Store fish sauces if properly made will keep for many months. They
may be brought to table in fish castors, but a customary mode is to
send them round in the small black bottles in which they have been
originally deposited. They are in great variety, and may be purchased
of the grocers that sell oil, pickles, anchovies, &c. In making them at
home, the few following receipts may be found useful.
The usual way of eating these sauces is to pour a little on your plate,
and mix it with the melted butter. They give flavour to fish that would
otherwise be insipid, and are in general use at genteel tables.
Two table-spoonfuls of any of these sauces may be added to the melted
butter a minute before you take it from the fire. But if brought to
table in bottles, the company can use it or omit it as they please.
SCOTCH SAUCE.--Take fifteen anchovies, chop them fine, and steep them
in vinegar for a week, keeping the vessel closely covered. Then put
them into a pint of claret or port wine. Scrape fine a large stick of
horseradish, and chop two onions, a handful of parsley, a tea-spoonful
of the leaves of lemon-thyme, and two large peach leaves. Add a nutmeg,
six or eight blades of mace, nine cloves, and a tea-spoonful of black
pepper, all slightly pounded in a mortar. Put all these ingredients
into a silver or block tin sauce-pan, or into an earthen pipkin,
and add a few grains of cochineal to colour it. Pour in a large half
pint of the best vinegar, and simmer it slowly till the bones of the
anchovies are entirely dissolved.
Strain the liquor through a sieve, and when quite cold put it away
for use in small bottles; the corks dipped in melted rosin, and well
secured by pieces of leather tied closely over them. Fill each bottle
quite full, as it will keep the better for leaving no vacancy.
This sauce will give a fine flavour to melted butter.
QUIN'S SAUCE.--Pound in a mortar six large anchovies, moistening them
with their own pickle. Then chop and pound six small onions. Mix them
with a little black pepper and a little cayenne, half a glass of soy,
four glasses of mushroom catchup, two glasses of claret, and two of
black walnut pickle. Put the mixture into a small sauce-pan or earthen
pipkin, and let it simmer slowly till all the bones of the anchovies
are dissolved. Strain it, and when cold, bottle it for use; dipping the
cork in melted rosin, and tying leather over it. Fill the bottles quite
full.
KITCHINER'S FISH SAUCE.--Mix together a pint of claret, a pint of
mushroom catchup, and half a pint of walnut pickle, four ounces of
pounded anchovy, an ounce of fresh lemon-peel pared thin, and the
same quantity of shalot or small onion. Also an ounce of scraped
horseradish, half an ounce of black pepper, and half an ounce of
allspice mixed, and the same quantity of cayenne and celery-seed.
Infuse these ingredients in a wide-mouthed bottle (closely stopped) for
a fortnight, shaking the mixture every day. Then strain and bottle it
for use. Put it up in small bottles, filling them quite full.
HARVEY'S SAUCE.--Dissolve six anchovies in a pint of strong vinegar
and then add to them three table-spoonfuls of India soy, and three
table-spoonfuls of mushroom catchup, two heads of garlic bruised small,
and a quarter of an ounce of cayenne. Add sufficient cochineal powder
to colour the mixture red. Let all these ingredients infuse in the
vinegar for a fortnight, shaking it every day, and then strain and
bottle it for use. Let the bottles be small, and cover the corks with
leather.
GENERAL SAUCE.--Chop six shalots or small onions, a clove of garlic,
two peach leaves, a few sprigs of lemon-thyme and of sweet basil, and
a few bits of fresh orange-peel. Bruise in a mortar a quarter of an
ounce of cloves, a quarter of an ounce of mace, and half an ounce of
long pepper. Mix two ounces of salt, a jill of claret, the juice of
two lemons, and a pint of Madeira. Put the whole of these ingredients
together in a stone jar, very closely covered. Let it stand all night
over embers by the side of the fire. In the morning pour off the liquid
quickly and carefully from the lees or settlings, strain it and put it
into small bottles, dipping the corks in melted rosin.
This sauce is intended to flavour melted butter or gravy, for every
sort of fish and meat.
PINK SAUCE.--Mix together half a pint of port wine, half a pint of
strong vinegar, the juice and grated peel of two large lemons, a
quarter of an ounce of cayenne, a dozen blades of mace, and a quarter
of an ounce of powdered cochineal. Let it infuse a fortnight, stirring
it several times a day. Then boil it ten minutes, strain it, and bottle
it for use.
Eat it with any sort of fish or game. It will give a fine pink tinge to
melted butter.