SIMPLE SAUCES.
I will commence with a useful rule:—As in soups, so in sauces, let discretion fix the quantity to be made: half a pint may be fixed as enough for six people. It is a common practice to make far more than necessity requires, and thus extra expense is incurred that might well be avoided.
Failure in the composition of the standard English sauce, melted butter (sauce blanche), is so common, that I will commence with a few hints with regard to that homely preparation. The pith of this sauce consists in melting your lump of butter (good butter, mind), first at the bottom of your saucepan, over a very moderate fire, next to add the flour, which soon forms a smooth paste when worked with the melted butter, and then to reduce the fire, and cook the roux gently for some minutes, but without allowing it to take colour. Next to add by degrees the warm water, or milk and water, with a pinch of salt. Increase the heat now, and work this well with a wooden spoon till it is soft and creamy to look upon, pass it through your tin strainer into a hot sauce-boat, and, as you serve it, add a pat of fresh butter the size of a walnut, which will, of course, melt of its own accord, and give that fresh buttery flavour which you desire—not that flour-and-watery one so suggestive of the composition you would employ for fixing scraps in an album.
For a pint of sauce you will require two ounces of butter, one ounce of flour, a saltspoonful of salt, and a pint of warm water, or milk and water. Use one ounce of butter, and the flour first, and save the extra ounce of butter to finish with. Half of everything will give enough sauce for six people—i.e., half a pint.
As flours in their thickening power, it is possible the sauce may sometimes seem a little too thick. In this case a slight addition of milk or water will set matters straight, but this should be done before the final addition of the pure butter.
If too thin a sauce may be reduced by fast boiling before the addition of the final pat of butter, or a thickening “à l’alle-mande” may be stirred into it. Take as much flour as you think likely to effect the object; put this into a teacup, and moisten it with water or milk, stirring and mixing it thoroughly till it assumes the consistency of batter. When quite smooth and creamy pass this through a pointed strainer into the warm sauce, bring to the boil, and the additional thickness will be obtained. Crème de riz may be used instead of flour.
A pinch of sugar with the salt assists all white sauces.
Please observe, however, that milk is not absolutely necessary in making white sauce. The chief objection to its use is, that in warm weather it causes the sauce with which it may be used to turn sour the next day. I consequently advocate the use of common broth, made from chicken bones or mutton scraps instead of milk. Broth enriches the sauce, and if strong, makes it equal to sauce blonde. The water in which peas, carrots, parsnips, onions, celery, and leeks have been boiled—the eau de la cuisson of the French kitchen—may be used advantageously for this purpose.
If required for fish, the liquid in which the fish was boiled, if not too salt, reduced by rapid boiling, or a broth made from the bones, fins, and trimmings separately simmered should be used. This, it will be seen, is strongly advocated in Chapter VI. Indeed, so valuable do I consider the fish stock basis that I would, for any special occasion, purchase some “fish cuttings” separately for its concoction.