How To Make Peppercorn Sauce | Cookery School | Waitrose

Chef Tutor Becca McGonagle shows you how to make creamy peppercorn sauce, a classic to serve with steak.

Rich and tangy in flavour, this peppercorn sauce is great to have fresh or to make in advance. Becca explains the importance of using fresh stock for your sauce as well as ways in which it can be altered to suit your personal taste.

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Ingredients:
1 tbsp rapeseed or sunflower oil
1 medium shallot, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed or finely grated
1 tbsp black or green peppercorns
2 tbsp brandy
500g pot fresh Cooks’ Ingredients Beef Stock
100ml whipping cream
2 tsp Dijon mustard


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[Jonwisniewski]

Made this for some friends (followed this video exactly), and it was outstanding. One of the best meals I ever made.

[leonardmilcin]

I make my own stock, then reduce it by about 4 times, then freeze it in an ice cube tray. I have bags of various types of stock (fish, beef, chicken, etc.) and then just pop a cube or more whenever I need.
It is fantastic to make any sauces because it is already reduced so you are not adding much liquid you would need to reduce. Which is super important when you want to cook your steaks and then make the sauce on the same pan while the steak is resting.
Also it makes much more sense to make 10l of stock at a time like I do, reduce it it to about 2, 5l and then use it for a long time whenever you want to make a sauce or risotto or something else that does not necessarily need a lot of stock or when the stock is an addition and not the main ingredient.

[marchervais]

i made one last week. Almost this recipe except that i used cognac instead of brandy (i am french), i used green peppercorn instead of a black one that i softened in a glass of water in the microwave and as i was not patient enough to reduce the sauce (energy is expensive) i made a small roux (butter and flour) to thicken it.

now that i have been looking your video, i think that maybe it might be a great improvement to add some juniper to the pepper. Nobody does it, but i will definitely trying it next time.

I love your fries. didn't look how they are made yet

regards

[jonisoma]

…..I need to learn this for myself….cause once you have had this you will never go back.

[cocopufer]

nice! I appreciate you bringing the steak and chips vids together with the sauce now, cant wait too see the next one!

[Eric-syxu]

Peppercorn sauce is Great, love it to bits, personally I don't find the experience of biting into a whole peppercorn to be Super pleasant so I would probably crack them in a pestle & mortar or something first.
With that in mind should you treat cracked peppercorns much differently to the whole ones in the video?

[NotCrusty]

Pretty much followed this recipe except used olive oil and cracked better. Thank you so much for the method it was a hit.

[trubz]

Awesome. Seen people use worcestershire sauce instead of Dijon and substitute alcohol with water. Also added crush peppercorns with whole peppercorns. Look at the thickness on her sauce. Thats how I want mines to look.

[Dstonephoto]

Awesome video. Finally a cooking video which complements Jaime & Gordon. Solid production as well. Woo🎉

[kmoody]

I made it almost exact (didn’t have brandy) but it is really good. I did add cornstarch to thicken

[gt_shrimp]

Will try this 😊 thanks for this high quality video! 🎉

[meityburdett]

Wow Delicious Sauce, Just made it. Thank you so much🙏🙏❤️👍🏽Bon Appetite!

[lyndseymc]

Looks great, but what the heck would you cook the shallots in sunflower oil when you could use butter???

[sumaiyashaikh]

Chefi can also use demi glacé instead of plain brown stock and a string of thyme will make this sauce more rich

[maryann]

Made this last last was awesome. Could I make this ahead of time? Would this freeze well??

[RayRay-sqcr]

Great Video, I can't wait to try this. Thank you so much.

[Tomoboy]

Thanks I needed this I now am eatingsome steak and chips with your peppercorn sauce

[ellaally]

Noob question - new to cooking !!
If we make the sauce in advance and reheat it, does that mean put it in the microwave or do we warm it over the stove? If the latter, how do you advise doing that e.g. heat strength, timing etc.
Thanks!! <3

[royestrada]

I've heard the type of beef stock you use makes a HUGE difference. I tried making this sauce based on another video using (I think it was Swanson with 500ml of sodium per cup). Since it had so much sodium I didn't bother adding salt to the sauce and it didn't come out good at all - came out very bland. Is buying the right beef stock very important? I live in San Francisco, California USA. I don't know how to cook but I very much want to make this sauce for my steak. I saw your beef stock you use in Amazon UK. Do recommend buying the same sauce you are using?

[gammatt]

Why don't you crack the peppercorns even just a little bit? Are you supposed to eat the peppercorns or just put them aside?