Maybe reduce the amount of the liquids to start with?

It doesn't give a time for how long to reduce the sauce - perhaps you just didn't do it for long enough?

Yes, longer, slower reduction time with the beurre manie. In the original recipe, the flour is introduced at the start when cooking the veal. Jumping straight to step 2 means you're skipping flour cooking time from step 1.

Agreed. Some of the issue may be the butter with its water content and no fat from the no veal. Given what you said happened, if you're going to try again, I'd reduce the beurre manie in a skillet to mimic the browning of the veal, and maybe add a little schmaltz--or use schmaltz instead of butter to get rid of the water content of butter. Or maybe even a viscous oil. Does veal have appreciable fat? I'm thinking chicken cutlets because I've never cooked veal.

If you're trying to resuce the sauce you can pour it in a wide pan on medium and stir the heck out of it until it reduces to the proper consistencyand the flour cooks. Add a dash more brandy if it gets too thick. If you have some toasted flour, you can adjust to thicker with it.

Agree with Feathers. By not flouring and sauteeing the meat in the butter you're missing out a vital step and losing the flavour from the Meillard reaction which should go into the sauce. The meat juices are integral to the sauce, the flour is thoroughly cooked and will thicken it.

Rereading the recipe I don't think I'd add the booze until the onions, shallots and apple had softened. By adding them all together you're basically just poaching the veg and I don't think it'll cook through. I'd remove the meat after sauteeing it, then saute the veg and fruit, then add the booze. Cook off the alcohol, add the cream and demi glacé and then return the meat to the pan. This is the sort of thing I often do. It follows basic lines and isn't really a recipe as such. I honestly think the problems are arising from wanting to sous vide the meat. The success of the sauce depends on flouring and sauteeing the meat. If you're determined to sous vide I'd find another recipe.

If butter isn't something you want a lot of, olive oil makes a good and healthier substitute.

A beurre manie is equal parts butter and flour kneaded together and added to a sauce bit by bit at the end in order to thicken it. I may have discovered the issue with my test run.

From eGullet:

[the writer] consulted James Peterson's great book Sauces and here's what he says about buerre manié:

Unlike roux, buerre manié should not be cooked any longer once the mixture thickens, or the sauce will develop a strong floury taste. One of the peculiarities of flour is that it develops a strong floury taste after two minutes of cooking that begins to disappear as the cooking progresses, usually after thirty minutes.

I cooked it more than 2 minutes but less than 30!

Back to the recipe. I am cooking the pork sous vide and serving the apple-onion sauce over it. Unlike the veal which is cooked in the sauce, the pork will be cooked separately using the sous vide method which will keep it juicy and help tenderize it a bit.

If it doesn’t turn out, I have plan B: equal parts cherry preserves and red wine warmed with a little rosemary thrown in.

One of our new cooking club members is unfamiliar with sous vide. I’ve chosen this recipe so she can see sous vide in action and taste the results.

TBH, for the reasons mentioned, doing it sans veal will not have the right flavor or consistency IMHO. I don't think it can be adapted unless you cooked "sacrificial veal." I once did that with beef stew where the beeef, even though $$$$, just never softened. I removed it after cooking for hours, then added new beef! It was awfully good LOL

@mtnrdredux_gw, I did a trial run Friday night and fed it to my sister and DBIL. Everything was good but for the floury taste. Now that I’ve discovered I probably cooked it too long, but not long enough, I’m going to give it another go. I have a back up plan.

Is it possible to thicken it with cornstarch?

Cornstarch would thicken it, I’m sure. I think sometimes cornstarch mutes some of the flavors.

I really don't think it needs any sort of thickening if the method is followed correctly. The flouring of the meat, the sauteeing and the deglazing should be all that's required to produce the sauce. Imo the fundamental problem is sous viding the meat which gets the whole dish off to a bad start. The flavour just won't be there if the meat isn't sauteed in the pan to obtain the Meillard reaction and to cook the flour. The meat juices are integral to the flavour. Trying to thicken it afterwards will not produce the same result. The sauce will be thick but lacking in flavour. If you want to demonstrate sous vide why not find a sous vide recipe rather than trying to alter a classic method?

I havent read thenother comments so apologies if thos has been suggested already. I would flour the apples and onions and shallots— toss all in seasoned flour and saute in butter in place of the veal chops. Then proceed with the rest of the rest of the recipe. You’ll have a browner sauce (better appearance) and the flour will be cooked as a roux with the veg.

Why not use a recipe for pork chops with calvados sauce or pork chops normandy?

I think the cooking the apples and onion etc without the fond from the meat might end up feeling like dessert strewn over the meat course. I think you want the sauce to have flavor from the meat itself. Maybe add some bouillion and follow KSWL's idea?

Yes Mtn I thought of that after I posted— i would add a bit of roasted chicken better than boullion to the saute.

I’m not going to give up on adapting this recipe to make a sauce. My sister and DBIL really liked it when I made it for them Friday night.

The floury taste was the issue. I think I may have found out what the issue was, see quote above from James Peterson’s book Sauces. I need to work on the timing of adding the beurre manie so it doesn’t cook more than 2 minutes or I need to plan to cook it for at least 30 minutes. The overall flavor was fine if you disregard the flour issue. Nevertheless, it isn’t ready for prime time.

I’m going to make the cherry red wine sauce for tomorrow and work on the apple onion sauce later.

Cherry Red Wine Sauce

6 oz Bonne Maman cherry preserves

2 oz red wine

sprig of rosemary

a couple of peppercorns

a pinch of salt

Bring to a simmer and let cook for a 3-5 minutes

I love Bonne Maman preserves but always add lemon zest or lemon powder (from King Arthur) to every jar as it is a little too sweet for us. Please share how the sauce tastes— with those ingredients it could not go wrong.

Ohh that sounds good! I like Dalmatia sour cherry preserves

For thickening sauces I have a sealed bag of rubbed in flour and butter ( as in when making a shortcrust pastry ) in the freezer. It is crumbly so it’s easy to take out a teaspoon or tablespoon whatever it is thought necessary for thickening a liquid. Sprinkle it on before boiling and stir like mad so no lumps happen. Simmer for a while.

@neely, depending on the ratio of flour to butter, you probably have beurre manie in your freezer. I’ve read that a lot of chefs keep a supply in the freezer.

Beurre manie is equal parts flour and butter that have been kneaded together. According to one expert, the floury taste comes if it is cooked more than 2 minutes but less than 30. I’ve used beurre manie a 1000 times before without a floury taste, but it has usually been to thicken a braise or a stew. And even though I didn’t know the ”rule,” I’ve probably cooked it for 30 minutes or more.

Jacques and Julia making and using a beurre manie. It is short, only 48 sec.

https://jp.foundation/video/beurre-manie

@Kswl, I’ve made the Cherry Red Wine sauce several times before. It is easy and always tastes good!

This is how I’ll be using up the apples: Skillet Apple Pie LINK

Sister and DBIL will be here for dinner Friday night (they are here almost every weekend during football season. YAY!) They are bringing dinner. I’ll make the dessert. DBIL loves fruit pies.

I would...

1. saute the apple slices in the butter and remove.

2. Add diced apples, onions, and shallot. Saute a couple minutes till onion starts to change color. Add 2 tablespoons flour. Stir to combine and saute for a minute or few to cook the flour.

3. lower heat a bit to deglaze. Deglaze with chablis, followed by demi-glace, followed by the calvados. Cook off alcohol. Be prepared to be quick, it will thicken up fast at first, and ease with the additional liquid.

4. Add in your heavy cream and stir, cooking on low till everything is all good.

You are starting out with three tablespoons of butter. Since you are not doing the meat in the butter, sautee the apple slices will leave you with a generous couple tablespoons butter. So two tablespoons flour into the saute. A bit over four tablespoons thickening. It's about 8 oz of liquid per two tablespoons, so the 18 oz in the recipe should work about right. If you saute the slices in butter and then also add burre manie, your proportions of fat to flour are off, leaving the flour with less thickening power.