SAUCES
All meat sauces are made after the same rule, changing the liquids to give
varieties; for instance, one tablespoonful of butter (which means an
ounce), and one tablespoonful of flour (a half ounce) are always allowed
to each half pint of liquid. The butter and flour are rubbed together
(better without heating), then the liquid added, cold or warm, the whole
stirred over the fire until boiling. A half teaspoonful of salt and an
eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper is the proper amount of seasoning.
White Sauce
If you wish to make a white sauce, use one tablespoonful of butter, one tablespoonful of flour and a half pint of milk. Called also milk or cream sauce.
Tomato Sauce
Tomato sauce will have the same proportions of butter and flour and a half pint of strained tomatoes.
Sauce Bechamel
For sauce Bechamel, fill the cup half full of stock, then the remaining half with milk, giving again the half pint of liquid and usual quantity of butter and flour.
Sauce Supréme
This is one of the nicest of all sauces to use with warmed-over chicken, duck or turkey. Rub together a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, then add gradually a half pint of chicken stock; stir constantly until boiling, take from the fire, add the yolks of two eggs, strain through a fine sieve, add the seasoning, and serve immediately.
Sauces containing the yolks of uncooked eggs cannot be reboiled after the eggs are added.
English Drawn Butter
For English drawn butter, use a tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of flour, and a half pint of water. We usually have the water boiling, and add it gradually to the butter and flour, stirring rapidly. As soon as it reaches boiling point, take from the fire and add carefully another tablespoonful of butter. This may be converted into a plain
Sauce Hollandaise
by adding with the last tablespoonful of butter, the yolks of two eggs, the juice of half a lemon, a teaspoonful of onion juice and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley.
Brown Sauce
This is made by rubbing butter and flour together in the above proportions, then adding a half pint of stock; stir until boiling, add a teaspoonful of browning or kitchen bouquet and the usual seasoning of salt and pepper. To change the character of this sauce add garlic, onion, Worcestershire sauce, mushroom catsup, etc.
Brown Tomato Sauce
An exceedingly nice sauce for Hamburg steaks. After you have taken the steaks from the pan, add a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour; mix. Fill your measuring cup half full of strained tomatoes, the remaining half with stock, making a half pint; add this to the butter and flour, stir until boiling, add a seasoning of salt and pepper and pour over the steaks.
Roasted Beef Gravy
Roasted beef gravy, which really should be a sauce, is improved by adding a little tomato to the stock before adding it to the fat and flour. In roasting meats, we do not use butter for the sauce; there is always sufficient fat in the bottom of the pan. Pour from the pan all but one or two tablespoonfuls of fat (the amount required) and add to that the flour. A rounding tablespoonful of butter to which we refer weighs an ounce; of liquid fat, as in the pan, you must allow two even tablespoonfuls to the ounce; so, if you are going to make a half pint of sauce take out all but two tablespoonfuls of fat; add one tablespoonful of flour and then the half pint of water or stock.
Browning
Plain burned sugar (caramel) may be used to color soups and sauces, thus saving the trouble of browning the flour or butter. It is also used as a flavoring for sweets. Put one cup of sugar, dry, into an iron saucepan. Stand it over a hot fire, and stir continually until it is reduced to a dark brown liquid. When it begins to burn and smoke, add hastily a cup of boiling water, stir and cook until a thin syrup-like mixture is formed. It must not be too thick. Bottle, and it is ready for use, and will keep any length of time.
Kitchen Bouquet
Add one chopped onion and a teaspoonful of celery seed to one cup of dry sugar, and then proceed as for ordinary browning. Strain and bottle. A very good mixture under this name can be purchased at the grocers.
Mushroom Sauce
Where just a few mushrooms are left over, either fresh or canned, they may be chopped fine and added to a brown sauce and served with steak or beef; or they may be chopped fine and added to a cream sauce and served with chicken or sweetbreads.
Cold Meat Sauces
It is the fashion when one is serving cold meat to pass with it some condiment like Worcestershire sauce, mushroom, walnut or tomato catsup. Of course, these used in any great quantity are more or less injurious. A number of little left-overs in the house may be used to take their place, adding zest to the meat, and are more economical and more wholesome.
Chopped Tomato Sauce
Peel a good-sized tomato, cut it into halves and press out the seeds; chop the flesh of the tomato fine, add a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, or, if you have it, a little sweet pepper chopped fine; you may add also a little celery chopped very fine, or celery seed, and a teaspoonful of onion juice; rub your spoon with a clove of garlic, and mix the ingredients thoroughly; add a teaspoonful of lemon juice and dish. Pass and use as ordinary catsup.
Grated Cucumber Sauce
Grate three or four large cucumbers; drain them on a sieve; to this drained pulp add a half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of red pepper, a teaspoonful of onion juice, a tablespoonful of lemon juice, and their stir in carefully two or three tablespoonfuls of very thick cream; if you can whip the cream a little first, so much the better. Cream may also be added to the tomato.
Chopped Celery Sauce
Chop fine sufficient celery to make a half pint; season it with a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of onion juice, a dash of pepper. Rub the spoon with garlic, mix thoroughly, stir into it the yolk of an egg that has been beaten light with two tablespoonfuls of cream; add a few drops of lemon juice or tarragon vinegar and serve.
Cream Horseradish Sauce
This is one of the most delightful sauces to serve with left-over meats, especially beef. Press from the vinegar four tablespoonfuls of horseradish, add a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, and work in the yolk of an egg. Whip six tablespoonfuls of cream to a stiff froth, stir it gradually into the horseradish and dish at once.
Pudding Sauces
The simple method of making a pudding sauce is to add to a half cup of sugar, a tablespoonful of flour; mix thoroughly, and then add hastily a half pint of boiling water; boil for a moment and pour while hot into one well-beaten egg, beating all the while. This may now be seasoned with any flavoring, as orange, lemon or vanilla.
To change the character of this sauce, a tablespoonful of butter may be added. Where butter enters largely into the composition of a pudding sauce, it is better that it should be beaten to a cream, the sugar added gradually, then the egg and last the liquor. Heat it over a double boiler just at serving time, or the froth will float on the surface and the liquid be rather dense at the bottom.
Melted sugar with lemon juice and a little water is called sugar sauce.