Brown 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Brown Sauce 2 tablespoons butter or clarified fat 3 tablespoons flour 1 cup brown stock 1⁄4 teaspoon salt 1⁄16 teaspoon pepper
Brown the butter slightly, add the flour and stir constantly until the flour is a rich brown. Add the seasoning and stock, one-third at a time, stirring it until smooth. If butter is not used, add the flour as soon as the fat is melted, as other fats will acquire a strong flavour if allowed to brown before the flour is added. Mutton or lamb fat, or that from smoked or salted meats, is not suitable for brown sauce. ”

“ It is well worth remembering that a sauce of average thickness is made by allowing two tablespoons each of butter and flour to one cup liquid, whether it be milk, stock, or tomato. For Brown Sauce a slightly larger quantity of flour is necessary, as by browning flour its thickening property is lessened, its starch being changed to dextrine. When sauces are set away, put a few bits of butter on top to prevent crust from forming. ”

“ Good white sauce is needed for so many different kinds of vegetable, fish and meat dishes, that a child should be taught it at the beginning of her work. Have her melt one tablespoon of butter and stir in one tablespoon of flour. When smooth, add slowly one cup of milk, stirring all the time to keep from getting lumpy. If lumps do form, however, before the child has learned the secret of mixing, she can strain after it has cooked five minutes. Season with quarter-teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper. For brown sauce, simply brown the flour and butter before adding the milk. ”

“ This is the demi-glaze Sauce which is used for all brown Sauces.
Take one pound of flour, dry it in the oven on a tray till it is the color of cocoa; pass it through a sieve into a saucepan, moisten it with stock, mixing very carefully. Boil it up two or three times during forty-eight hours, adding two carrots, two onions, thyme, bay, all cut up, which you have colored in the frying-pan, also some salt and peppercorns. When it is all cooked, pass it through a cloth or sieve. ”

“ Lastly, turn out the sauce into a basin, and if not wanted immediately let it be stirred every 5-10 minutes till quite cold. In a good larder it will keep several days, but it should be warmed every day in hot weather.
Brown Butter Sauce.—Put 4 oz. fresh butter in a stewpan on the fire, and keep stirring it until it becomes brown by frying; then add a small wineglass of tarragon vinegar, ditto of Harvey’s sauce, a tablespoonful of chopped capers, a little anchovy, and either a gill of brown sauce or gravy. ”

“ Demi-Glace.
Put two quarts of brown sauce (No. 1) into a stewpan with one quart of consommé (No. 134) , one ounce of glaze, four tablespoonfuls of tomate sauce (No. 37) , place it over the fire, and when boiling place it at the corner, let it simmer very fast, skim it well, and reduce it to a clear light glaze, with sufficient consistence to adhere lightly to the back of the spoon; then put it by in a basin, and use it where directed.
All thin sauces are or will become very much in vogue; they invigorate the appetite without overloading the stomach; and are, consequently, more wholesome ”

“ Method.—Make the brown sauce as directed, add the sherry and meat glaze, and simmer gently until considerably reduced. Pass through a fine strainer or tammy cloth, re-heat, add the Financière garnish, season to taste, and use as required. ”

“ Now place two tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and add one and one-half cupfuls of the prepared celery. Cover closely and cook until tender, shaking occasionally to prevent sticking to the pan. Season, and when ready to serve cover with espaniole or brown sauce made from stock.
To make sauce: Place two tablespoonfuls of fat in an iron frying pan and add four tablespoonfuls of flour; work to a roux, browning well. Now add one and a half cupfuls of stock and bring to a boil. Cook for five minutes and then strain and return to the saucepan and season. ”

“ A pickled walnut chopped, or a gherkin or two, go admirably with mutton or pork chops. In short, this is just where71 imagination and brains will tell in cooking, and little essays of invention may be tried with profit. But beware of trying too much; make yourself perfect in one thing before venturing on another.
Espagnole, or brown sauce, is simply a rich stock well flavored with vegetables and herbs, and thickened with a piece of roux or with brown flour.
White Sauce is one of those things we rarely find perfectly made; bad, it is the ne plus ultra of badness ”

“ There are two methods by which it can be browned: one is to plunge it into a deep pot of boiling fat for about one minute; the other is to butter the entire surface of the bread and put it into a hot oven, being careful not to let it burn. Care must be taken that the inside is as brown as the outside; if not, the sauce will soak through the crôustade and spoil it. Creamed oysters, stewed lobster, chicken, or any kind of meat that is served in a sauce, can be served in the crôustade,
Cheese Soufflé. ”

“ To the above, many cooks add lemon-juice and Cayenne.
Obs. Foreigners make this sauce with good brown sauce (No. 329) , or white sauce (No. 364) ; instead of melted butter, add to it catchup, soy, and some of their flavoured vinegars, (as elder or tarragon) , pepper and fine spice, sweet herbs, capers, eschalots, &c. They serve it with most roasted meats.
[233] N.B. Keep your anchovies well covered; first tie down your jar with bladder moistened with vinegar, and then wiped dry; tie leather over that: when you open a jar, moisten the bladder, and it will come off easily ”

“ The browning for soups (see No. 108) answers equally well for sauces and gravies, when it is absolutely necessary to colour them in this manner; but where they can be made to look brown by using ketchup, wine, browned flour, tomatoes, or any colour sauce, it is far preferable. As, however, in cooking, so much depends on appearance, perhaps it would be as well for the inexperienced cook to use the artificial means (No. 108) . When no browning is at hand, and you wish to heighten the colour of your gravy, dissolve a lump of sugar in an iron spoon over a sharp fire ”

“ The onions may be roasted, then pulped, in place of being boiled. A very little mace, or nutmeg, may be added to onion sauce having cream in it. Brown onion sauce is made by frying, in butter, some sliced Spanish onions; simmer them in brown gravy, or broth, over a slow fire, add salt, pepper, cayenne, and a piece of butter, rolled in browned flour. Skim the sauce, add 1⁄2 a glass of Port or claret, the same of mushroom catsup, or a dessert-spoonful of walnut pickle, or eschalot vinegar. To make the sauce milder, boil a turnip with the onions. ”

“ For the finest kind of onion sauce, see Soubise, page 126, which follows.
BROWN ONION SAUCE. Cut off both ends of the onions, and slice them into a saucepan in which two ounces of butter have been dissolved; keep them stewing gently over a clear fire until they are lightly coloured; then pour to them half a pint of brown gravy, and when they have boiled until they are perfectly tender, work the sauce altogether through a strainer, season it with a little cayenne, and serve it very hot. ”

“ A bread-sauce is really a very poor sauce. Its insipidity is concealed by the great amount of pepper that it contains.
Brown Butter, or Beurre Noir.—This is butter set on the fire in a frying-pan and left till it turns perfectly brown, then a few sprigs of parsley are dropped in it, fried half a minute, and it is ready for use. ”

“ Stir over a very gentle fire until it turns a deep, rich brown colour. Add [Pg 14] half a pint of boiling water. Let it simmer very gently for twenty minutes. Allow it to get cold. Put it into bottles and cork. This makes an excellent and tasteless colouring, but it must be carefully made. The rich brown colour comes from slow and gentle cooking. If it is burnt and black it is useless.
Add to the soup a few minutes only before serving.
Glaze.—Glaze is made by boiling down good stock until it is of a very thick and gluey consistency. Put a quart of rich stock into a sauce-pan over a good fire. ”

“ Put them in a sauce-pan with a quart of good veal stock and a carrot, turnip, apple, parsley, and a bouquet of herbs. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the meat is tender, stirring [Pg 31] from time to time. Strain off the stock. Cut the meat from the bones, and set aside to cool.
Fry three onions, a carrot, and a head of celery (all finely sliced) very slowly in a quarter of a pound of butter until they are a rich golden brown. Add two table-spoons of flour. Stir in till smooth. Add a table-spoon of curry powder, and the same quantity of curry paste. ”

“ Remove the seeds from the tomatoes. Stew them with the onion, ham and clove in an enamel sauce-pan until well cooked. Rub through a tammy. Return to the sauce-pan. Add the gravy and brown roux (see p. 12) . Simmer for quarter of an hour.
[Pg 125]
Hot Sauces for Fowls, Ducks, Rabbits, etc.
[Pg 126]
Apple Sauce
Set the required quantity of sour apples, pared, cored and sliced, in a small pan inside a large sauce-pan containing boiling water. Let the water boil quickly until the apples are done. Mash them and add sugar to taste.
Or,
Pare, quarter and remove the core of several sour apples. ”

“ For thick white soups, chicken or veal stock is used. For brown thick soups, a dark stock. For purées, white or brown stock, according to their colour.
Stock will keep for several days—in winter for a week.
A tea-spoonful of Liebig’s Extract of Meat will greatly improve the flavour of a poor stock.
Utensils.—Of special utensils for making soup, porcelain-lined sauce-pans are the most satisfactory, and should always be used if possible. There is nothing so good or clean as the large French pot au feu, which can be bought in Soho. ”

“ It may also be used for a mince of the same meat.
53—ESCOFFIER ROBERTS SAUCE
This sauce may be bought ready-made. It is used either hot or cold. It is especially suitable for pork, veal, poultry, and even fish, and is generally used hot with grills after the equivalent of its volume of excellent brown stock has been added to it. It may also be served cold to accompany cold meat.
54—ROUENNAISE SAUCE
Prepare a “Bordelaise” sauce according to Formula No. 32. The diluent of this sauce must be an excellent red wine. For one pint of sauce, pass four raw ducks’ livers through a [32] sieve ”

“ Add the water in which the horse-radish was boiled, stirring continually. Heat. Take off the fire. Add the hot cream and then the beaten yolks. Beat well together. Add pepper, salt and the vinegar.
[Pg 120]
Maître d’Hotel—I 2 ozs. butter
1 table-spoon chopped parsley
Juice of half a lemon
Melt the butter. Skim it. Add the parsley (and, if liked, a little finely chopped shallot) , salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Maître d’Hotel—II 4 shallots
1 tea-spoon chopped parsley
1 tea-spoon chopped fennel
1 dozen mushrooms
2 ozs. butter
1⁄2 pint brown sauce or béchamel
Chop the shallots. ”

“ Add vinegar, salt, pepper to taste. This sauce should be made in a cold place and will take about fifteen minutes to make. Finely chopped tarragon, chervil and olives may be added to the mayonnaise.
Mint Sauce 1 handful of mint chopped
1 gill vinegar
2 table-spoons powdered or brown sugar
Melt the sugar in the vinegar. Chop the mint very fine. It cannot be too fine. Add it to the vinegar.
[Pg 139]
Sauce for Cold Fish 4 anchovies
3 yolks (hard boiled)
2 yolks (raw)
1 tea-spoon mustard
Oil
Vinegar
A little smoked salmon
Clean, bone and pound the anchovies with the hard boiled eggs. ”

“ Simmer gently for three quarters of an hour. Slice the onion, and fry it a light brown in the butter. Add it to the carrots, and put all through a fine sieve. Put the purée into a sauce-pan with the water in which the carrots were cooked. Thicken with the flour. Stir continually. Allow it to boil for five minutes. Season. Add a tea-spoonful powdered sugar. Just before serving add half a pint of scalded milk or cream.
Celery Cream 1 head celery
1 pint water
1 pint milk or cream
1 table-spoon chopped onion
2 table-spoons white roux
Wash the celery. ”

“ 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. ”