In classical French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 cuisine, a brown sauce generally refers to a sauce with a meat stock base, thickened by reduction

Reduction (cooking)

In cooking, reduction is the process of thickening and intensifying the flavor of a liquid mixture such as a soup, sauce, wine, or juice by boiling....

 and sometimes the addition of a browned roux

Roux

Roux is a cooked mixture of wheat flour and fat, traditionally butter. It is the thickening agent of three of the mother sauces of classical French cooking: sauce béchamel, sauce velouté and sauce espagnole. Clarified butter, vegetable oils, or lard are commonly used fats. It is used as a...

, similar in some ways to but more involved than a gravy

Gravy

Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces and gravy is often thicker than in Britain...

. The classic mother sauce example is espagnole sauce

Espagnole sauce

In cooking, espagnole sauce is one of the mother sauces that are the basis of sauce-making in classic French cooking. In the late 19th century, Auguste Escoffier codified the recipe, which is still followed today....

 as well as its derivative demi-glace

Demi-glace

Demi-glace is a rich brown sauce in French cuisine used by itself or as a base for other sauces. The term comes from the French word glace, which used in reference to a sauce means icing or glaze...

, though other varieties exist.

Scandinavia

In Danish cuisine

Cuisine of Denmark

Danish cuisine is shaped by the practice of fishing and farming, including the cultivation of the soil for raising crops and the raising of domesticated animals, and the history of Denmark. Danish cuisine is known for its open sandwiches , meat balls and sweet pastry...

 brown sauce (brun sovs) is a very common sauce, and refers to a sauce with a meat stock base (in modern times, often replaced by broth

Broth

Broth is a liquid food preparation, typically consisting of either water or an already flavored stock, in which bones, meat, fish, cereal grains, or vegetables have been simmered. Broth is used as a basis for other edible liquids such as soup, gravy, or sauce. It can be eaten alone or with garnish...

 made from bouillon cube

Bouillon cube

A bouillon cube [ˈbuːjɒn kjuːb] or stock cube is dehydrated bouillon or stock formed into a small cube about 15 mm wide. It is made by dehydrating vegetables, meat stock, a small portion of fat, salt and seasonings and shaping them into a small cube...

s), thickened by a thickening starch agent

Thickening agent

Thickening agents, or thickeners, is the term applied to substances which increase the viscosity of a solution or liquid/solid mixture without substantially modifying its other properties; although most frequently applied to foods where the target property is taste, the term also is applicable to...

, such as flour or cornstarch, and colored a rich, deep brown with a product known as brun kulør (literally, "brown colouring") or madkulør (literally, "food colouring"). It is similar to what is known in the U.S.A. as a brown gravy. Variations include mushroom sauce, onion sauce, and herbed brown sauce.

The Norwegian variety (brun saus) is made in the same way as the Danish brown sauce, usually from wheat flour and colored in the same way (sukkerkulør, literally "sugar coloring"). The sauce may acquire different tastes depending on the meat served, as it's common to cook the meat for a while in the sauce before serving.

In Sweden ("brunsås"), meatballs are very typically served with brown, thick sauce.