The Restaurant-Kitchen Secret: More Than Gourmet Demi-Glace & Glace

There are ingredients cooks proudly leave sitting on the counter.

And then there are the things they quietly keep tucked in the refrigerator because they know exactly how much work they save.

More Than Gourmet demi-glace and glace belong in the second category.

If you've ever wondered why a restaurant pan sauce tastes deeper, silkier, and somehow more finished than the one you make at home, this is one of the tricks worth knowing. Not because every chef uses More Than Gourmet, of course, but because concentrated stocks and demi-glaces are part of the flavor-building toolkit professional kitchens understand very well.

Making the real thing from scratch? Wonderful. Admirable. Very culinary-school.

Also, by the way, a Project (with a capital "P").

That's why More Than Gourmet has become one of those slightly under-the-radar ChefShop favorites. These concentrated stocks and demi-glaces give you much of the depth, body, and savory intensity that normally requires bones, vegetables, roasting, simmering, skimming, straining, reducing—and a fairly serious relationship with your stockpot.

“Magic in a plastic container.” — Toni

Exactly.

What Is Demi-Glace?

Demi-glace is a deeply flavored, highly reduced brown sauce used to add richness, body, and savory depth to sauces, braises, gravies, and other dishes.

In classical French cooking, demi-glace was traditionally made by combining brown stock with Espagnole, a brown sauce built from stock, vegetables, tomato, and roux, and then reducing the mixture until it became concentrated, glossy, and rich.

The important word here is reducing.

A great deal of liquid goes into the pot. A considerably smaller amount comes out. Along the way, water evaporates while flavor, gelatin, body, and savory complexity become more concentrated.

That concentrated quality is why demi-glace is so useful. You're not necessarily serving a bowl of it. A relatively small amount can become the foundation of a sauce or add depth to something you're already cooking.

Think pan sauces. Red wine reductions. Mushroom sauces. Braises. Gravies. Stews. Soups.

Or Tuesday night's dinner that tastes as though you had much grander plans for it.

Then What's a Glace?

A glace is stock that has been dramatically reduced to concentrate its flavor. The French word glace means glaze, which gives you some sense of the texture and intensity we're talking about.

More Than Gourmet's Glace de Poulet Gold, for example, is roasted chicken stock reduced to approximately 1/20th of its original volume.

That is not a typo.

The result isn't an ordinary carton of chicken broth in a smaller container. It's a concentrated flavor ingredient. You can dilute it with water to make stock, but you can also add it directly to sauces, soups, lentils, rice, braises, or pan drippings when what you're cooking tastes good but doesn't yet taste done.

“It enhances the flavor of everything that I put in, and it's my staple in the pantry and in my kitchen.” — Vanessa

That gets at the appeal better than we probably could.

The One We Keep Talking About: Classic Veal Demi-Glace Gold

More Than Gourmet Classic Veal Demi-Glace Gold is the one that tends to turn people into demi-glace converts.

It's also one of those maddeningly hard-to-find ingredients that people start actively seeking out once they know what it can do.

The current formula is made with veal and chicken stocks, vegetables, red wine, tomato, mushroom, and gelatin, then reduced for more than 30 hours. The result has the savory depth and glossy body you want from a demi-glace without requiring you to spend the weekend making one.

A spoonful can give a pan sauce more authority. Build a red wine or mushroom sauce around it. Add some to a braise, gravy, soup, or homemade stock. Use it with beef, lamb, pork, chicken, mushrooms, or roasted vegetables.

“This is the good stuff.” This is the best demi-glaze we have found anywhere. It makes a huge difference in cooking. — Peter

We should also flag an important change for longtime More Than Gourmet customers: the current Classic Veal Demi-Glace Gold formula is gluten-free and made with 10% chicken stock. The previous formula is no longer made. If you remember the older version, this is the current recipe.

And yes, we know recipe changes make loyal customers nervous. We understand. Food people remember these things.

Glace de Poulet: Your Chicken Stock Just Got Ambitious

If demi-glace sounds a little formal for the way you cook, start here.

More Than Gourmet Glace de Poulet Gold is concentrated roasted chicken stock, and it may be the most immediately useful of the bunch.

Make stock with it. Add a spoonful to homemade stock. Stir it into chicken soup, beans, lentils, risotto, rice, braises, or stew.

Or use it for one of our favorite applications: deglazing a pan.

Cook your chicken, pork, mushrooms, or vegetables until you've developed all those browned bits on the bottom. Remove the food, add a little liquid and Glace de Poulet, scrape everything up, and suddenly the stuff stuck to your skillet has become the beginning of dinner's best sauce.

It's concentrated enough that you control the intensity yourself.

“Game changer for chicken stock! I'll never go back!” — Robin

We're not arguing.

The Holiday Ace: Glace de Volaille

Then there's turkey.

More Than Gourmet Glace de Volaille Gold is our seasonal roasted turkey stock concentrate, available during fall and winter—and there is a reason people come looking for it around Thanksgiving.

Turkey stock is enormously useful during holiday cooking and annoyingly difficult to have before you've cooked the turkey.

See the problem?

Glace de Volaille solves that particular bit of culinary circular logic.

Use it to make or reinforce gravy, moisten stuffing or dressing, boost pan drippings, make soup, or get a head start on a sauce while the actual bird is still occupying the oven.

It's also useful beyond Thanksgiving. Turkey has a richer, more assertive character than chicken and works beautifully with fall and winter ingredients like squash, pumpkin, beans, mushrooms, and hearty grains.

Because we carry it seasonally, this is one we don't recommend discovering you need at 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.

Consider that our public service announcement.

What About Professional Kitchens?

If you're reading this from a restaurant kitchen and thinking, “Sixteen ounces is adorable,” we hear you.

We also carry More Than Gourmet in 10-pound foodservice buckets.

The More Than Gourmet Gluten-Free Demi-Glace Foodservice Bucket is made with veal and beef stocks and is intended for the kind of kitchen where demi-glace isn't an occasional dinner project—it's mise en place.

For restaurants, caterers, hotels, clubs, and other foodservice operations, the attraction is straightforward: deep flavor, repeatable results, and considerably less labor than building every batch from scratch.

Use it for pan sauces, wine reductions, jus, gravies, braises, stews, stocks, and batch sauce production.

In other words, all the places where consistency matters and prep hours are not an infinite resource.

And Yes, Vegetable Demi-Glace Is a Thing

This may be the sleeper of the entire collection.

More Than Gourmet Vegetable Demi-Glace Foodservice Bucket gives professional kitchens a way to build the same kind of depth into vegetable-forward cooking.

Made with red wine, carrot, onion, celery, tomato, mushroom, lemon, garlic, and spices, it can become the foundation for vegetable sauces, mushroom reductions, soups, grains, beans, braises, gravies, and composed vegetable dishes.

We particularly like the idea behind it: vegetarian cooking shouldn't have to settle for thin sauce.

A deeply savory vegetable entrée deserves the same attention to sauce, texture, and reduction as anything else coming out of the kitchen.

Which More Than Gourmet Product Should You Choose?

How Do You Actually Use Demi-Glace or Glace?

This is where people sometimes overthink things.

You do not need to pull out a French cookbook every time you open the container.

Add a Spoonful to Something That Needs More Depth

Soup tastes flat? Sauce needs something? Lentils are perfectly fine but not exciting?

Try a little concentrated stock or demi-glace before reaching automatically for more salt.

Make a Quick Pan Sauce

Sear meat, poultry, mushrooms, or vegetables. Remove them from the pan. Deglaze with wine, water, or another liquid, then add a little demi-glace or glace.

Reduce. Finish with butter if you like.

Congratulations. You made sauce.

Fortify Homemade Stock

Even good homemade stock sometimes needs help.

A little glace can deepen its flavor and color without requiring another six hours of simmering.

Build a Braising Liquid

Demi-glace and glace are excellent starting points for short ribs, pot roast, lamb shanks, chicken, mushrooms, and other slow-cooked dishes.

Use It Where You'd Normally Reach for Broth

Diluted glace makes stock on demand, which means you don't need an open carton of broth slowly migrating toward the back of the refrigerator.

That alone may be worth something.

Demi-Glace vs. Glace: What's the Difference?

The simplest way to think about it is this:

Choose demi-glace when you want body as well as flavor. It's especially good for sauces, reductions, braises, and dishes where that glossy, substantial texture matters.

Choose glace when you primarily want concentrated stock flavor. Chicken and turkey glaces are exceptionally versatile because you can dilute them into stock or use them full-strength as flavor boosters.

For many home cooks, having both veal demi-glace and chicken glace in the refrigerator covers a remarkable amount of culinary territory.

For professional kitchens, that's when the 10-pound buckets start making considerably more sense.

Is More Than Gourmet Worth It?

We sell a lot of these products, and the pattern in the customer comments is remarkably consistent: depth of flavor, convenience, and the fact that a little goes a long way.

“I love this product. Intense flavor without the salty taste. A little bit goes a long way.” — Anonymous

That's an important distinction.

The point of a concentrated stock isn't simply to make food saltier. You want the developed flavors that normally come from roasting, simmering, reducing, and concentrating.

Which is why we think of More Than Gourmet less as a shortcut around cooking and more as a shortcut around prep.

You still decide what the dish becomes. You just don't have to start 30 hours earlier.

Frequently Asked Questions About Demi-Glace and Glace

What is demi-glace?

Demi-glace is a concentrated brown sauce used to add rich flavor, body, and a glossy texture to sauces, gravies, braises, soups, and other dishes. Traditional French demi-glace requires lengthy stock making and reduction, which is why prepared concentrated demi-glace can be such a useful kitchen shortcut.

What is the difference between demi-glace and glace?

Demi-glace is a concentrated sauce with both flavor and body. A glace is highly reduced stock designed primarily to provide concentrated stock flavor. Both can be used to build sauces or add savory depth, but glace is particularly easy to dilute back into stock.

How do you use More Than Gourmet demi-glace?

Use a small amount directly in pan sauces, gravies, braises, stews, soups, and reductions, or dilute it as needed. Because it is concentrated, it's best to start with a little and add more until the dish has the depth you're looking for.

How do you use More Than Gourmet glace?

Glace can be diluted with water to make stock or added directly to sauces, soups, grains, beans, braises, pan drippings, and other dishes as a concentrated flavor booster.

Can you use demi-glace instead of stock?

Yes, but demi-glace is much more concentrated than ordinary stock. Dilute it to the strength you need rather than substituting it cup-for-cup straight from the container.

Is More Than Gourmet Classic Veal Demi-Glace Gold gluten-free?

Yes. The current More Than Gourmet Classic Veal Demi-Glace Gold formula is gluten-free and is made with 10% chicken stock. This is an updated formula; the previous recipe is no longer produced.

How should More Than Gourmet demi-glace and glace be stored?

More Than Gourmet demi-glace and glace are shelf stable until opened. After opening, keep the product refrigerated.

Why use concentrated stock instead of boxed broth?

Concentrated stock gives you much more control over both flavor and strength. You can dilute it to make stock or use a small amount directly when you want additional savory depth without adding a large volume of liquid.

Is More Than Gourmet just for professional chefs?

No. The 16-ounce tubs are especially convenient for home cooks, while the 10-pound buckets are designed for restaurants and other foodservice kitchens. The same basic idea applies to both: concentrated flavor ready when you need it.

Is the turkey Glace de Volaille available year-round?

No. ChefShop carries More Than Gourmet Glace de Volaille as a seasonal fall and winter item. It's particularly popular for Thanksgiving and holiday cooking, so availability can become limited as the season progresses.

The Secret's Out

There are some products we carry because they're beautiful.

Some because they're delicious.

Some because they're made by extraordinary people in extraordinary places.

And then there are the things that quietly become permanent residents in people's kitchens because once you figure out what they do, you don't particularly want to cook without them.

More Than Gourmet falls into that last category.

It's professional-kitchen thinking packed into a tub: do the long, slow flavor-building work ahead of time, concentrate it, and keep it ready for the moment dinner needs help.

So yes, you could roast bones, make stock, prepare a sauce base, skim, strain, reduce, and reduce some more.

And someday, you absolutely should.

Tonight?

There's a tub in the refrigerator.