LOBSTER SAUCE.--Boil a dozen blades of mace and half a dozen
pepper-corns in about a jill and a half (or three wine-glasses) of
water, till all the strength of the spice is extracted. Then strain it,
and having cut three quarters of a pound of butter into little bits,
melt it in this water, dredging in a little flour as you hold it over
the fire to boil. Toss it round, and let it just boil up and no more.
Take a cold boiled lobster,--pound the coral in a mortar, adding a
little sweet oil. Then stir it into the melted butter.
Chop the meat of the body into very small pieces, and rub it through a
cullender into the butter. Cut up the flesh of the claws and tail into
dice, and stir it in. Give it another boil up, and it will be ready for
table.
Serve it up with fresh salmon, or any boiled fish of the best kind.
Crab sauce is made in a similar manner; also prawn and shrimp sauce.
ANCHOVY SAUCE.--Soak eight anchovies for three or four hours, changing
the water every hour. Then put them into a sauce-pan with a quart
of cold water. Set them on hot coals and simmer them till they are
entirely dissolved, and till the liquid is diminished two-thirds. Then
strain it, stir two glasses of red wine, and add to it about half a
pint of melted butter.
Heat it over again, and send it to table with salmon or fresh cod.
CELERY SAUCE.--Take a large bunch of young celery. Wash and pare it
very clean. Cut it into pieces, and boil it gently in a small quantity
of water, till it is quite tender. Then add a little powdered mace and
nutmeg, and a very little pepper and salt. Take a tolerably large piece
of butter, roll it well in flour, and stir it into the sauce. Boil it
up again, and it is ready to send to table.
You may make it with cream, thus:--Prepare and boil your celery as
above, adding some mace, nutmeg, a piece of butter the size of a
walnut, rolled in flour; and half a pint of cream. Boil all together.
Celery sauce is eaten with boiled poultry.
When celery is out of season, you may use celery seed, boiled in the
water which you afterwards use for the melted butter, but strained out
after boiling.
NASTURTIAN SAUCE.--This is by many considered superior to caper sauce
and is eaten with boiled mutton. It is made with the green seeds of
nasturtians, pickled simply in cold vinegar.
Cut about six ounces of butter into small bits, and put them into a
small sauce-pan. Mix with a wine-glass of water, sufficient flour to
make a thick batter, pour it on the butter, and hold the sauce-pan over
hot coals, shaking it quickly round, till the butter is melted. Let
it just boil up, and then take it from the fire. Thicken it with the
pickled nasturtians and send it to table in a boat.
Never pour melted butter over any thing, but always send it to table in
a sauce-tureen or boat.
WHITE ONION SAUCE.--Peel a dozen onions, and throw them into salt and
water to keep them white. Then boil them tender. When done, squeeze the
water from them, and chop them. Have ready some butter that has been
melted rich and smooth with milk or cream instead of water. Put the
onions into the melted butter, and boil them up at once. If you wish to
have them very mild, put in a turnip with them at the first boiling.
Young white onions, if very small, need not be chopped, but may be put
whole into the butter.
Use this sauce for rabbits, tripe, boiled poultry, or any boiled fresh
meat.
BROWN ONION SAUCE.--Slice some large mild Spanish onions. Cover them
with butter, and set them over a slow fire to brown. Then add salt
and cayenne pepper to your taste, and some good brown gravy of roast
meat, poultry or game, thickened with a bit of butter rolled in flour
that has first been browned by holding it in a hot pan or shovel over
the fire. Give it a boil, skim it well, and just before you take it
off, stir in a half glass of port or claret, and the same quantity of
mushroom catchup.
Use this sauce for roasted poultry, game, or meat.
MUSHROOM SAUCE.--Wash a pint of small button mushrooms,--remove the
stems and the outside skin. Stew them slowly in veal gravy or in milk
or cream, seasoning them with pepper and salt, and adding a piece of
butter rolled in a large proportion of flour. Stew them till quite
tender, now and then shaking the pan round.
The flavour will be heightened by having salted a few the night before
in a covered dish, to extract the juice, and then stirring it into the
sauce while stewing.
This sauce may be served up with poultry, game, or beef-steaks.
In gathering mushrooms take only those that are of a dull pearl colour
on the outside, and that have the under part tinged with pale pink.
Boil an onion with them. If there is a poisonous one among them the
onion will turn black. Then throw away the whole.
EGG SAUCE.--Boil four eggs ten minutes. Dip them into cold water to
prevent their looking blue. Peel off the shell. Chop the yolks of all,
and the whites of two, and stir them into melted butter. Serve this
sauce with boiled poultry or fish.
BREAD SAUCE.--Put some grated crumbs of stale bread into a sauce-pan,
and pour over them some of the liquor in which poultry or fresh meat
has been boiled. Add some plums or dried currants that have been picked
and washed. Having simmered them till the bread is quite soft, and the
currants well plumped, add melted butter or cream.
This sauce is for a roast pig.
MINT SAUCE.--Take a large bunch of young green mint; if old the taste
will be unpleasant. Wash it very clean. Pick all the leaves from the
stalks. Chop the leaves very fine, and mix them with cold vinegar, and
a large proportion of powdered sugar. There must be merely sufficient
vinegar to moisten the mint well, but by no means enough to make the
sauce liquid. It should be very sweet.
It is only eaten in the spring with roast lamb. Send it to table in a
sauce-tureen.
CAPER SAUCE.--Take two large table-spoonfuls of capers and a little
vinegar. Stir them for some time into half a pint of thick melted
butter.
This sauce is for boiled mutton.
If you happen to have no capers, pickled cucumber chopped fine, or
the pickled pods of radish seeds, may be stirred into the butter as a
tolerable substitute, or nasturtians.
PARSLEY SAUCE.--Wash a bunch of parsley in cold water. Then boil it
about six or seven minutes in salt and water. Drain it, cut the leaves
from the stalks, and chop them fine. Have ready some melted butter, and
stir in the parsley. Allow two small table-spoonfuls of leaves to half
a pint of butter.
Serve it up with boiled fowls, rock-fish, sea-bass, and other boiled
fresh fish. Also with knuckle of veal, and with calf's head boiled
plain.
APPLE SAUCE.--Pare, core, and slice some fine apples. Put them into a
sauce-pan with just sufficient water to keep them from burning, and
some grated lemon-peel. Stew them till quite soft and tender. Then mash
them to a paste, and make them very sweet with brown sugar, adding a
small piece of butter and some nutmeg.
Apple sauce is eaten with roast pork, roast goose and roast ducks.
Be careful not to have it thin and watery.
CRANBERRY SAUCE.--Wash a quart of ripe cranberries, and put them into a
pan with about a wine-glass of water. Stew them slowly, and stir them
frequently, particularly after they begin to burst. They require a
great deal of stewing, and should be like a marmalade when done.
After you take them from the fire, stir in a pound of brown sugar.
When they are thoroughly done, put them into a deep dish, and set them
away to get cold.
You may strain the pulp through a cullender or sieve into a mould, and
when it is in a firm shape send it to table on a glass dish. Taste it
when it is cold, and if not sweet enough, add more sugar. Cranberries
require more sugar than any other fruit, except plums.
Cranberry sauce is eaten with roast turkey, roast fowls, and roast
ducks.
PEACH SAUCE.--Take a quart of dried peaches, (those are richest and
best that are dried with the skins on,) and soak them in cold water
till they are tender. Then drain them, and put them into a covered pan
with a very little water. Set them on coals, and simmer them till they
are entirely dissolved. Then mash them with brown sugar, and send them
to table cold to eat with roast meat, game or poultry.
WINE SAUCE.--Have ready some rich thick melted or drawn butter, and
the moment you take it from the fire, stir in two large glasses of
white wine, two table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar, and a powdered
nutmeg. Serve it up with plum pudding, or any sort of boiled pudding
that is made of a batter.
COLD SWEET SAUCE.--Stir together, as for a pound-cake, equal quantities
of fresh butter and powdered white sugar. When quite light and creamy,
add some powdered cinnamon or nutmeg, and the juice of a lemon. Send it
to table in a small deep plate with a tea-spoon in it.
Eat it with batter pudding, bread pudding, Indian pudding, &c. whether
baked or boiled. Also with boiled apple pudding or dumplings, and with
fritters and pancakes.
CREAM SAUCE.--Boil a pint and a half of rich cream with four
table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar, some powdered nutmeg, and a dozen
bitter almonds or peach kernels slightly broken up, or a dozen fresh
peach leaves. As soon as it has boiled up, take it off the fire and
strain it. If it is to be eaten with boiled pudding or with dumplings
send it to table hot, but let it get quite cold if you intend it as an
accompaniment to fruit pies or tarts.
OYSTER SAUCE.--Take a pint of oysters, and save out a little of their
liquor. Put them with their remaining liquor, and some mace and nutmeg,
into a covered saucepan, and simmer them on hot coals about ten
minutes. Then drain them. Oysters for sauce should be large.
Having prepared in another saucepan some drawn or melted butter, (mixed
with oyster liquor instead of water,) pour it into a sauce-boat, add
the oysters to it, and serve it up with boiled poultry, or with boiled
fresh fish.
Celery, first boiled and then chopped, is an improvement to oyster
sauce.