Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches by Eliza Leslie Published: 1840
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GRAVY AND SAUCES.
DRAWN OR MADE GRAVY.
For this purpose you may use coarse pieces of the lean of beef or
veal, or the giblets and trimmings of poultry or game. If must be
stewed for a long time, skimmed, strained, thickened, and
flavoured with whatever condiments are supposed most suited to the
dish it is to accompany.
In preparing meat to stew for gravy, beat it with a mallet or
meat-beetle, score it, and cut it into small pieces; this makes it
give oat the juices. Season it with pepper and salt, and put it
into a stew-pan with butter only. Heat it gradually, till it
becomes brown. Shake the pan frequently, and see that it does not
bum or stick to the bottom. It will generally be browned
sufficiently in half an hour. Then put in some boiling water,
allowing one pint to each pound of meat. Simmer it on coals by the
side of the fire for near three hours, skimming it well, and
keeping it closely covered. When done, remove it from the heat,
let it stand awhile to settle, and then strain it.
If you wish to keep it two or three days, (which you may in
winter,) put it into a stone vessel, cover it closely, and set it
in a cool place.
Do not thicken this gravy till you go to use it.
MELTED BUTTER, SOMETIMES CALLED DRAWN BUTTER.
Melted butter is the foundation of most of the common sauces. Have
a covered sauce-pan for this purpose. One lined with porcelain
will be best. Take a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter,
cut it up, and mix with it about two tea-spoonfuls of flour. When
it is thoroughly mixed, put it into the sauce-pan, and add to it
four table-spoonfuls of cold water. Cover the sauce-pan, and set
it in a large tin pan of boiling water. Shake it round continually
(always moving it the same way) till it is entirely melted and
begins to simmer. Then let it rest till it boils up.
If you set it on hot coals, or over the fire, it will be oily.
If the butter and flour is not well mixed it will be lumpy.
If you put too much water, it will be thin and poor. All these
defects are to be carefully avoided.
In melting butter for sweet or pudding sauce, you may use milk
instead of water.
TO BROWN FLOUR.
Spread some fine flour on a plate, and set it in
the oven, turning it up and stirring it frequently that it may
brown equally all through.
Put it into a jar, cover it well, and keep it to stir into gravies
to thicken and colour them.
TO BROWN BUTTER.
Put a lump of butter into a frying-pan, and toss
it round over the fire till it becomes brown. Then dredge some
browned flour over it, and stir it round with a spoon till it
boils. It must be made quite smooth. You may make this into a
plain sauce for fish by adding cayenne and some flavoured vinegar.
PLAIN SAUCES.
LOBSTER SAUCE.
Boil a dozen blades of mace and half a dozen pepper-corns in about
a jill and a half (or three wine-glasses) of water, till all the
strength of the spice is extracted. Then strain it, and having cut
three quarters of a pound of butter into little bits, melt it in
this water, dredging in a little flour as you hold it over the
fire to boil. Toss it round, and let it just boil up and no more.
Take a cold boiled lobster,--pound the coral in a mortar adding a
little sweet oil. Then stir it into the melted butter.
Chop the meat of the body into very small pieces, and rub it
through a cullender into the butter. Cut up the flesh of the claws
and tail into dice, and stir it in. Give it another boil up, and
it will be ready for table.
Serve it up with fresh salmon, or any boiled fish of the best
kind.
Crab sauce is made in a similar manner; also prawn and shrimp
sauce.
ANCHOVY SAUCE.
Soak eight anchovies for three or four hours, changing the water
every hour. Then put them into a sauce-pan with a quart of cold
water. Set them on hot coals and simmer them till they are
entirely dissolved, and till the liquid is diminished two-thirds.
Then strain it, stir two glasses of red wine, and add to it about
half a pint of melted butter.
Heat it over again, and send it to table with salmon or fresh cod.
CELERY SAUCE.
Take a large bunch of young celery. Wash and pare it very clean.
Cut it into pieces, and boil it gently in a small quantity of
water, till it is quite tender. Then add a little powdered mace
and nutmeg, and a very little pepper and salt. Take a tolerably
large piece of butter, roll it well in flour, and stir it into the
sauce. Boil it up again, and it is ready to send to table.
You may make it with cream, thus:--Prepare and boil your celery as
above, adding some mace, nutmeg, a piece of butter the size of a
walnut, rolled in flour; and half a pint of cream. Boil all
together.
Celery sauce is eaten with boiled poultry.
When celery is out of season, you may use celery seed, boiled in
the water which you afterwards use for the melted butter, but
strained out after boiling.
NASTURTIAN SAUCE.
This is by many considered superior to caper sauce and is eaten
with boiled mutton. It is made with the green seeds of
nasturtians, pickled simply in cold vinegar.
Cut about six ounces of butter into small hits, and put them into
a small sauce-pan. Mix with a wine-glass of water sufficient flour
to make a thick batter, pour it on the butter, and hold the sauce-pan
over hot coals, shaking it quickly round, till the butter is
melted. Let it just boil up, and then take it from the fire.
Thicken it with the pickled nasturtians and send it to table in a
boat.
Never pour melted butter over any thing, but always send it to
table in a sauce-tureen or boat.
WHITE ONION SAUCE.
Peel a dozen onions, and throw them into salt and water to keep
them white. Then boil them tender. When done, squeeze the water
from them, and chop them. Have ready some butter that has been
melted rich and smooth with milk or cream instead of water. Put
the onions into the melted butter, and boil them up at once. If
you wish to have them very mild, put in a turnip with them at the
first boiling.
Young white onions, if very small, need not be chopped, but may be
put whole into the butter.
Use this sauce for rabbits, tripe, boiled poultry, or any boiled
fresh meat.
BROWN ONION SAUCE.
Slice some large mild Spanish onions. Cover them with butter, and
set them over a slow fire to brown. Then add salt and cayenne
pepper to your taste, and some good brown gravy of roast meat,
poultry or game, thickened with a bit of butter rolled in flour
that has first been browned by holding it in a hot pan or shovel
over the fire. Give it a boil, skim it well, and just before you
take it off, stir in a half glass of port or claret, and the same
quantity of mushroom catchup.
Use this sauce for roasted poultry, game, or meat.
MUSHROOM SAUCE.
Wash a pint of small button mushrooms,--remove the stems and the
outside skin. Stew them slowly in veal gravy or in milk or cream,
seasoning them with pepper and salt, and adding a piece of butter
rolled in a large proportion of flour. Stew them till quite
tender, now and then taking off the cover of the pan to stir them.
The flavour will be heightened by having salted a few the night
before in a covered dish, to extract the juice, and then stirring
it into the sauce while stewing.
This sauce may be served up with poultry, game, or beef-steaks.
In gathering mushrooms take only those that are of a dull pearl
colour on the outside, and that have the under part tinged with
pale pink.
Boil an onion with them. If there is a poisonous one among them,
the onion will turn black. Then throw away the whole.
EGG SAUCE.
Boil four eggs a quarter of an hour. Dip them into cold water to
prevent their looking blue. Peel off the shell. Chop the yolks of
all, and the whites of two, and stir them into melted butter.
Serve this sauce with boiled poultry or fish.
BREAD SAUCE.
Put some grated crumbs of stale bread into a sauce-pan, and pour
over them some of the liquor in which poultry or fresh meat has
been boiled. Add some plums or dried currants that have been
picked and washed. Having simmered them till the bread is quite
soft, and the currants well plumped, add melted butter or cream.
This sauce is for a roast pig.
MINT SAUCE.
Take a large bunch of young green mint; if old the taste will be
unpleasant. Wash it very clean. Pick all the leaves from the
stalks. Chop the leaves very fine, and mix them with cold vinegar,
and a large proportion of powdered sugar. There must be merely
sufficient vinegar to moisten the mint well, but by no means
enough to make the sauce liquid.
It is only eaten in the spring with roast lamb. Send it to table
in a sauce-tureen.
CAPER SAUCE.
Take two large table-spoonfuls of capers and a little vinegar.
Stir them for some time into half a pint of thick melted butter.
This sauce is for boiled mutton.
If you happen to have no capers, pickled cucumber chopped fine, or
the pickled pods of radish seeds, may be stirred into the butter
as a tolerable substitute.
PARSLEY SAUCE.
Wash a bunch of parsley in cold water. Then boil it about six or
seven minutes in salt and water. Drain it, cut the leaves from the
stalks, and chop them fine. Hare ready some melted butter, and
stir in the parsley. Allow two small table-spoonfuls of leaves to
half a pint of butter.
Serve it up with boiled fowls, rock-fish, sea-bass, and other
boiled fresh fish.. Also with knuckle of veal, and with calf's
head boiled plain.
APPLE SAUCE.
Pare, core, and slice some fine apples. Put them into a sauce-pan
with just sufficient water to keep them from burning, and some
grated lemon-peel. Stew them till quite soft and tender. Then mash
them to a paste, and make them very sweet with brown sugar, adding
a small piece of butter and some nutmeg.
Apple sauce is eaten with roast pork, roast goose and roast ducks.
Be careful not to have it thin and watery.
CRANBERRY SAUCE.
Wash a quart of ripe cranberries, and put them into a pan with
about a wine-glass of water. Stew them slowly, and stir them
frequently, particularly after they begin to burst. They require a
great deal of stewing, and should be like a marmalade when done.
Just before you take them from the fire, stir in a pound of brown
sugar.
When they are thoroughly done, put them into a deep dish, and set
them away to get cold.
You may strain the pulp through a cullender or sieve into a mould,
and when it is in a firm shape send it to table on a glass dish.
Taste it when it is cold, and if not sweet enough, add more sugar.
Cranberries require more sugar than any other fruit, except plums.
Cranberry sauce is eaten with roast turkey, roast fowls, and roast
ducks.
PEACH SAUCE.
Take a quart of dried peaches, (those are richest and best that
are dried with the skins on,) and soak them in cold water till
they are tender. Then drain them, and put them into a covered pan
with a very little water. Set them on coals, and simmer them till
they are entirely dissolved. Then mash them with brown sugar, and
send them to table cold to eat with roast meat, game or poultry.
WINE SAUCE.
Have ready some rich thick melted or drawn butter, and the moment
you take it from the fire, stir in two large glasses of white
wine, two table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar, and a powdered
nutmeg. Serve it up with plum pudding, or any sort of boiled
pudding that is made of a batter.
COLD SWEET SAUCE.
Stir together, as for a pound-cake, equal quantities of fresh
butter and powdered white sugar. When quite light and creamy, add
some powdered cinnamon or nutmeg, and a few drops of essence of
lemon. Send it to table in a small deep plate with a tea-spoon in
it.
Eat it with batter pudding, bread pudding, Indian pudding, &c.
whether baked or boiled. Also with boiled apple pudding or
dumplings, and with fritters and pancakes.
CREAM SAUCE.
Boil a pint and a half of rich cream with four table-spoonfuls of
powdered sugar, some pieces of cinnamon, and a dozen bitter
almonds or peach kernels slightly broken up, or a dozen fresh
peach leaves. As soon as it has boiled up, take it off the fire
and strain it. If it is to be eaten with boiled pudding or with
dumplings send it to table hot, but let it get quite cold if you
intend it as an accompaniment to fruit pies or tarts.
OYSTER SAUCE.
Take a pint of oysters, and save out a little of their liquid. Put
them with their remaining liquor, and some mace and nutmegs, into
a covered sauce-pan, and simmer them on hot coals about eight
minutes. Then drain them.
Having prepared in another sauce-pan some drawn or melted butter,
(mixed with oyster liquor instead of water,) pour it into a sauce-boat,
add the oysters to it, and serve it up with boiled poultry
or with boiled fresh fish.
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