Sauce Américaine

Lobster with sauce américaine

Sauce américaine is a recipe from classic French cookery containing chopped onions, tomatoes, white wine, brandy, salt, cayenne pepper, butter and fish stock. It is sometimes known as sauce armoricaine, which is the original name, derived from Armorica, the ancient name for a region of France including Brittany, which is known for its fishing.^[1]

Recipe

Louis Saulnier gives the following recipe:

Américaine - Treat as for Lobster Américaine. Pound shells and meat in the mortar and incorporate equal quantity of fish velouté, add butter.

As with many other classic dishes the original recipe has been adapted over time and almost every chef will prepare the sauce in a slightly different way. Modern recipes usually include tarragon, will use lobster stock rather than pounded lobster and often replace cayenne pepper with paprika.

References