=A Good White Sauce for serving over Vegetables.=--Take one ounce of
butter, two ounces of flour, a little pepper and salt, half a pint of
milk, or milk mixed with water (not so good).
Melt the butter in a small saucepan, stir in the flour and the
seasoning, then the liquid, stirring carefully all the time, allow
it to boil for three minutes to thoroughly cook the flour; it should
bubble with a thick sound, and break away from the side of the pan.
When properly cooked this sauce will be as thick as rich cream, and
will cling to the spoon. Time, ten minutes.
A little lemon juice may be added, if it is wanted to be slightly acid,
or finely chopped parsley may be added, for serving with broad beans.
=Sauce Béchamel Maigre.=--Put in a small saucepan one pint of water and
three eschalots, a carrot cut in slices, a little grated nutmeg, four
whole peppercorns, bruised, a bunch of herbs, and a few mushrooms. Let
them simmer for an hour or more. Put through a sieve.
Mix two tablespoonfuls of flour to a smooth paste with two
tablespoonfuls of cream and one of butter, add a pint of boiling milk,
put into a casserole, and stir carefully, adding the stock, previously
prepared, and stirring all the time.
It may be kept hot in a bain-marie.
_Note._--If there be no bain-marie, put the preparation in a jam-pot
inside a saucepan full of boiling water.
=Caper Sauce.=--Take a tablespoonful of butter, two tablespoonfuls of
flour, one cup and a half of hot water, half a teaspoonful of salt, a
dash of pepper, and half a cupful of capers. Melt the butter, stir in
the flour, and pour on the hot water gradually and season. Boil five
minutes, and add the capers last of all.
=Celery Sauce.=--Wash the white part only of a head of celery, cut it
up into rather large pieces; put it into a stewpan with just sufficient
water to cover it, and simmer for thirty minutes, stir it occasionally,
rub through a sieve; add three-quarters of a pint of melted butter,
with pepper and salt; stir until it boils, and serve. Time, about an
hour.
=Cold Horse-radish Sauce.=--Grate (but not scrape) the horse-radish;
place it in a pickle bottle, with salt, pepper, and vinegar, and some
thick cream, and a teaspoonful of sugar.
=Cranberry Cream.=--One pint of cream, one pound of sugar, one pint of
water. Pick one pound of cranberries carefully, put them into a stewpan
with the water and sugar, and cook slowly for about one hour until
reduced nearly to a pulp. Stir from time to time during the process,
and when sufficiently cooked turn into a dish to cool. Whip up the
cream and mix with it, or heap on the top.
=Green Sauce for Summer.=--Chop up a few fine leaves of purslane,
parsley, chive tops, a good deal of tarragon and borage. Prepare a
white sauce which has been passed through a fine sieve; put the herbs
in, and mix just before serving. It ought to look quite green when
served.
(Both are recipes from Mrs. C. W. EARLE and Mrs. H. BRYAN, _Diet
Difficulties_.)
=Hammerfield Sauce= (_Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower’s Recipe_).--Melt
one dessertspoonful of red currant jelly in a basin, and add a
tablespoonful of grated horse-radish, a little dry mustard, and the
juice and the grated rind of one orange. Mix together thoroughly. If
too hot, put less mustard.
=Hollandaise Sauce (Dutch Sauce).=--Beat half a cupful of butter to a
cream, and add gradually the well-beaten yolks of two eggs, the juice
of half a lemon, and pepper and salt to season; cook over boiling water
until it begins to thicken, beating with an egg-beater. Add a cupful
of hot water very carefully. Serve as soon as it is of the proper
consistency.
=Hot Horse-radish Sauce.=--Peel a stick of horse-radish, grate (not
scrape it), make a thickening of equal parts of butter and flour, one
ounce. Moisten with stock sufficient to make a smooth sauce, not too
thick. Directly it boils add two tablespoonfuls of grated horse-radish;
let it cook for three minutes.
=Mayonnaise Sauce.=--Put the yolk of one egg (quite free from any
white), half a teaspoonful of salt, and a pinch of cayenne, into a bowl
standing in ice. Stir constantly, and add one cupful of pure olive
oil, drop by drop. The goodness of the sauce depends upon adding the
oil slowly, and beating well with a wooden spoon. When it begins to
get thick, alternate a few drops of vinegar with the oil till you have
put in three and a half tablespoonfuls of vinegar (lemon juice may be
used instead). In the summer it is a good plan to mix the yolk of a
hard-boiled egg with the raw one; the sauce is made more quickly and is
less likely to curdle. A little tarragon vinegar may be used, but many
people dislike it. The sauce when made should be as thick as rich cream.
=Omnibus Sauce.=--Take a pint of good vegetable stock, add a small
glass of white wine, a bay leaf, salt and pepper, the rind of a lemon
cut very fine, and a very little of the juice; let it simmer together
for six minutes. This sauce is good for almost any kind of dish.
=Paprika Sauce.=--Peel four onions and cut them up; put two ounces of
butter into a saucepan, add the onions, and stew them until a bright
golden colour. Rub them through a fine sieve, with half a pint of sour
cream, a little salt, and half a teaspoonful of paprika (to be bought
at any good London grocer’s). Heat again. This sauce is good with any
dish.
=Piquant Sauce.=--Take one pound of ripe tomatoes, pass them through
a sieve, rub with a wooden spoon; add two ounces of butter, a
small shallot, the juice of two lemons, one teaspoonful of sugar,
one dessertspoonful of Worcester sauce, salt, and cayenne. Add a
tablespoonful of flour mixed to a smooth paste with a little water;
stir well over a gentle fire, and boil for ten minutes. Remove the
shallot before serving.
=Poor Man’s Sauce.=--This sauce is made with five or six shallots, a
little chopped parsley, some good vegetable stock, a small spoonful of
vinegar, salt and pepper; boil the whole till the shallots are cooked.
=Quick Béarnaise Sauce.=--Beat the yolks of four eggs with four
tablespoonfuls of oil, and four of water; add a cupful of boiling
water, and cook slowly until thick and smooth. Take from the fire, and
add minced onions, capers, olives, pickles, and parsley, and a little
tarragon vinegar.
=Thickening for Sauces.=--When the thickening is made each time it is
wanted a small piece of butter is melted in a stewpan, not boiled; then
add the same quantity of flour, stir over a slow fire until it is a
golden colour (if it is intended for a white sauce, it is stirred for
an instant, but is not allowed to take colour); if the yolks of eggs
are used in white sauces they must never be thrown suddenly into hot
sauce or gravy, but a little of the latter must be added by degrees
to the basin containing the beaten yolks, whisking all the time; then
throw all back into the saucepan to get hot, still stirring, but the
sauce must not boil after the eggs have been added.
=Tomato Sauce.=--(1) Take one and a half tablespoonfuls each of chopped
celery, onion, and carrots. Cook in a quarter of a cup of butter till
well browned, add a quarter of a cup of flour, and stir till well
blended; then pour on gradually, while stirring, one and a half cups of
water, season with salt and pepper; two or three cups of cut, stewed,
and strained tomatoes, in which one quarter of a teaspoonful of soda
has been dissolved, add a sprig each of parsley and thyme; cook for
twenty minutes. Rub through a sieve.
=Tomato Sauce.=--(2) Brown a tablespoonful of flour in butter, add
a cupful of stewed tomatoes, and salt, pepper, grated onion, a very
little powdered cloves, and mace to season; cook until smooth and
thick, stirring constantly; rub through a sieve, and serve.
=Tomato Sauce à L’Espagnolles.=--Take three chopped shallots, put them
into a stewpan with a tablespoonful of finest oil, salt and pepper,
ground ginger, ground nutmeg (very little of the two latter). Let the
shallots take a good colour, without burning, add five or six tomatoes
skinned, and all the pips squeezed out. Let them cook very gently until
all moisture has disappeared; they should take the consistency of jam.
Naturally they will lose their bright colour, but the taste will be
none the less excellent; they should not be strained, but sent to table
in a sauce-boat. This sauce is equally good hot or cold.
_Note._--To skin tomatoes easily, place them for a few moments in the
oven or on the stove, or plunge them into boiling water.
=Walnut Gravy.=--Melt one ounce of butter in a pan, and add three
tablespoonfuls of ground walnuts, one onion sliced, and fry a dark
brown; stir in slowly one tablespoonful of flour, then add one cup of
hot water, a little gravy essence, pepper, and salt, and let it boil
up; take off, strain, and serve.