Béchamel sauce

“ Add a gill of hot béchamel sauce (No. 154) , let come to a boil. Poach twelve fresh eggs exactly as in No. 404, neatly arrange them on a hot dish, crown-like. Pour the celery sauce right in the centre, and serve very hot.
428. Eggs with Truffles. —Peel three medium-sized, sound truffles. Cut them into thin slices, place in a saucepan with a glassful of Madeira wine; reduce to one-half on a moderate fire. Season with one pinch of salt and the third of a pinch of white pepper; add one gill of béchamel sauce (No. 154) ; let come to a boil. Prepare twelve heart-shaped croûtons (No. 133) ”

“ Bechamel Sauce
11⁄2 cups highly seasoned chicken stock. 1⁄4 cup butter. 1⁄4 cup flour. 3⁄4 cup scalded thin cream. 1⁄2 teaspoon salt. 1⁄8 teaspoon pepper. Few grains nutmeg. Yolks three eggs.
Process: Mix butter in sauce-pan, add flour mixed with seasonings, stir to a smooth paste and let cook one minute, then add hot stock, stirring constantly, add hot cream, continue stirring. Beat yolks of eggs slightly, dilute with some of the hot sauce. Combine mixture, beat again, but do not allow the sauce to boil after adding egg yolks. Omitting yolks of eggs make White Bechamel Sauce. ”

“ Cucumbers à la Béchamel. —Peel, pare nicely, and blanch six small, fine cucumbers in salted boiling water for five minutes. Remove, drain, and place them in a sautoire with half a pint of good béchamel sauce (No. 154) , half an ounce of butter, the third of a pinch of nutmeg, and three tablespoonfuls of milk. Cook all together for fifteen minutes, and pour the whole on a hot dish, and serve. ”

“ Crab sauce may be made in the same way, using lobster coral if convenient.
No. 31. Bechamel Sauce.—Mix dry in saucepan one tablespoon of flour and two ounces of butter, when well mixed add one pint of milk, dissolve the flour paste, set it on the fire and stir constantly; when it gets thick remove from fire, and add the yolk of one egg well beaten. Add one teaspoon of water, salt and pepper to taste, mix well and it is ready for use. ”

“ Boil the béchamel gently for half an hour; add a little salt, and cayenne; strain, and reduce it, if not quite thick, or pour it boiling to the yolks of two fresh eggs.
ANOTHER COMMON BÉCHAMEL. Cut half a pound of veal, and a slice of lean ham or smoked beef, into small dice, and stew them in butter, with vegetables, as directed in the foregoing receipt: stir in the same proportion of flour, then add the milk, and let the sauce boil very gently for an hour. It should not be allowed to thicken too much before it is strained. ”

“ Ingredients.—1⁄2 pint of stiff Mayonnaise sauce, 1⁄2 a teaspoonful made English mustard, 1⁄2 gill Béchamel sauce, 1⁄2 gill of cream, a few leaves of tarragon and chervil 1 teaspoonful of spinach greening, a pinch of cayenne or paprika pepper, a pinch of salt, 1⁄2 a lemon. ”

“ Cook for one-half an hour, stirring constantly. Add salt just before taking off the fire. The Indian meal should be stiff when finished. Turn it onto the bread-board, and spread it out to the thickness of two fingers. While it is cooking prepare a meat sauce, and a Bechamel sauce as follows:
MEAT SAUCE Take a small piece of beef, a small piece of ham, fat and lean, one tablespoon of butter, a small piece of onion, a small piece of carrot, a small piece of celery, a pinch of flour, one-half cup of bouillon (or same amount of water) , pepper. Cut the meat into small dice ”

“ Quickly peel them, and rub them through a sieve. Put this purée of raw mushrooms into a sautépan with two-thirds pint of reduced Béchamel sauce, and one-sixth pint of cream. Season with salt, white pepper, and nutmeg; reduce over an open fire for a few minutes, and finish, away from the fire, with three oz. of best butter. ”

“ Peel and parboil some onions, drain, and cut them in quarters, put them into a stewpan with sufficient well-flavoured white stock to cover them; keep on the lid, and simmer gently until quite tender, pass them through a sieve; add to the pulp sufficient milk, cream, or béchamel sauce as will be necessary to make the sauce; stir over the fire until quite hot, add seasoning of pepper and salt if required, and it is ready. ”

“ Method.—When the paste has had 6 turns, roll it out to about 3⁄4 of an inch in thickness, and cut it into either a round or oval form, as may be desired and place on a baking tin. Brush over the top of the paste shape with beaten egg, make an inner ring, cutting the paste to about half its depth, and bake in a quick oven. Meanwhile, cut the chicken and ham into dice shapes or small cubes, cut the mushrooms and truffles into small slices, stir the whole into the hot Béchamel sauce, season with salt, pepper and aromatic spice, and make thoroughly hot. ”

“ But it is in graceful, refined France that cookery is and has been, a pet art. Any bill of fare or French cookery book will betray to a thoughtful reader the attention given to the subject by the wittiest, gayest, and most beautiful women, and the greatest men. The high-sounding names attached to French standard dishes are no mere caprice or homage of a French cook to the great in the land, but actually point out their inventor. Thus Bechamel was invented by the Marquis de Bechamel, as a sauce for codfish ”

“ The fire must be clear, and the fish should be turned frequently. Allow 15 to 20 minutes for a mackerel of medium-size, and a few minutes longer when broiled in paper. Serve with Maître-d'Hôtel butter or Maître d'Hôtel sauce (No. 200) .
Time.—15 to 25 minutes. Average Cost, from 6d. to 10d. Sufficient for 2 or 3 persons. Seasonable from April to July.
547.—MACKEREL, FILLETS OF. (Fr.—Filets de Maquereau à la Béchamel.)
Ingredients.—2 medium-sized mackerel, 3⁄4 of a pint of Béchamel sauce, 11⁄2 ozs. of butter, 1 teaspoonful of lemon-juice, salt and pepper. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The turbans of fish were now put in the boiling stock, and boiled till they were milky-white instead of clear—about eight minutes; then Molly took them up with a skimmer, and in a small saucepan stirred a dessert-spoonful of butter and one of flour together, letting them bubble a few seconds, and then poured a gill of the fish stock and half one of milk to it, stirring all the time (in fact, making white sauce, but using part fish stock instead of all milk, which makes béchamel for fish; made with veal or chicken stock it is béchamel for meat) . ”

“ When boiled it is served with any fine white sauce, French cooks use the velouté or béchamel. When roasted, a cradle spit is very convenient, but if there is not one the turkey must be carefully tied to the spit. ”

“ Various appetizing mixtures intended to give relish to meats, fish and soups, and composed of vegetables, fruits and divers spices, are known as sauces. “Roots, herbs, vine fruits and salad-flowers, they dish up various ways and find them a very delicious sauce to their meats, both roasted and boiled, fresh and salt.” No other sauce made compares with genuine East Indian chutney. It is a thick sauce, made from the mango apple, chilies, spices, lemon juice, raisins, figs, salt and sugar. ”

“ Mode.—Turn the mushrooms white by putting them into lemon-juice and water, having previously cut off the stalks and wiped them perfectly free from grit. Chop them, and put them in a stewpan with the butter. When the mushrooms are softened, add the Béchamel, and simmer for about 5 minutes; should they, however, not be done enough, allow rather more time. They should not boil longer than necessary, as they would then lose their colour and flavour. Rub the whole through a tammy, and serve very hot. ”

“ Simmer one onion, one leek, a small piece of celery, one bay leaf, a branch of thyme and a little garlic in three ounces of butter. Then add two spoonsful of curry powder and two of flour. When hot add one quart of stock, one sliced apple, one sliced banana sauté in butter, and one-half cup of Indian chutney. Boil for twenty minutes, strain through a fine sieve and salt to taste. This sauce is used for chicken, fish, oysters, lamb, veal, etc., and should be made respectively with chicken broth, fish broth, juice of oysters, and so forth. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”