Part 34

=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.