Worcestershire sauce

“ If the pot is clean, it will be of a fine golden color. Take from the fire, and begin to whip into the sauce the beaten eggs. Continue this until the mixture is nearly cold. Rub the hard-boiled yolks to a fine powder in a Wedgewood mortar or earthenware bowl; add the mustard, sugar, pepper, and salt; the Worcestershire sauce; then, a few drops at a time, the oil, lastly, also gradually, the vinegar. Strain through a wire sieve, or coarse tartelane, rubbing through all that will pass the net. Put the chicken and celery together in a glass salad-dish, and wet up with half of the vinegar mixture. ”

“ In the Pytchley Cookery Book, which is so celebrated, you will find two or three recipes for devil sauce. The first is the simplest. Warm and blend together a teaspoonful of mixed mustard, a tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce, an ounce of glaze, an ounce of butter, a saltspoonful of cayenne pepper, one of salt, and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Mix, warm up, and rub the meat well with the mixture, serving it as gravy, should any remain after the broiling.
The second Pytchley recipe is intended to be poured over the meat when broiled. ”

“ When the pieces are brown, add a table-spoonful of flour, and let it cook a minute, stirring it constantly. Add then one and a half pints of boiling water or stock, a table-spoonful of vinegar, a table-spoonful of sherry, a tea-spoonful of Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. When it is taken off the fire, strain the sauce, taking off any particles of fat ”

“ Season each layer of oysters with salt and pepper. Put little bits of butter all over the cracker layers. Now fill the pan with milk and cream to which has been added a bit of the oyster liquor. Cover the top well with crushed crackers. Put a cover on the dish or pan and slip it into the oven. Some folks add a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce to the milk and cream. Bake until the juices bubble up. Don’t let too much of the moisture bake away. At the last minute take the cover off the dish and brown the top.
The richer the cream and butter the better the result. ”

“ How common it is to hear and see untraveled people declare that they dislike garlic, and could not touch anything with it in. Yet those very people will take Worcestershire sauce, in which garlic is actually predominant, with everything they eat; and think none but English pickles eatable, which owe much of their excellence to the introduction of a soupçon of garlic. Therefore I beg those who actually only know garlic from hearsay abuse of it, or from its presence on the breath of some inveterate garlic eater, to give it a fair trial when it appears in a recipe. ”

“ To one pound of diced American cheese, add one can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup. Heat over a slow fire until a thick, smooth mass has been obtained. And then—
Add one beaten egg, and follow it quickly with a cup of cream or very rich milk. Stir in a dessertspoonful of Worcestershire Sauce, and enough salt to give the proper kick. ”

“ Beef Croquettes
13⁄4 cups finely chopped left-over roast beef or steak. 3⁄4 teaspoon salt. 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper. 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce. Few drops onion juice. 1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley. Brown sauce.
Process: Remove all fat and gristle from cold roast beef or steak. Chop fine and add ingredients in the order given, moisten with thick Brown Sauce (made by increasing the quantity of flour called for in the recipe for Brown Sauce to half cup) . Shape in cones, drip in crumbs, egg and crumbs and fry in deep hot fat. Serve with Brown, Tomato, or Creole Sauce. ”

“ Put on this salt and pepper and sprinkle with a little flour and then a layer of crackers. Chop the sweet pepper and tomato fine and mix with them the bruised and mashed garlic. On top of each succession of layers put a little of the mixture. Continue making these layers until all the ingredients are placed in the stewpan, and then pour on the top sufficient water to just show. Cover tightly and let cook gently for half an hour. Pour on the Worcestershire sauce and sherry just before serving. ”

“ Sauté steak two minutes. Mix two tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, one half teaspoon salt, one quarter teaspoon mustard, one tablespoon melted butter, and one tablespoon chopped pimolas. Spread on both sides of steak, dip in bread crumbs, and sauté until crumbs are brown.
Corned Beef
Wash beef; place in kettle; cover with cold water; bring to the boiling point, then simmer until tender; allow thirty-five minutes for each pound. Cool partially in water in which it was cooked; place in square pan; apply pressure and serve cold. ”

“ A rich fish satiates much sooner than a lighter and poorer kind, and for this reason it is advisable to avoid having the richer varieties frequently. Of course, the poorer kinds require more and richer sauces than salmon, mackerel, or bluefish. Whitefish, like cod, haddock, cusk, halibut, and flounders, is improved by the addition of sauces made of milk, cream, or white stock.
Boiling is the least desirable mode of preparing fish, because it causes the greatest loss of flavor and nutriment. A fine sauce is needed to make the dish satisfactory. ”

“ It's used in cream soups, and it's the cream part of creamed vegetables and meat and fish, and then there is a thicker white sauce that is used to bind croquettes—that is, hold the ingredients together. There are really four kinds of white sauces and they are very simple to make. I think everyone should know the right way to make them, for they are useful in preparing so many good things. ”

“ Ordinary brown sauce, like ordinary white, is often made without stock—simply an ounce of flour, one of butter, browned together, and half a pint of boiling water added, then boiled till thick and smooth. But it may be safely said that in high-class dark sauces water should play no part; its place must be taken by stock of good quality, which is often enriched by reducing or adding glaze. ”

“ For instance, by adding capers, shrimps, chopped pickles, anchovy paste, chopped boiled eggs, lobster, oysters, parsley, cauliflower, etc., one has caper, shrimp, pickle, anchovy, egg, and the other sauces. The drawn-butter sauce is simple, yet few make it properly, managing generally{120} to have it insipid, and with flour uncooked. If a housekeeper has any pride about having a good table, she will be amply repaid for learning some of the French sauces, which are, at last, simple enough. We are often frightened to see many items in a receipt ”

“ 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 [159] 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. ”

“ The next means after larding in what may be called natural garnishing is in the employment of gravies and sauces. No article should ever swim in sauce, but a little can be used with good effect on many dishes. A venison steak wet with a currant jelly sauce, and just enough of the sauce poured on the bottom of the platter to color it, gives a glaze and juicy look to the steak which improves its appearance. A very little tomato sauce under breaded veal chops or croquettes gives color and emphasis to the dish. White sauce poured over boiled dishes gives greater whiteness and often covers defects. ”

“ The only advantage in a private family of making it thus thick is when, perhaps, two or three sauces are needed for a dinner; for example, a plain white sauce for a vegetable, caper, lobster, or cardinal for other purposes, and perhaps poulette, d’Uxelles, or other pale sauce for an entrée; but when one sauce only is required, it is best to make that one from the beginning ”

“ Let them both become brown; then add a tablespoonful of flour, and brown that also. Stir all the time. Add a cupful of beef or brown stock, and cook until the sauce is a little thickened. Season with pepper and salt. Strain it to remove the onion. A sauce poivrade is made by adding to the brown sauce, at the same time that the stock is put in, a cupful of claret, two cloves, a bay-leaf, a little thyme and parsley. In place of claret, a teaspoonful of mustard, the juice of half a lemon, and a teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar gives a Robert sauce. ”

“ In making a brown sauce we put a little butter or olive oil in the frying-pan; let it bubble and sputter, dredge in Allinson wholemeal flour, stir it round with a knife until browned, add boiling water, pepper, salt, a little ketchup, and you then have a nice brown sauce for many dishes. If we wish to make it very tasty we fry a finely chopped onion first and add that to it. White sweet sauce is made from wholemeal flour, milk, sugar, and a little cinnamon, cloves, lemon juice, vanilla, or other flavouring. ”

“ Drain it well on the fish-plate as it is lifted out, and dish it on a napkin, the white side upwards, and serve it quickly with anchovy, shrimp, or lobster sauce. It may also be sent to table thickly covered with the Cream Fish Sauce, Caper Fish Sauce, or Lady’s Sauce, of Chapter VI.; though this is a mode of service less to be recommended, as the sauce cools more speedily when spread over the surface of the fish: it is, however, the continental fashion, and will therefore find more favour with some persons. ”

“ After cooking vegetables until tender in salted water, they should be drained and served with a cream sauce poured over. The art of making a smooth, creamy sauce of the proper consistency is easily acquired. A good rule for "common cream sauce" is 1 cup of milk, water, or meat broth, thickened with 1 tablespoonful to 11⁄2 tablespoonfuls of flour, or a combination of flour and cornstarch. Mix flour, or cornstarch, with a small quantity of cold milk or water, to a smooth paste, before adding it to liquid; add, usually, one tablespoonful of butter. ”

“ White Sauce,
and it is not every one who can make even that plain sauce as it should be. The thin, watery mixture, or grey "stodgy" mass which is sometimes served with cauliflower or parsnips, even where the other viands are fairly well cooked and served, is certainly enough to condemn "vegetables." Yet, how simple it is if done the right way. In a small saucepan—preferably earthenware or enamel, for it must be spotlessly clean and smooth—melt 1 oz. butter, and into that stir 1 oz. flour. When quite smooth add by degrees a teacupful milk. ”

“ It has been explained before, but I repeat it here, that there must never be too much sauce, however good, to any dish, and that the consistency is most important: it must be thick enough to mask a spoon, yet run from it freely. Nothing can be worse than a dab of white mush being served as sauce, unless it be a quantity of thin, milky soup floating on every plate. This is where the happy medium must be struck. It is perfectly easy to give exact proportions to produce certain degrees of thickness, and this has been done in the chapters on sauces ”

“ Most sauces must be stirred continually while on the fire, and especially white sauces, such as Béchamel, Béchamel with cream or cream sauce, and white sauce.
It is necessary to stir all sauces now and then, to prevent the forming of a kind of skin on the surface.
The onions, shallots, garlics, and vinegar, used in sharp sauces, may be prepared as described for piquante sauce.
Sauces can always be made to suit the taste. A thousand can be made as well as a hundred, by merely adding or subtracting one or more of the compounds, or by proceeding differently. ”

“ You will never get a good white sauce unless you season it well and let it simmer for a quarter of an hour. Strain it, heat it again, and serve it for fish, potatoes, chicken.
SAUCE MAÎTRE D'HÔTEL
Every one likes this sauce for either meat or fish. In a double saucepan melt a lump of butter, flavor it with salt, pepper, some minced parsley that you had first rubbed on a raw slice of onion, and some lemon-juice. Use vinegar instead of the lemon if you wish, but do not forget that it does not require so much vinegar. Mix it with a fork and serve it warm; do not let it bubble. ”

“ Those whom God has joined in matrimony, ill-cooked joints and worse-cooked potatoes have often put asunder. In sauces, above all things, careful cooking, implicit keeping to the exact formulæ of recipes, and a restraint of all imagination, are immensely necessary. Not even the greatest artist can afford to juggle with sauces. They are fixed, immutable, and unalterable. A very favourite expression in French culinary manuals is the injunction to the cook: Travaillez bien votre sauce. The amateur sauce-maker would do well to bear this in mind. The sauce must be well worked, amalgamated, combined ”

“ As you become more expert, you can develop your own variations.
White sauce 1 cup
Melt butter, margarine, or other fat in heavy saucepan. Blend in flour until smooth. Add salt. Add milk slowly, stirring rapidly to prevent lumping. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Thin white sauce is used in cream soup, gravy, and in creamed and scalloped vegetables, eggs, fish, and meat.
Medium white sauce is also used in gravy and in creamed and scalloped vegetables, eggs, fish, and meat. ”