Common Sense in the Household 30

Common Sense in the Household 30

SAUCES FOR MEAT AND FISH.

 

These are no longer the appendages of the rich man’s bill of fare only.

A general knowledge of made sauces, as well as the more expensive ones

imported from abroad and sold here at high prices, is a part of every

intelligent housekeeper’s culinary education. Few are so ignorant as

to serve a fish sauce with game, or _vice versâ_. From the immense

number of receipts which I have collected and examined, I have selected

comparatively few but such as I consider “representative” articles.

The ingenious housewife is at liberty, as I said before, elsewhere, to

modify and improve upon them.

 

First, _par excellence_, as the most important, and because it is the

groundwork of many others, I place

 

 

MELTED OR DRAWN BUTTER.

 

 

NO. 1.

 

2 teaspoonfuls flour.

1½ ounce butter.

1 teacupful hot water or milk.

A little salt.

 

Put the flour and salt in a bowl, and add a little at a time of the

water or milk, working it very smooth as you go on. Put into a tin cup

or saucepan, and set in a vessel of boiling water. As it warms, stir,

and when it has boiled a minute or more, add the butter by degrees,

stirring all the time until it is entirely melted and incorporated with

the flour and water. Boil one minute.

 

Mix with milk when you wish to use for puddings, with water for meats

and fish.

 

 

NO. 2.

 

1½ teaspoonful of flour.

2 ounces butter.

1 teacupful (small) hot water.

 

Wet the flour to a thin smooth paste with cold water, and stir into the

hot, which should be in the inner vessel. When it boils, add the butter

by degrees, and stir until well mixed. Boil one minute.

 

 

NO. 3.

 

3 ounces butter.

Half-pint water (hot).

A beaten egg.

1 heaping teaspoonful flour.

 

Wet the flour to a smooth paste with a little cold milk, and add to the

hot water in the inner vessel, stirring until thick. Have ready the

beaten egg in a cup. Take a teaspoonful of the mixture from the fire,

and beat with this until light; then another, and still another. Set

aside the cup when this is done, and stir the butter into the contents

of the inner saucepan gradually, until thoroughly mixed, then add the

beaten egg in the same way. There is no danger of clotting the egg, if

it be treated as I have described.

 

 

EGG SAUCE. ✠

 

3 hard-boiled eggs.

A good teacupful drawn butter.

A little salt.

 

Chop the yolks only of the eggs very fine, and beat into the hot drawn

butter, salting to taste.

 

This is used for boiled fowls and boiled fish. For the former, you can

add some minced parsley; for the latter, chopped pickles, capers, or

nasturtium seed. For boiled beef, a small shallot minced fine.

 

 

_Or,_

 

Omit the boiled eggs, and beat up two raw ones very light, and put into

the drawn butter instead, as directed in No. 3. For boiled beef or

chicken, you may make the drawn butter of hot liquor taken from the pot

in which the meat is cooking, having first carefully skimmed it.

 

 

SAUCE FOR BOILED OR BAKED FISH.

 

4 ounces butter.

1 tablespoonful flour.

2 anchovies.

1 teaspoonful chopped capers, or nasturtium seed, or green pickle.

1 shallot.

Pepper and salt to taste.

1 tablespoonful vinegar.

1 teacupful hot water.

 

Put the water into the inner saucepan, chop the anchovies and shallot,

and put in with the pepper and salt. Boil two minutes, and strain back

into the saucepan when you have rinsed with hot water. Now add the

flour wet smooth with cold water, and stir until it thickens; put in

the butter by degrees, and when it is thoroughly melted and mixed, the

vinegar; lastly, the capers and a little nutmeg.

 

 

WHITE SAUCE FOR FISH. ✠

 

Make drawn butter by receipt No. 2, but with double the quantity of

flour, and use, instead of water, the liquor in which the fish was

boiled. Add four tablespoonfuls of milk, in which a shallot and a head

of celery or a pinch of celery-seed has been boiled, then strained out.

Boil one minute, and stir in a teaspoonful of chopped parsley.

 

 

OYSTER SAUCE. ✠

 

1 pint oysters.

Half a lemon.

2 tablespoonfuls butter.

1 tablespoonful flour.

1 teacupful milk or cream.

Cayenne and nutmeg to taste.

 

Stew the oysters in their own liquor five minutes, and add the milk.

When this boils, strain the liquor and return to the saucepan. Thicken

with the flour when you have wet it with cold water; stir it well in;

put in the butter, next the cayenne (if you like it), boil one minute;

squeeze in the lemon-juice, shake it around well, and pour out.

 

 

_Or,_

 

Drain the oysters dry without cooking at all; make the sauce with the

liquor and other ingredients just named. Chop the raw oysters, and stir

in when you do the butter; boil five minutes, and pour into the tureen.

Some put in the oysters whole, considering that the sauce is handsomer

than when they are chopped.

 

Oyster sauce is used for boiled halibut, cod, and other fish, for

boiled turkey, chickens, and white meats generally.

 

 

CRAB SAUCE.

 

1 crab, boiled and cold.

4 tablespoonfuls of milk.

1 teacupful drawn butter.

Cayenne, mace, and salt to taste.

 

Make the drawn butter as usual, and stir in the milk. Pick the meat

from the crab, chop very fine, season with cayenne, mace, and salt to

taste; stir into the drawn butter. Simmer three minutes, but do not

boil.

 

Lobster sauce is very nice made as above, with the addition of a

teaspoonful of made mustard and the juice of half a lemon. This is a

good fish sauce.

 

 

ANCHOVY SAUCE.

 

6 anchovies.

A teacupful drawn butter.

A wineglass pale Sherry.

 

Soak the anchovies in cold water two hours; pull them to pieces, and

simmer in just enough water to cover them for half an hour. Strain the

liquor into the drawn butter (No. 3), boil a minute, add the wine; heat

gradually to a boil, and stew five minutes longer. You may substitute

two teaspoonfuls of anchovy paste for the little fish themselves.

 

Serve with boiled fish.

 

 

SAUCE FOR LOBSTERS.

 

5 tablespoonfuls fresh butter.

Teacupful vinegar.

Salt and pepper to taste, with a heaping teaspoonful white sugar.

1 teaspoonful made mustard.

Minced parsley.

 

Beat the butter to a cream, adding gradually the vinegar, salt, and

pepper. Boil a bunch of parsley five minutes, chop small; beat into

the butter; lastly the sugar and mustard. The butter must be light as

whipped egg.

 

 

BREAD SAUCE.

 

1 pint milk.

1 cup bread-crumbs (very fine).

1 onion, sliced.

A pinch of mace.

Pepper and salt to taste.

3 tablespoonfuls butter.

 

Simmer the sliced onion in the milk until tender; strain the milk and

pour over the bread-crumbs, which should be put into a saucepan. Cover

and soak half an hour; beat smooth with an egg-whip, add the seasoning

and butter; stir in well, boil up once, and serve in a tureen. If it is too thick, add boiling water and more butter.