Sauce Americaine: The Mother Of All Seafood Sauces ( made with crabs)
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Join my online French cooking classes 👨🍳: learn.thefrenc... Sauce Americaine (Translated American sauce) is part of the great French seafood sauces dating back from the 1860's.
This sauce is made with fresh crustaceous ( lobster or crabs) that are then pan fried in olive oil, flambee with cognac, deglaze with white wine and cooke in a bath of freshly made fish stock with an addition of tomatoes garlic, shallot and carrots.
That amazing French seafood sauce can be served with any fish or seafood you like. if you want you can also use on its own and serve as a lobster or crab bisque alongside a few pan fried garlicky fresh croutons.
Cookware and ingredients for that recipe:
French style casserole pan:
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Pestle and mortar:
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Ingredients:
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1 kg of crustaceous : ( small crab, lobster or scampi ) can be only shells and legs when using lobster.
100 grams carrots
100 grams onions
40 grams shallots
400 grams chopped tomatoes ( can tomatoes are fine)
2 garlic cloves ( bruised)
bouquet garni :( thym, parsley stokes, bayleaf, green part of of leek leaf)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
parsley: a handfull (chopped)
or
tarragon a handful (chopped)
To deglaze:
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50 ml cognac (Flambee)
200 ml dry white wine ( sauvignon blanc is fine)
Fish stock :
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1 kg of fishbones
50 grams shallot (finely sliced)
120 grams of onions (finely sliced)
70 grams carrot roughly diced (mirepoix)
1 small bouquet garni ( 2 twigs of thyme plus 1 bayleaf)
1.5 litre water
100 ml white wine
1 tablespoon of plain butter
(No need for salt and pepper)
Thickening agent:
beurre manie: 20 grams of butter and 20 grams of plain flour mixed together by hand in a small bowl.
or
starch 1 tablespoon diluted in a little water
Cooking times:
Fish stock: 40 minutes
American Sauce: 30 minutes uncovered. ( 15 minutes in the first part then another 15 minutes after the shells have been crushed and re added to the pan)
reduction: another 10 minutes at then when the sauce has been filtered and the thickening agent added. make sure you add the thickening agent bit by bit until you get the desired thickness ( the sauce must be just thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon)
Wine pairing: dry white wines such a Chablis grand cru or a good champagne.
Note for that recipe: the authentic way to do that sauce is to make it with 1 or 2 whole lobsters that you would chop large chunks ( keep the head shells to decorate). To do so, cook the lobsters chunks for the first 15 minutes as shown in the video and when the lobster is cooked, remove the flesh for the shells ( reserving them for later for serving) then, once the meat is reserved, crush the lobster shells and legs and add them back in the sauce. leave the sauce to cook for another 15 minutes. when the sauce is cooked and thickened, serve the pieces of lobster flesh on a plate, cover with plenty of sauce and decorate the plate with the lobster heads towering up with a bit of parsley (and eventually a set of small fish detailed in puff pastry and cooked in the oven). beside of each lobster shell
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I love this sauce, I will never throw a prawn, crab, yabby, scampi or lobster shell away again. I've made something similar without the fish stock and it's still fabulous. Using the shells, shallots, water, wine, bouquet garni, tomatoes and half a garlic clove. Skim drain and reduce, add a little cream at the end.
This is a great man. Keep coming back to all his videos.
I made this dish with crawfish stock the other day. I even added some homemade Demi glacé. I served it with lobster. One of my favorite dishes now.
wow amazing remember to join the community on google plus to post your recipe pictures 🙂🙂 plus.google.com/communities/116616527720242811034?iem=1
Man, I am becoming sauce "rich" by watching all of your wonderful and inspiring videos! My wife and I try almost every recipe you share. :)
I have made this many times now, but using lobster instead of crabs. It is incredibly delicious and unctuous and absolutely worth the work! Thanks chef!
Delicious! Love your unpretentious approach and straight forward simplicity! Thanks Stephane!
Thanks for watching
Thank you once again I am very seriously telling you that you have the best most informative cooking videos. You rank #1 better than any television food show and i have been watching food related shows for almost 30 + years now. I love how you focus on the food and give us the history of the recipe. You have inspired me a food lover but a terrible cook to try to learn the classics.
Wow, what a compliment thanks a lot. I am glad I have managed to inspire you 😀😁😋
Formidable Chef Stephane.
This is the first video of your channel I have seen, and I love it. I make this sauce a lot, although I never knew it as "Sauce Americaine," but rather as a red seafood sauce, or tomato seafood sauce. One of the things I really love to do is to make the sauce with Crawdad heads (some call them Crawfish, or Crayfish), as I am land locked with limited, and expensive access to seafood, and set aside the cooked Crawdad tails. I then make the sauce quite a bit thicker, the consistency of a good pasta sauce, add the tails back at the end of cooking to warm through again, and serve over pasta. It's truly magnificent. The Crawdad sauce also goes well over Rice. I've also made it with Italian shrimp, Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab, Longoustine, and Slipper Lobster.
Man i will have to try this with crawdads too.. both these recipes sound great, also, im willing to bet this sauce will be a great addition to my gumbo...😮
One of the very best "cooking" channels and even experienced professionals can learn a thing or two.
The 1st time I've seen this. As an American it looks fabulous going to do it tonight
Mate, that looks delish, I have a 1980's vid of Rick Sien cooking a similar dish both are fantastic.
What a MASTER CLASS 👏🏻👏🏻👌
THANK YOU CHEF 🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️👌👌
Next time I have softshell crab I will try this Seafood Sauce. Thanks for the video.
Stéphane: J'aime beaucoup tes vidéos, lesquelles m'ont enseigné de nombreuses techniques de la cuisine française. Merci!
I love how excited you got after tasting around 9:45... I get that way in the kitchen, too! /yum /giggle
Hi Stephane, what a wonderful sauce! I had no idea we Americans had such a sauce using the classic French methods. I have learned a lot about French sauces and other French culinary specialities from you channel. I also subscribe to your pastry class. Please continue to prepare dishes and sauces in the classic French style.
Brillient pieceof work
9:45 delicious reaction Stephane and wonderful video, as always. Thank you.
9:46 says it all... loved it
I just love the history lessons u give on these recipes, as a cook myself I find it invaluable to know the origins of “my” recipes. Thank you Chef. 👍
Stephan you absolutely murdered the pronunciation of my city. excellent sauce tutorial however. thankyou
Wow! Sounds so good .I can actually taste it....nice with some good bread to mop all the flavour and juices up .and wine ..
Please try this sauce over pan sautéed soft shell crabs. They are a regional treat but also very well received when served abroad.
9:45 Iconic Foodie / chef moment!
Thanks again Stephane, your growing library of deliciousness is my ‘go too’ when I have the opportunity to man the cooker
I love this channel so much 💗💗💗
🙂👨🏻🍳👍
Thanks for sharing your knowledge, I like your unpretentious style, you make it seem so easy and that is always a good sign. Looking forward to see more French classics cooked correctly, French Onion soup (hint hint) or seafood !
Good idea for sea food accpamiments Thank you Chef
thank you for your encouraging sounds as you cook -- genuinely comforting
I would like to know when you use charlots, yellow and red onions. Thanks a lot for great videos; I learn a lot from them.
I love the challenge of the dishes you present
you can also use an egg white to remove the impurities off of the surface of any stock.
Hi!! I'm finally back to your channel!! Mmmmmmmmm.... Seafoood flavour smells great!! That taste sooo delicious and yummy crabs!! Great dish!! See you anytime!!
Hi chef I loved your recipe
I live on the west coast of America. Our local crab is Dungeoness crab. You buy it live, or already steamed. Alaskan King crab and Snow crab is already steamed. Your crab was a lot smaller than our Dungeoness. I think we only keep Dungeoness that are 7 inches (about 17.5 cm?) across the body shell and are male. All females are freed to help prevent over fishing.
This reminded me the sauce Nantua which I was trying to make when I was in Lyon working for chef Joseph Viola.
i am yet to make that one
French Cooking Academy looking for to watch that!
Much appreciated luv💋💋💋 I can’t stop watching your channel. Your giving me some much ideas🥰
Thanks for the feedback 🙂👨🏻🍳
perfect recipe for the tiny rock crabs we have here in hawaii.
I love this guy so much
Love your recipes 😍
Very well done! Thank you 🙏
I like your final presentations!
Thanks 🙂
Great video Chef, Thanks! I don't know if you saw my comment on your previous video, but our local French Restaurant used to serve "Lobster Americaine" with this sauce (more or less - I am sure they used lobster shells). It was amazing. As they say, it "Tasted more like lobster than lobster does." Thanks again.
Wonderful presentation.
Beautiful, decadent sauce. I know it's not French but I'd love to see you cook a whole mud crab. I had several when I visited Oz on business and it's one of the best, most unique things I've ever eaten. Just incredibly good.
Go to the wharf in San Francisco and have a Dungeness crab plate. The season starts in November. It is the west coast America type of mud crab. Sweet and delicious with a strong savory flavor. Thank me later.
Americaine sauce. very interesting. tq
That looks delicious!
Wonderful! And welcome on Friday. This gives so many ideas.
I bet it is delicious. Fish stock plus crab stock!
looks wonderful.. a must try.. thanks
Great chef! You've made a tasty Bisque!
that sauce sounds and looks amazing
You are my mentor chef
Just wanted to say I love your enthusiasm for this, when you first took a taste and got excited, then the taste after near the end where you can hear the satisfaction. Irish american lion (Portland weird) adore what you do and the finesse.
As a side request whats something spicy you enjoy? I saw you used cayenne.
In french cooking there is not too much spicy but when making french West Indies food I love scotch bonnets chilies they are my world favorite spicy chilies
Reminds me of sauce bursha which is served with scampi in istria and croatia. Only thing which is missing is garlic :)
Well as always you make excellent videos and i love the passion you put in your cooking.
kinn grimm The whole time I was watching I kept wondering where the garlic was. Maybe it’s too overpowering in a sauce like this? I love garlic and I would add it in my version of the sauce
well certainly it is up to preference when it comes to garlic, some people don't like it. When i was young i did not either, now there are so many dishes i do where i could not imagine it without it :)
As a teenager i was with my parents on holiday in istria and croatia and we ate scampi by the kilo hrhr and my father always ordered it made with sauce bursha which as i said is pretty much as in this video discribed just that it is with garlic and no the garlic was not overpowering even though there was lots of it in there 0_0
@@indianasquatchunters He added some text to the video saying he just forgot the garlic.
Thank you for this recipe. I've been wanting to learn how to make this sauce for a while now... finally, I have the best one. Did I hear right... are you in Australia or the west coast of the US?
AMAZING as always brother
I really like Sauce Americaine. Never thought of using is as a beginning soup....love that idea. Your English is very good but your 'American' tickled me today. It is Chicago = She-cog-go. LOL Don't change though, I enjoyed the laugh. [My French is horrible so I imagine you'd chuckle at some of my pronouncing too.]
i guess i would have to go there to hear the prononciation 🙂
Have you never been to America? You're definitely missing something if you haven been. We are really "a wold apart". LOL Oh....come to Texas.....not Austin or Houston.....but out in the wild....less populated areas. I could show you what Texas used to be about. We'll make a cowboy of you for sure. *grin* -- And you could help me refine many of my recipes.
i may go to oregon next year . got some extended family there
I love your videos-- I learn the "why" of methods for good cooking!
May I ask why you do not use celery in the mirepoix? I thought that was an essential ingredient, especially in seafood sauces. I am always looking for ways to improve my cooking, so your videos are helping greatly! Thanks so much!
Athena Stewart celery is not essential when making sauces or using as a base. Great question by the way! There are so many other things to make extraordinary sauces and bases with. Keep learning as you go my friend you will see that celery isn’t needed at all.
On the east coast we have tons of blue crab and this sauce is so very similar to dishes made here. From crab bisque to seafood entrees, especially rock fish or grouper.
I would kill for blue crab being from the west coast, it's a better crab eating culture overall lol
I've been eagerly waiting all week for this recipe, and it was worth the wait! Thank you for this video, I'm thinking of all the ways I can use this sauce now!
It's always a pleasure to read your comments 🙂🙂😋👨🍳
Awesome chef
I love your touch
at the point you would crush the crabs thats basically Maryland Crab Soup .. only we use Old bay and beef stock in place of the fish stock. then add diced carrots and peas
Thank you for sharing Chef it looks delicious
my pleasure
Perhaps very nice for preparing paella.
Can you make ahead and freeze? Would catfish bones work for the stock? Can you suggest what fish carcass works the best?
yes you could freeze it but just after it is made don’t wait before freezing it
I wish I had some dough to spring you so you could get lobster. I wish you success. I had beef stew and baked potato for dinner.
Chef, I was surprised you mentioned rooster chicken instead of capon. I remembered Escoffier mentioned capon. I was trained by French Chef in late 1969 in Malaysia. Also mentioned capon. baby male chicken, not more than 700 gm. tx.
I see lovely crabs :-)!!! Ooooh Chef Stephane, you are speaking my language :-D!!
Ciao Chef, i was thinking maybe even using it as a super taste rich stock alternative for making intense tastings sea food risotto.
Or only finish the last half or third of the risotto with the sauce americaine, if you want it less intense.
Doing it with cous cous instead of rice, as they do in trapani could potentially be even better.
Drizzle finely chopped Parsley on the top as finish, e voilà! Just an idea 💡 :)
This is how I make seafood sauce. Definitely tomato based, without a recipe and I'm American. Also make a tomato crab sauce for spaghetti. (Italian). And of course Manhattan clam chowder.
"...without a recipe and I'm American"
I'm sure your sauce is delicious, but "American", in this context, is the name of that specific recipe. It's not about how American people do their sauce.
C’est excellent !👌🏽
You crack me up when you did a tasting of the 🦀! Great video!
9:44 I love how you laugh 😍
Do you have to light the cognac on fire, could you pour off heat and then bring it back onto heat to cook off alcohol? For small apartments with fire concerns. Thanks!
Thanks, glad I found you.
Perfection!
🙂👨🏻🍳
What a great video!
That looks so amazing I can actually smell it!
that looks delicious
Question: Is it possible to make this sauce without alcohol?
For the fish stock, the ingredient list says to use 1.5 liters of water but, in the video you say to use 3 cups of water. 3 cups is about 710ml. With 3 cups being about half of the 1.5 liters, there is a bit of difference there as to how much fish stock you will end up with. Could you please clarify? Thanks.
Bonjour Chef. Great vídeo! What do you think if I used shrimp qnd shrimp shells? Would it work?
Merci beaucoup. Au revoir
absolutely you can use large size shrimps cook them with cognac wine and stock and heen they are done renoveren the flesh from the shrimps keep it aside crush the shell, put them back in the sauce then finish to cook . you can serve them perhaps in a puff pastry casing same as with with the bouchée and cover them with sauce 🙂🙂😀👨🏻🍳 take care
French Cooking Academy Nice! Vol-au-vent are simply delicious! Great combination! Merci
hi steph when do you add the garlic? is it with the mirepoix? thx
Ok Im Waiting you to throw an e-book then i'll pay for it, OMG fantastic
Thanks
Just found your videos...pretty fantastic! Is there a difference between sauce Americaine and a nantua sauce?
yes there is i need to do that sauce you make think 🙂👨🏻🍳
I am from Malaysia 🇲🇾 Can I use salmon fish bone for the fish stock?
That sauce looks really good. I was thinking it would be a great soup base. Great video.
I love you already!!!!
Were the Blue Swimmer Crabs alive, partially cooked or chilled before you de shelled , cleaned out the gills and quartered them for the sauce?
Great video, especially enjoyed the part where he got excited, lol.
why not use a little roux instead of a burre manie wouldnt their be a possibility of tasting the flour?
If you cook the sauce for a longer while, the flourish flavour will vanish. Tough I also would make a roux as you probabely would - it saves time! ;-)
Stéphane is the new Julia Child.
Fantastique!
9 people don't like this video, they must be McDonald's lovers. Well done man I love how you explain.
Hi chef , I saw the chef put ice on it , do you know why?
Thanks for video! What is the difference between beurre manie and roux?
hi there. a beurre manie is cold ( never cooked) and can be made by hand. it is the old way of adding a thickening agent to sauces once they are made like people today use corn flour
so, after adding beurre manie dish requires more cooking time than after adding roux?