“The fundamental principle of all,
Is what ingenious cooks, the _relish_ call;
For when the markets send in loads of food,
They all are tasteless till that makes them good.”
_Dr. King’s Art of Cookery._
Sauces are intended to heighten the taste and give a savoury flavour to
a dish, flesh, fish, fowl, or vegetables.
In England there is little variety in those kind of relishes, and it was
observed by a foreigner, with a good deal of wit, and a great deal of
truth, “that the English had a great variety of forms of religion and no
variety in their sauces; whereas, in France they had uniformity in the
former, and an infinite variety in the latter.”
Melted butter is the grand and chief basis of most English sauces.
Melted butter and oysters, melted butter and parsley, melted butter and
anchovies, melted butter and eggs, melted butter and shrimps, melted
butter and lobsters, melted butter and capers, are nearly all the sauces
used in England. Besides these, the following flavouring substances are
in common use: _viz._ mushrooms, onions, spices, sweet herbs, wine, soy,
and the usual condiments, but melted butter, gravy, or some farinaceous
mucilage, form the basis of all sauces. These substances combined in
different proportions are quite sufficient to make an endless variety of
picquant sauces, as pleasant to the palate and stomach, as the most
compound foreign sauces in which every thing has the same taste, and
none its own taste. The aim of the English cooks, as far as it regards
sauces, appears to be to let every sauce display a decided character,
so as to taste only of the material from which it derives its name.
_Compound sauces_ are seldom employed, but in the _learned_ foreign
dishes.
What has been observed, relative to time used in the article, of _made
dishes_, namely, that it was in this country too valuable to be bestowed
on eating, or on preparing to eat, applies also in the case of making
sauces.
Nothing can be made more easily than the English sauces, but the variety
of French sauces are great, and much skill and time are necessary for
preparing most of them.