Part 10

For fried fish the perfection of accompaniments is the _sauce Tartare_--a mere addition of some capers, shallots, parsley, and pickles to the _sauce Mayonnaise_.

When tomatoes are so abundant, it is unpardonable that one should never serve a tomato sauce with a beefsteak, and a score of other meat dishes.

For a chicken or a lobster salad, learn unquestionably the _sauce Mayonnaise_.

In the thickening of sauces, let it be remembered that butter and flour should be well cooked together before the sauce is added, to prevent the flour from tasting uncooked. In butter sauces, however, only enough butter should be used to cook the flour, the remainder added, cut in pieces, after the sauce is taken from the fire. This preserves its flavor.

DRAWN-BUTTER SAUCE.

Ingredients: Three ounces of butter, one ounce of flour, half a pint of water (or, better, white stock), and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Put two ounces of the butter into a stew-pan, and when it bubbles, sprinkle in the flour; stir it well with a wire egg-whisk until the flour is thoroughly cooked without taking color, and then mix in well the half-pint of water or stock. Take it off the fire, pass it through a sieve or gravy-strainer, and stir in the other ounce of butter cut in pieces. When properly mixed and melted, it is ready for use. This makes a pint of sauce.

Some persons like drawn-butter sauce slightly acid, in which case add a few drops of vinegar or lemon-juice just before serving.

PICKLE SAUCE.

Make a drawn-butter sauce; just before serving add two or three table-spoonfuls of pickled cucumbers chopped or minced very fine.

BOILED-EGG SAUCE.

Add to half a pint of drawn-butter sauce three hard-boiled eggs, chopped not too fine.

CAPER SAUCE.

Make a drawn-butter sauce--or, say, melt two ounces of butter in a saucepan; add a table-spoonful of flour; when the two are well mixed, add pepper and salt, and a little less than a pint of boiling water. Stir the sauce on the fire until it thickens, then add three table-spoonfuls of French capers. Removing the saucepan from the fire, stir into the sauce the yolk of an egg beaten with the juice of half a lemon.

ANCHOVY SAUCE.

Add to half a pint of drawn-butter sauce two tea-spoonfuls of anchovy extract, or anchovy paste.

SHRIMP SAUCE.

To half a pint of drawn-butter sauce add one-third of a pint of picked boiled shrimps, whole, or chopped a little. Add at last moment a few drops of lemon-juice, and a very little Cayenne pepper. Let the sauce _simmer_, not boil. Some add a tea-spoonful of anchovy paste; more, perhaps, prefer it without the anchovy flavor.

Shrimps are generally sold at market already boiled. If they are not boiled, throw them into salted boiling water, and boil them until they are quite red. When cold, pick off the heads, and peel off the shells. Always save a few of the shrimps whole for garnishing the dish.

LOBSTER SAUCE.

Before proceeding to make this sauce, break up the coral of the lobster, and put it on a paper in a slow oven for half an hour; then pound it in a mortar, and sprinkle it over the boiled fish when it is served. To prepare the sauce itself, chop the meat of the tail and claws of a good-sized lobster into pieces, not too small. Half an hour before dinner, make half a pint of drawn-butter sauce. Add to it the chopped lobster, a pinch of coral, a small pinch of Cayenne, and a little salt. An English lady says: “This process seems simple, yet nothing is rarer in cookery than good lobster sauce. The means of spoiling it are chiefly by chopping the lobster too small, or, worse, pounding it, inserting contents of the head, or using milk, or anchovy, or any sauces. It should not be a half-solid mass, or thin liquid, but the lobster should be distinct in a creamy bed.”

OYSTER SAUCE.

Make a drawn-butter or white sauce; add a few drops of lemon or a table-spoonful of capers, or, if neither be at hand, a few drops of vinegar; add oysters strained from their liquor, and let them just come to a boil in the sauce.

This sauce is much better made with part cream, _i. e._, used when making the drawn-butter sauce, instead of all water. In this case, do not add the lemon-juice or vinegar. Some make the white sauce of the oyster liquor, instead of water.

This sauce may be served in a sauce-boat, but it is nicer to pour it over the fish, boiled turkey, or chicken.

PARSLEY SAUCE (_for Boiled Fish or Fowls_).

To half a pint of hot drawn-butter sauce add two table-spoonfuls of chopped parsley. The appearance of the sauce is improved by coloring it with a little spinach-green (see page 87).

CAULIFLOWER SAUCE (_for Boiled Poultry_).

Add boiled cauliflowers, cut into little flowerets, to a drawn-butter sauce made with part cream.

LEMON SAUCE (_for Boiled Fowls_).

To half a pint of drawn-butter sauce add the inside of a lemon, chopped (seeds taken out), and the chicken liver boiled and mashed fine.

CHICKEN SAUCE (_to serve with Boiled or Stewed Fowls_).

Put butter the size of an egg into a bright saucepan, and when it bubbles add a table-spoonful of flour; cook it, and add a pint, or rather less, of boiling water; when smooth, take it from the fire, and add the beaten yolks of two or three eggs, and a few drops of lemon-juice, pepper, and salt. Or, Stock can be used instead of boiling water, when two or three small slices of onion are placed in the butter after it begins to bubble, and then allowed to cook yellow; after the flour is cooked, stock is added instead of water, and when smooth, it is taken from the fire, a few drops of lemon-juice, pepper, and salt are added, and the sauce is strained through the gravy-strainer or sieve, to remove the pieces of onion.

MAÎTRE-D’HÔTEL BUTTER (_for Beefsteak, Broiled Meat, or Fish_).

Mix butter the size of an egg, the juice of half a lemon, and two or three sprigs of parsley, chopped very fine; pepper and salt all together. Spread this over any broiled meat or fish when hot; then put the dish into the oven a few moments, to allow the butter to penetrate the meat.

MINT SAUCE (_for Roast Lamb_).

Put four table-spoonfuls of chopped mint, two table-spoonfuls of sugar, and a quarter of a pint of vinegar into the sauce-boat. Let it remain an hour or two before dinner, that the vinegar may become impregnated with the mint.

CURRANT-JELLY SAUCE (_for Venison_).

A simple sauce made of currant jelly melted with a little water is very nice; yet Francatelli’s receipt is much better, viz.:

“Bruise half a stick of cinnamon and six cloves; put them into a stew-pan with one ounce of sugar and the peel of half a lemon, pared off very thin, and perfectly free from any portion of white pulp; moisten this with one and a half sherry-glassfuls of port-wine, and set the whole to gently simmer or heat on the stove for half an hour; then strain it into a small stew-pan containing half a glassful of currant jelly. Just before sending the sauce to the table, set it on the fire to boil, in order to melt the currant jelly, and so that it may mix with the essence of spice, etc.”

TOMATO SAUCE (No. 1).

Stew six tomatoes half an hour with two cloves, a sprig of parsley, pepper, and salt; press this through a sieve; put a little butter into a saucepan over the fire, and when it bubbles add a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; mix and cook it well, and add the tomato-pulp, stirring until it is smooth and consistent.

Some add one or two slices of onion at first. It is a decided improvement to add three or four table-spoonfuls of stock; however, the sauce is very good without it, and people are generally too careless to have stock at hand.

TOMATO SAUCE (No. 2).

Ingredients: One-quart can of tomatoes, two cloves, one small sprig of thyme, two sprigs of parsley, half a small bay-leaf, three pepper-corns, three allspice, two slices of carrot (one and a half ounces), one-ounce onion (one small onion), one and a half ounces of butter (size of a pigeon’s egg), one and a half ounces of flour (one table-spoonful).

Put the tomatoes over the fire with all the above ingredients but the butter and flour, and when they have boiled about twenty minutes strain them through a sieve. Make a _roux_ by putting the butter into a stew-pan, and when it bubbles sprinkle in the flour, which let cook, stirring it well; then pour in the tomato-pulp; when it is well mixed, it is ready for use.

SAUCE HOLLANDAISE, OR DUTCH SAUCE.

As this is one of the best sauces ever made for boiled fish, asparagus, or cauliflower, I will give two receipts. The first is Dubois’; the second is from the Cooking-school in New York. None should call themselves cooks unless they know how to make the _sauce Hollandaise_, and simple enough it is.

1st. “Pour four table-spoonfuls of good vinegar into a small stew-pan, and add some pepper-corns and salt; let the liquid boil until it is reduced to half; let it cool; then add to it the well-beaten yolks of four or five eggs, also four ounces (size of an egg) of good butter, more salt, if necessary, and a very little nutmeg. Set the stew-pan on a very slow fire, and stir the liquid until it is about as thick as cream; immediately remove it. Now put this stew-pan or cup into another pan containing a little warm water kept at the side of the fire. Work the sauce briskly with a spoon, or with a little whisk, so as to get it frothy, but adding little bits of butter, in all about three ounces” (_I_ would say the size of half an egg). “When the sauce has become light and smooth, it is ready for use.”

2d. “Put a piece of butter the size of a pigeon’s egg into a saucepan, and when it bubbles stir in with an egg-whisk an even table-spoonful of flour; let it continue to bubble until the flour is thoroughly cooked, when stir in half a pint of boiling water, or, better, of veal stock; when it boils, take it from the fire, and stir into it gradually the beaten yolks of four eggs; return the sauce to the fire for a minute, to set the eggs, without allowing it to boil; again remove the sauce, stir in the juice of half a small lemon, and fresh butter the size of a walnut, cut into small pieces, to facilitate its melting, and stir all well with the whisk.”

MUSHROOMS, FOR GARNISH (_Gouffé_).

Separate the button part from the stalk; then peel them with a sharp knife, cutting off merely the skin. Put them into a stew-pan with a table-spoonful of lemon-juice and two table-spoonfuls of water. Toss them well, to impregnate them with the liquid. The object of the lemon-juice is to keep them white. Then put them on a sharp fire in boiling water, with some butter added. When they are boiled tender they are ready for use, _i. e._, for garnishing and for sauces.

MUSHROOM SAUCE (_to serve with Beefsteaks, Fillets of Beef, etc._).

Having prepared the mushrooms by cutting off the stalks, and if they are large, by cutting them in halves or quarters, throw them into a little boiling water, or, what is much better, stock. Do not use more than is necessary to cover them. This must be seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little butter. Boil the mushrooms until they are tender, then thicken the gravy slightly with a _roux_ of butter and flour. Add a few drops of lemon-juice. It is now ready to pour over the meat.

MUSHROOM WHITE SAUCE (_to serve with Boiled Fowls or with Cutlets_).

Prepare the mushrooms as for garnishing; boil them tender in rich white stock, made of veal or chicken; thicken with a _roux_ of butter and flour, and add one or two table-spoonfuls of cream.

MUSHROOM SAUCE (_made with Canned Mushrooms_).

Put a piece of butter the size of a walnut into a small stew-pan or tin basin, and when it bubbles add a tea-spoonful (not heaping) of flour; when well cooked, stir in a cupful of stock (reduced and strong), and half a tea-cupful of the mushroom-juice from the can; let it simmer for a minute or two; then, after straining it, add half or three quarters of a can of mushrooms, pepper, salt, and a few drops of lemon-juice. When thoroughly hot it is ready to pour over the meat.

A SIMPLE BECHAMEL SAUCE.

Put butter the size of a walnut into a stew-pan, and when it bubbles stir in an even table-spoonful of flour, which cook thoroughly without letting it take color. Mix into the _roux_ a cupful of strong hot veal stock (_i. e._, veal put into cold water and boiled four or five hours), a cupful of boiling cream, and one grating of nutmeg; let it simmer, stirring it well for a few minutes, then strain, and it is ready for use. The sauce would be improved if the usual soup-bunch vegetables were added to the stock while it is being made.

BECHAMEL SAUCE.

Ingredients: One pint of veal stock (a knuckle of veal put into one gallon of cold water, boiled five hours, skimmed and strained), half an ounce of onion (quarter of a rather small one), quarter of an ounce of turnip (quarter of a turnip), one ounce of carrot (quarter of a good-sized carrot), half an ounce of parsley (two sprigs), quarter of a bay-leaf, half a sprig of thyme, three pepper-corns, half a lump of sugar, a small blade of mace.

Put one ounce (size of a walnut) of butter into a stew-pan, and when hot add to it all the above ingredients but the stock and the mace; fry this slowly until it assumes a yellow color; do not let it brown, as the sauce should be white when done; stir in now a table-spoonful (one ounce) of flour, which let cook a minute, and add the blade of mace and the stock (boiling) from another stew-pan. After it has all simmered about five minutes, strain it through a sieve without allowing the vegetables to pass through; return the strained sauce to the fire, reduce it by boiling about one-third, when add three or four table-spoonfuls of good thick cream, and the sauce is ready.

SAUCE AUX FINES HERBES.

Ingredients: Half a pint of good stock, three table-spoonfuls of mushrooms, one table-spoonful of onions, two table-spoonfuls of parsley, and one shallot, all chopped fine. Fry the shallot and onion in a little butter until they assume a light-yellow color, then add a tea-spoonful of flour and cook it a minute; stir in the stock, mushrooms, and parsley, simmer for five minutes, then add a little Worcestershire sauce, and salt to taste. If no Worcestershire sauce is at hand, add pepper to taste in its place.

SAUCE TARTARE (_a Cold Sauce_).

To a scant half pint of _Mayonnaise_ sauce (made with the mustard added) mix in two table-spoonfuls of capers, one small shallot (quarter of a rather small onion, a poor substitute), two gerkins (or two ounces of cucumber pickle), and one table-spoonful of parsley, all chopped _very_ fine. This sauce will keep a long time, and is delicious for fried fish, fried oysters, boiled cod-fish, boiled tongue, or as dressing for a salad.

* * * * *

By making the following simple sauce, one can produce several by a little variation.

A SIMPLE BROWN SAUCE.

Put into a saucepan a table-spoonful of minced onion and a little butter. When it has taken color, sprinkle in a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; stir well, and when brown add half a pint of stock. Cook it a few minutes, and strain. Now, by adding a cupful of claret, two cloves, a sprig of parsley, and one of thyme, a bay-leaf, pepper, and salt, and by boiling two or three minutes and straining it, one has the _sauce poivrade_.

If, instead of the claret, one should add to the _poivrade_ sauce a table-spoonful each of minced cucumber pickles, vinegar, and capers, one has the _sauce piquante_.

By adding one tea-spoonful of made mustard, the juice of half a lemon, and a little vinegar to the _poivrade_, instead of the claret, one has the _sauce Robert_.

BEEF.

For a roast of beef, the sirloin and tenderloin cuts are considered the best. They are more expensive, and are no better than the best cuts of a rib roast: the sixth, seventh, and eighth ribs are the choicest cuts. The latter roasts are served to better advantage by requesting the butcher to remove the bones and roll the meat. Always have him send the bones also, as they are a valuable acquisition to the soup-pot. As the rolled rib roasts are shaved evenly off and across the top when carved (the roasts are to be cooked rare, of course), they present an equally good appearance for a second cooking. I have really served a roast a third time to good advantage, serving it the last time _à la jardinière_. Of course, in summer large cuts should not be purchased.

If the animal is young and large, and the meat is of clear, bright-red color, and the fat white, the meat is sure to be tender and juicy.

There is no better sauce for a good, juicy roast of beef than the simple juice of the meat. Horse-radish sauce may be served if the beef is not particularly good.

If a sauce is made by adding hot water, flour, pepper, and salt to the contents of the baking-pan after the beef is cooked, do not serve it with a half-inch depth of pure grease on top in the sauce-boat. This is as absurd, when it can be allowed to stand a moment and simply _poured off_, or taken off with a spoon, as to serve wet salt at table, which can easily be placed in the oven a few moments to dry, before sifting. Also, this kind of baking-pan sauce would not be so very objectionable, if cooks generally knew that it does not require a scientific education, nor a herculean effort, to strain it through a gravy-strainer.

TO ROAST OR BAKE BEEF.

A few rules for roasting and baking beef: Allow nine minutes to the pound for _baking_ a rolled rib-roast; for _roasting_ it, allow ten minutes to the pound. Sirloin roasts require eight minutes to the pound for baking, nine minutes for roasting.

To bake, have the oven very hot. Before putting in the meat, sprinkle over pepper and salt, and dredge with flour. Pour a little boiling water into the pan before baking. Baste frequently.

To roast, have a bright fire. Hang the joint about eighteen inches from it at first, put a little clarified dripping into the dripping-pan, baste the meat with it when first prepared to cook, and every fifteen minutes afterward. Twenty minutes before the beef is done, sprinkle with pepper and salt, dredge with flour, baste with a little butter or dripping. Keep the fire bright, and turn the meat before it. It should be well browned and frothed. The cut, a rolled rib roast, with mashed potatoes.

YORKSHIRE PUDDING.

Ingredients: Six large table-spoonfuls of flour, three eggs (well beaten), one salt-spoonful of salt, enough milk to make it of the consistency of soft custard (about one and a half pints).

Add enough milk to the flour and salt to make a smooth, stiff batter; add the eggs, and enough more milk to make it of the proper consistency. Beat all well together, pour it into a shallow pan (buttered); bake three-quarters of an hour.

Some empty the dripping-pan three-quarters of an hour before baked beef is done, and put the pudding into the empty pan, the beef on a three-cornered stand over it, that its juice may drop on the pudding. If beef is roasted, the pudding may be first baked in the oven, then placed under the beef for fifteen or twenty minutes, to catch any stray drops. It is as often served, though, baked in the oven in the ordinary way.

It is cut into squares and served on a hot plate, to be eaten with roast beef. It is a favorite English dish.

BEEF À LA MODE.

Six or seven pounds from a round of beef are generally selected; however, there is a cut from the shoulder which answers very well for an _à-la-mode beef_. If the round is used, extract the bone. Make several deep incisions into the meat with a thin sharp knife; press into most of them lardoons of pork about half an inch square, and two or three inches long; in the other cuts, and especially the one from whence the bone was extracted, stuff almost any kind of force-meat, the simplest being as follows: Mix some soaked bread with a little chopped beef-suet, onion, any herbs, such as parsley, thyme, or summer savory; a little egg, Cayenne pepper, salt, and cloves. Press the beef into shape, round or oval, and tie it securely.

Put trimmings of pork into the bottom of a large saucepan or iron pot, and when hot put over the meat; brown it all over by turning all sides to the bottom of the pot, which should now be uncovered. This will take about half an hour. Next sprinkle over a heaping table-spoonful of flour, and brown that also. Put a small plate under the beef, to prevent burning, and fill the pot with enough boiling water to half cover the meat; throw over a saucerful of sliced onions, carrots, some turnips, if you like, and some parsley. There are iron pots, with tight iron covers, which are made expressly for this kind of cooking; but if you have none of this description, you will now have to cover the one used with enough covers, towels, etc., to make it tight as possible, so that the meat may be cooked in the steam. Let it cook for four or five hours, never allowing the water to stop boiling. Watch it, that it may not get too low, and replenish it with boiling water. When the meat is done, put it on a hot platter; strain the gravy, skim off every particle of fat, add two or three table-spoonfuls of port or sherry wine, also pepper and salt, if necessary, and pour this gravy and selected pieces of the vegetables over the meat.

Baked onions (see page 201), placed around the beef as a garnish, complete the dish for a course at dinner.

BRAISED BEEF (No. 1).--_New York Cooking-school._

Ingredients: Six-pound loin of beef, half a pound of pork, three-fourths of a cupful of flour, two-ounce onion (one small onion), three-ounce carrot (half a large carrot), one-ounce turnip, one-third of a bunch of parsley, one sprig of thyme, two cloves, three allspice, six pepper-corns, half of a bay-leaf.

Trim the beef into a shapely piece; stick a knife quite through different portions of it, in which apertures press slices or lardoons of pork, half an inch square, and three or four inches long. Tie the beef into shape with twine. Lay scraps of pork on the bottom of a saucepan, place it on a brisk fire, and when hot put in the beef; brown it all over by turning the different sides to the bottom of the uncovered saucepan. It will take about half an hour to brown it. Now sprinkle over the beef three-fourths of a cupful of flour (three ounces), also the vegetables and spices; and brown all this by again turning the meat over the fire. When they are of fine color, pour over a tumblerful of claret, which reduce to half; then fill the saucepan with boiling stock or water; cover it tightly, and place it in a hot oven for two and a half hours. When done, put the beef on a hot platter.

Strain the sauce in which the beef was cooked, take off every particle of fat, season with more salt, if necessary; pour about half a cupful of it over the beef in the platter, and serve the remainder in a sauce-boat.

The beef may be surrounded with green pease, prepared as follows: Wash a can of American pease in cold water, then put them over the fire with half a cupful of boiling water, salt, pepper, one ounce of butter, and one salt-spoonful of sugar. When the pease have simmered a minute, strain them from their liquor, and place them in the platter around the beef.

BRAISED BEEF (No. 2).

The same cut which is used for an _à-la-mode_ beef may be braised in the same manner as is described for a fillet of beef braised. This may be served with the gravy, as is there described, or with the addition of the _jardinière_ of vegetables.

BRAISED BEEF, WITH HORSE-RADISH SAUCE.

Braise five pounds of fresh beef (not too lean), with an onion and a carrot sliced, two or three sprigs of parsley, four or five cloves, a little celery, if you have it, pepper, salt, and about a quart of boiling water. Cover it tightly, and let it cook about three hours, replenishing with a little boiling water, if the steam escapes too much.