SAUCES AND SALAD DRESSINGS.
SAUCES.
Sauces are a necessary addition to cooked foods, especially in cold
weather. The proper utensils used for sauce making are wooden spoons
and flat, round bottomed saucepans.
Good fresh butter, oil and dry flour are necessary to make nutritious
sauces. Flour for thickening should boil at least ten minutes. If
the flour is to be cooked with fat before the liquid is added, only
a few minutes of boiling is necessary, for the reason that fat, when
boiled, reaches a higher temperature than water or milk. Mixed flour
is preferable to pure wheat flour. Sauces prepared from soup stock,
vegetables or fruits and gelatines are a better addition to meats than
brown gravies, which are prepared from the small amount of juice which
is extracted from the meat by roasting. Sauces prepared in the latter
way are too rich as a food if eaten in combination with meat; they are
a perfect meal by themselves if eaten in combination with whole wheat
bread and greens.
BUTTER SAUCE. No. 1.
Melt three tablespoonsful of butter, or half butter and half oil, mix
with two tablespoonsful of flour over the fire, and boil for a few
seconds. Then add gradually a pint of boiling water or soup stock or
hot whey, while stirring it. Boil a few minutes. Flavor with salt,
onion, chopped parsley, celery, nutmeg, bay leaves, anchovy-paste,
lemon, chopped salted meat or whatever flavor is desired. Serve with
meat or fish.
BUTTER SAUCE. No. 2.
Prepare like the foregoing. Use milk in place of water, or soup stock.
TOMATO SAUCE.
Prepare as number one, using strained tomato juice instead of water.
Serve with meat, fish, or grains.
CAPER SAUCE.
Prepare as number one, add capers and lemon before serving.
HORSE RADISH SAUCE.
Prepare as number one, adding dried currants and grated horse radish at
the last minute. This is excellent with boiled beef or fish.
MUSTARD SAUCE.
Prepare as number one, adding two to four teaspoonsful of prepared
mustard a minute before serving. Serve with hot or cold boiled beef, or
with hard boiled eggs.
MUSHROOM SAUCE.
Prepare as number one, add the desired amount of dried mushrooms, which
have been soaked in water for several hours, and boil for ten minutes.
Serve with poultry, game or rice.
CREAM SAUCE. No. 1.
Prepare as number one; remove from the fire, add a few tablespoonsful
of hot cream, or the yolk of one or several eggs, which have been
diluted and stirred with a little cold water. Flavor with mace, pepper,
nutmeg, parsley, lemon, or vanilla. Serve with macaroni, boiled fish,
plum pudding, French toast, chipped beef, salted meat or boiled onions.
CREAM SAUCE. No. 2.
Thicken some water or soup stock with flour. Cook ten minutes, and add
hot cream and flavoring.
ALMOND SAUCE.
Prepare with hot water as directed for butter sauce. Stir smooth a
tablespoonful of almond butter or paste with two tablespoonsful of cold
water, remove the sauce from the fire, add the almond butter and stir
thoroughly. Serve with baked apples, rice, or bread.
OLIVE SAUCE.
Prepare as butter sauce. Soak some olives in warm water, remove the
stones and add to the sauce, boiling all a few minutes. Serve with
duck, game, fish or meat.
DRIED CURRANT SAUCE.
Soak the currants in boiling water, and let stand thirty minutes.
Prepare a plain butter sauce from butter, flour, and hot water, and
when done mix the currants with it. It can be prepared with soup stock
or fish-water, and served with boiled white fish or boiled beef.
BACON SAUCE.
Cut some bacon into pieces about the size of lump sugar. Fry until
brown. Pour the fat into a stone jar and put the bacon on a plate. Mix
a tablespoonful of the bacon fat and one of butter with a tablespoonful
of flour, and add hot water, whey, or soup stock. Flavor with chopped
parsley or strained tomato juice and add the bacon.
FLAVORING OF MEATLESS SOUPS AND SAUCES.
Soups and sauces prepared with flour and water may be improved by an
addition of left-over meat gravies or with crisp bacon and flavored
with finely cut onions.
MINT SAUCE.
Wash half a handful of young fresh mint, pick the leaves from the
stalks, and chop them very fine. Make a plain butter sauce with soup
stock, and add vinegar and sugar to suit the taste. Then remove from
the fire, mix with the chopped mint, and serve with lamb or mutton.
LEMON SAUCE.
Wash a lemon, remove the peel and steep in three cups of water for
fifteen minutes. Add the juice of one or two lemons and the necessary
amount of sugar. Dissolve three teaspoonsful of cornstarch with a
little cold water and stir into the lemon juice. Boil ten minutes.
Remove from the fire and mix with a tablespoonful of butter while warm.
The lemon rind can be grated and added to the sauce instead of boiling
the rind. This is good for steamed puddings. The yolk of an egg may be
added.
CHERRY SAUCE.
Remove the stones and steep the cherries in water with a stick of
cinnamon. Add a little sugar and thicken with cornstarch or arrowroot.
Strain or leave the cherries in it.
DRIED CHERRY SAUCE.
Soak the cherries and prepare as the foregoing. Strain, if desired.
WHITE WINE SAUCE.
Mix a teaspoonful of flour with two tablespoonsful of sugar, a little
cinnamon, and ten ounces of wine. Then beat up four eggs, mix with the
wine and beat over a hot fire with an egg beater until it foams. (It
must not boil.) Then pour into a large dish and beat until nearly cold.
Serve with steamed puddings.
RED WINE SAUCE.
Prepare like white wine sauce. Add a little more sugar, and a
teaspoonful of brandy, if desired.
SALAD DRESSINGS FOR MEATS, CEREALS, FISH, VEGETABLES AND FRUITS.
They can be prepared from oil, butter, eggs, cream or nut butter.
Dressings prepared from nut butter are especially good during the
summer months. They can be prepared by making a plain butter sauce with
flour and water, and adding nut butter before serving, or by diluting
nut butter with water to the desired consistency. They may be flavored
with orange or lemon juice. If a sweet flavor is desired, boil a little
water with sugar, then add the juice of lemon or oranges and mix with
nut butter. Serve hot or cold.
FRENCH DRESSING.
Mix three tablespoonsful of olive oil with one of vinegar, or with the
juice of one lemon and one grated onion. To this may be added sugar,
pepper, salt, parsley or mustard, if desired. The proportion of oil
and vinegar may be changed according to the taste. For fruit salads,
lemon should always be used instead of vinegar. For raw vegetables, the
dressing should not be poured over the salad until ready to serve.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING. No. 1.
Put into a high narrow bowl the yolk of an egg and one whole egg,
a tablespoonful of flour, one of olive oil, one of vinegar, and a
little mustard; beat with an egg-beater about five minutes, or until it
becomes thick, adding slowly one cup of cottonseed or olive oil while
beating it. Flavor with lemon juice, onion and salt, to suit the taste.
Keep on ice.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING. No. 2.
Stir one or several yolks of eggs and mustard with a fork on a soup
plate for several minutes. Slowly add some olive oil, and if it becomes
too thick, add lemon juice, then salt, sugar and onion, if desired.
Keep on ice.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING. No. 3.
Make dressing number two. Add salt and sugar to suit the taste, and one
cup of thick cream. Keep on ice.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING. No. 4.
Take the yolks of three hard boiled eggs and one raw yolk. Stir as
smooth as butter, with one teaspoonful of mustard, one of sugar, one of
grated onion, a little salt and pepper, the juice of a lemon or some
good vinegar, then add slowly one-half or one cupful of olive oil. If
the dressing is too thick add some cold veal jelly until it has the
right consistency. Keep on ice.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING. No. 5.
Grate one medium sized cold boiled potato, stir one or two hard boiled
eggs through a strainer and mix with the potato. Add the yolk of one or
more eggs, stir well, then slowly add some olive oil, mix with lemon
juice or vinegar, and flavor.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING. No. 6.
Cream one-fourth of a pound of butter, add the yolk of one raw egg,
and the finely grated yolks of two hard boiled eggs. Mix well, and add
finely chopped parsley, onion, a little mace and some lemon juice.
Serve with cold meat or fish, or spread on bread.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING. No. 7.
Prepare butter and eggs as directed in number six, adding finely
chopped boiled ham, sardellen, anchovies or well soaked salt herring.
Eat with cold meat, or spread on bread.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING. No. 8. (BOILED.)
Mix two tablespoonsful of flour with five yolks of eggs, then add a
half cup of butter or a cup of cream, a little salt and pepper, (sugar
if desired), three to four tablespoonsful of vinegar and one to two
cups of soup stock. Pour into a double boiler and stir over a hot fire
until thick, then remove and stir until cool. Finely chopped parsley,
capers, pickles, or olives may be added. If lemon is desired, use half
the amount of vinegar while boiling, and add the lemon juice after it
has been removed from the fire.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING. No. 9. (BOILED.)
Boil a small veal bone in three or four pints of water, adding salt,
several onions, whole pepper and some spiced herbs. When, nearly done,
add three to six tablespoonsful of good vinegar, strain and add the
yolks of several eggs. Stir until cool, and place on ice. Serve with
cold fish or meat. If the sweet-sour taste is liked, a little sugar
may be added to the broth while boiling. Ripe olives are also a good
addition.
SYRUP DRESSING. No. 1.
Add the juice of one lemon, orange, or grapefruit, to one-half cup of
maple or table syrup. Mix well and serve with pancakes. This is more
nourishing and wholesome than pure sweets. Do not prepare more than
enough for one meal at a time.
SYRUP DRESSING. No. 2.
Let a half cup of syrup and a small tablespoonful of vinegar come to
a boil. Add one finely chopped onion. Remove from the fire and cool,
adding the desired amount of oil, and mixing well. This is good for
lettuce and watercress. Serve with pancakes, meats, fish, or baked
rolled oats, or with rye or wheat. If lemons or oranges are used in
place of vinegar, do not allow the latter to boil. Prepare fresh for
each meal. Do not use vinegar or onions with fancy fruits.