Modern Cookery for Private Families''. The book introduced the now-un ...

, who said ''soubise'' was "the finest kind of onion sauce", serves it with lamb, suggesting any rich gravy or brown cucumber sauce as a substitute. It is among the sauces she recommends to be served with Veal Fricandeau. Her recipe for English soubise replaces the béchamel with rich veal gravy finished with cream.

References

White sauces Victorian cuisine Onion-based foods {{condiment-stub