Make a drawn-butter or white sauce; add a few drops of lemon or a
table-spoonful of capers, or, if neither be at hand, a few drops of
vinegar; add oysters strained from their liquor, and let them just come
to a boil in the sauce.
This sauce is much better made with part cream, _i. e._, used when
making the drawn-butter sauce, instead of all water. In this case, do
not add the lemon-juice or vinegar. Some make the white sauce of the
oyster liquor, instead of water.
This sauce may be served in a sauce-boat, but it is nicer to pour it
over the fish, boiled turkey, or chicken.
PARSLEY SAUCE (_for Boiled Fish or Fowls_).
To half a pint of hot drawn-butter sauce add two table-spoonfuls of
chopped parsley. The appearance of the sauce is improved by coloring it
with a little spinach-green (see page 87).
CAULIFLOWER SAUCE (_for Boiled Poultry_).
Add boiled cauliflowers, cut into little flowerets, to a drawn-butter
sauce made with part cream.
LEMON SAUCE (_for Boiled Fowls_).
To half a pint of drawn-butter sauce add the inside of a lemon, chopped
(seeds taken out), and the chicken liver boiled and mashed fine.
CHICKEN SAUCE (_to serve with Boiled or Stewed Fowls_).
Put butter the size of an egg into a bright saucepan, and when it
bubbles add a table-spoonful of flour; cook it, and add a pint, or
rather less, of boiling water; when smooth, take it from the fire, and
add the beaten yolks of two or three eggs, and a few drops of
lemon-juice, pepper, and salt. Or, Stock can be used instead of boiling
water, when two or three small slices of onion are placed in the butter
after it begins to bubble, and then allowed to cook yellow; after the
flour is cooked, stock is added instead of water, and when smooth, it is
taken from the fire, a few drops of lemon-juice, pepper, and salt are
added, and the sauce is strained through the gravy-strainer or sieve, to
remove the pieces of onion.
MAÎTRE-D’HÔTEL BUTTER (_for Beefsteak, Broiled Meat, or Fish_).
Mix butter the size of an egg, the juice of half a lemon, and two or
three sprigs of parsley, chopped very fine; pepper and salt all
together. Spread this over any broiled meat or fish when hot; then put
the dish into the oven a few moments, to allow the butter to penetrate
the meat.
MINT SAUCE (_for Roast Lamb_).
Put four table-spoonfuls of chopped mint, two table-spoonfuls of sugar,
and a quarter of a pint of vinegar into the sauce-boat. Let it remain an
hour or two before dinner, that the vinegar may become impregnated with
the mint.
CURRANT-JELLY SAUCE (_for Venison_).
A simple sauce made of currant jelly melted with a little water is very
nice; yet Francatelli’s receipt is much better, viz.:
“Bruise half a stick of cinnamon and six cloves; put them into a
stew-pan with one ounce of sugar and the peel of half a lemon, pared off
very thin, and perfectly free from any portion of white pulp; moisten
this with one and a half sherry-glassfuls of port-wine, and set the
whole to gently simmer or heat on the stove for half an hour; then
strain it into a small stew-pan containing half a glassful of currant
jelly. Just before sending the sauce to the table, set it on the fire to
boil, in order to melt the currant jelly, and so that it may mix with
the essence of spice, etc.”
TOMATO SAUCE (No. 1).
Stew six tomatoes half an hour with two cloves, a sprig of parsley,
pepper, and salt; press this through a sieve; put a little butter into a
saucepan over the fire, and when it bubbles add a heaping tea-spoonful
of flour; mix and cook it well, and add the tomato-pulp, stirring until
it is smooth and consistent.
Some add one or two slices of onion at first. It is a decided
improvement to add three or four table-spoonfuls of stock; however, the
sauce is very good without it, and people are generally too careless to
have stock at hand.
TOMATO SAUCE (No. 2).
Ingredients: One-quart can of tomatoes, two cloves, one small sprig of
thyme, two sprigs of parsley, half a small bay-leaf, three pepper-corns,
three allspice, two slices of carrot (one and a half ounces), one-ounce
onion (one small onion), one and a half ounces of butter (size of a
pigeon’s egg), one and a half ounces of flour (one table-spoonful).
Put the tomatoes over the fire with all the above ingredients but the
butter and flour, and when they have boiled about twenty minutes strain
them through a sieve. Make a _roux_ by putting the butter into a
stew-pan, and when it bubbles sprinkle in the flour, which let cook,
stirring it well; then pour in the tomato-pulp; when it is well mixed,
it is ready for use.