Part 83

_Mint Sauce_ (Menthe).--Chop as finely as possible a quantity of mint leaves, previously washed. Add to them sufficient white wine vinegar and water in equal parts to float them, and a small quantity of powdered sugar. Let the sauce stand for an hour before serving.

_Mustard._--(_a_) 9 oz. water, 8 oz. mustard flour, 2 oz. salt; mix smooth; add 6 oz. more water, mix.

(_b_) Take a good heaped handful of salt, put it into a jug, pour 1 pint boiling water; let this get cold, then mix it with as much mustard as it will use up, and put the mixed mustard in a jar and cover it; it will keep good, and not dry and discolour in the mustard-pot.

(_c_) Mix 1 qt. brown mustard seed with a handful each of parsley, chervil, tarragon, and burnet, a teaspoonful of celery seed, and cloves, mace, garlic, and salt according to taste. Put the whole into a basin, with enough wine vinegar to cover the mixture. Let it steep 24 hours, then pound it in a marble mortar. When thoroughly pounded pass it through a fine sieve; add enough vinegar to make the mustard of the desired consistency, and put into jars for use.

(_d_) Take mixed whole spices, and boil in vinegar with 2 lumps sugar; then mix mustard into a stiff paste with cold vinegar. With a red-hot Italian iron heater stir quickly while you mix the boiling vinegar after straining the spices. This will keep for years, well corked in a wide-necked bottle.

_Olive Sauce._--Mix quite smoothly 1 spoonful flour in 4 of good salad oil, add 6 shallots, chopped, with a very little lemon peel, mix with stock and 2 tablespoonfuls vinegar, some pepper and salt, and a bay leaf. Boil for 20 minutes, and strain. Place on the fire again, and add 6-8 stoned olives, cut up small. Serve round a mince of mutton.

_Onion Sauce_ (pauvre homme).--(_a_) Peel and parboil some onions, drain, and cut them in quarters, put them into a stewpan with sufficient well-flavoured white stock to cover them; keep on the lid, and simmer gently until quite tender, pass them through a sieve; add to the pulp sufficient milk, cream, or béchamel sauce as will be necessary to make the sauce; stir over the fire until quite hot, add seasoning of pepper and salt if required, and it is ready.

(_b_) Parboil some onions a few minutes, mince them roughly and put them into a saucepan, with plenty of butter, a pinch of sugar and pepper and salt to taste; let them cook slowly, so that they do not take colour, and add 1 tablespoonful flour. When they are quite tender pass them through a hair sieve. Dilute the onion pulp with sufficient milk to make the sauce of the desired consistency; add a tablespoonful of Parmesan cheese, stir well, make it hot, and serve.

(_c_) Boil some onions in milk, with pepper, salt, and nutmeg. When quite done pass them through a sieve. Put some butter and flour into a saucepan; when the butter is melted and well mixed with the flour put in the pulp of the onions, and add either milk or cream, stirring the sauce on the fire until it is of the desired consistency.

_Orange Sauce_ (Bigarade).--Pare off, as thinly as possible, the yellow rind of 2 Seville oranges; cut it into very thin shreds, and boil them in water for 5 minutes. Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, add to it 1 tablespoonful flour, and stir until it begins to colour; add a gill of stock, pepper and salt to taste, the juice of the oranges, and a good pinch of sugar; then put in the boiled rinds, stir the sauce until it boils, and serve.

_Oyster Sauce_ (aux Huîtres).--(_a_) Parboil the oysters in their own liquor, beard them, and reserve all the liquor. Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, add a little flour, the oyster liquor, and enough milk to make as much sauce as is wanted. Put in a blade of mace and a bay leaf tied together, pepper and salt to taste, and the least dust of cayenne. Let the sauce come to the boil, add the oysters, and as soon as they are quite hot remove the mace and bay leaf. Stir in a few drops of lemon juice, and serve.

(_b_) To make this in perfection is really one of the simplest operations in cookery Open 24 oysters; scald them, beard and wash them, and strain the liquor from them very carefully. Put all this into a stewpan of rich melted butter; let the oysters get thoroughly hot through; add the juice of a lemon, and serve.

(_c_) Mock.--1 teacupful good gravy, 1 of milk, 3 dessertspoons anchovy sauce, 2 of mushroom ketchup, 2 oz. butter, 1 teaspoonful pounded mace, whole black pepper. All to be boiled until thoroughly mixed.

_Parsley_ (au Persil).--(_a_) Pick the parsley while quite green, wash it in cold water to remove all dust, &c., cut off all the stalks, and lay it on paper before the fire till quite crisp. It is never so good a colour if dried in the oven. Crumble it in your hands, then pass it through a wire sieve, which will retain all the stalks and let the parsley go through; put it into wide-mouthed bottles, and cork tightly. When required for use, boil it with a little soda for 5 minutes.

(_b_) And Butter.--Melt 1 oz. butter, and add to it 1 dessertspoonful flour, salt, and white pepper to taste; stir on the fire for 2 minutes, add a little more than 1 tumblerful boiling water by degrees, and a small quantity of parsley, blanched and finely chopped; keep on stirring for 5 minutes, but do not let the sauce boil.

(_c_) Fried.--Pick out a number of sprigs as much of a size as possible, hold them together by the stalks, and shake them repeatedly in cold water, so as to thoroughly wash them; then shake out the water from them, and dry them thoroughly and effectually in a cloth, cut off the stalks close, put the parsley in the frying basket, and dip it for about a minute in boiling hot lard or oil, never ceasing the while to shake the basket. Turn out the parsley on a napkin in the screen in front of the fire to drain. Parsley should be fried just before it is wanted.

_Pepper Pot._--(_a_) Get a buck pot (those made by the Buck Indians in Demerara are the best), and put into it 1 qt. cold water, 3 tablespoonfuls cassareep, salt to suit taste, and a handful of “bird” peppers. Your meat must be well cooked, and after cutting it into small pieces throw it into the liquor in the pot, and let it boil for ¾ hour. The pepper-pot is now fit for use, but you will find it better and more palatable when many days old. You can from day to day add any broken pieces of meat left from table, taking care to warm your pot every day, to see that the meat is always covered with gravy, and never to put fish into it. You may put hard-boiled eggs and cooked meats of all sorts, whether fresh or salted; the greater the variety, the sweeter your pot. When fresh gravy is added (i.e. your qt. of water, and 3 tablespoonfuls cassareep, &c.) you must take care to have your pot boil for ¾ hour, as at first. Take care not to cover your pot, when put aside, till cool. Pork and ox tail are the best things to start the pot with. The “odds and ends” are scraps of any sort of flesh or fowl, drumsticks, &c. When handed round (the pot itself should come to table neatly covered with a table napkin), rice (of course boiled separately) should be handed at the same time, and on no account put into the pot. If a proper “buck” pot cannot be obtained, a round earthenware one is a fair substitute.

(_b_) Take a good-sized jar (jam-pot shape if possible), into it put any cold cooked meat you have, viz. ham, bacon, fowl, rabbit, game, beef, or mutton, &c.; mix them together, flavour with shallot, cayenne pepper, and salt; pour in some good stock, and plenty of cassareep sauce; this last ingredient is difficult to obtain out of the West Indies. It is by far the best; but if unobtainable, add soy or Harvey’s sauce to taste. Make thoroughly hot in the oven; serve with a table napkin folded round the pot. The pepper-pot is kept going for weeks without cleaning, and is replenished with the various ingredients as required. The West Indians improve its flavour by adding their own native green and red pepper pods, which are very hot.

_Plum Pudding Sauce._--(_a_) Fresh butter and powdered lump sugar beaten together until the mixture becomes of the consistency of cream.

(_b_) Beat up the yolks of 6 new-laid eggs with 6 tablespoonfuls powdered lump sugar; add ½ tumbler pale brandy, and rather more than ½ tumbler sherry; put the mixture in a jug, place this in a saucepan full of boiling water, and froth up the sauce for about 10 minutes with a chocolate mill.

(_c_) The best French pale brandy.

(_d_) Foam Sauce.--1 cup white sugar, 3 of butter, 1 tablespoonful flour. Beat to a cream, put it on the stove, and add 1 wineglassful sherry or ½ wineglass brandy; stir quickly until it is all foam.

(_e_) Hard Sauce.--4 oz. butter, 5 oz. sugar, beaten to a cream; pile it on the dish. You can add a scrape of nutmeg or a little lemon juice when beating it, or brandy, as you like--not enough to thin it, only to flavour.

(_f_) Beat up together ¼ lb. butter, 4 teaspoonfuls brown sugar, 1 egg, and 1 wineglassful wine. Boil it up once, and serve immediately.

_Polish Sauce._--Put a piece of butter and 1 tablespoonful sugar in a stewpan, and when melted throw in 1 tablespoonful flour and let it brown. Then stir in ¾ pint red wine; add a good handful of currants washed and picked, the same quantity of raisins stoned, a small handful of almonds blanched, powdered cinnamon and bruised cloves. Let all simmer ¼ hour or till the currants are plumped and soft.

_Prune Sauce._--Boil ½ lb. prunes in a little water till soft, then take out the stones and break them in a mortar; put the fruit and crushed stones in a stewpan with a glass of wine, the juice of a lemon, and a strip of its peel; add ½ teaspoonful powdered cinnamon, some sugar, and the syrup in which the prunes were boiled; simmer a few minutes, then pass the sauce through a coarse sieve. If too thick, add a little more water or wine.

_Pudding Sauce._--(_a_) Pour ½ pint fast boiling water on 1 large tablespoonful flour, mixed smoothly in 1 gill ale. Sweeten with 2 oz. raw sugar, add a large pinch of grated nutmeg, or any other spice, stir over the fire until it boils, then put in 1 oz. butter, and when it is dissolved the sauce will be ready.

(_b_) The yolks of 4 eggs, and the juice of 2 lemons, sugar to taste, and if you choose, a wineglass of hock; make these hot in a pan, and when it begins to thicken, add the whites, which have been beaten to a froth, and serve with the pudding almost directly.

(_c_) Scald 1 oz. Jordan almonds and 6 bitter almonds; bruise them in a mortar with 4 oz. sugar and 1 tablespoonful _eau de fleurs d’oranger_ to a pulp. Put this in a small stewpan, with 1 gill of cream, 2 yolks raw eggs, and with a wire whisk whip the sauce (always one way) over a very slow heat till it becomes a substantial smooth froth.

(_d_) A little caramel, the yolks of 2 eggs, ¼ pint cream, ½ glass brandy or sherry, stir in a jug till it thickens; put on ice to cool.

_Quin Sauce._--2 gal. each mushroom ketchup and walnut ketchup, 1 gal. soy, 1 lb. garlic, 6 lb. sprats; boil ¼ hour; strain; bottle.

_Raspberry Sauce._--Put into a stewpan 4 well-beaten eggs, 2 teaspoonfuls flour, 1 pint fresh raspberry juice, and ¼ lb. sugar; whisk this over the fire till it thickens and rises well; serve while it is light and frothy. Other similar fruit may be used in the same way. If red currants be chosen more sugar will be required.

_Ravigote Sauce._--(_a_) Take equal parts parsley, chervil, garden cress, and tarragon; mince them very finely. Rub a saucepan with shallot, melt a piece of butter in it, add a little flour, mix thoroughly, then add stock _quant. suff._, pepper, salt, a glass of white wine, and the herbs. Let the sauce come to the boil, then throw in a small pat of butter, a squeeze of lemon, and serve.

(_b_) Pound in a mortar some fine herbs, previously chopped--viz. parsley, chervil, cress, pimpernel, celery, chives, scallions--a spoonful of capers, 1 or 2 anchovies; reduce to a smooth paste, add the yolk of an egg, salt, pepper, 1 spoonful oil, and 1 of vinegar.

_Rum Butter._--Grate 1 lb. coarse brown sugar as fine as possible, add ½ small nutmeg grated, melt a little over ¼ but not quite ½ lb. butter, stir in the sugar and nutmeg; add 1 wineglassful good rum, and beat it well up. Pour into a deep glass dish or basin, and when cold sprinkle powdered white sugar well over it.

_Sharp Sauce._--(_a_) Robert.--Put a large piece of butter rolled in flour into a saucepan, add chopped and blanched parsley and mushrooms, a little chopped shallot, and the least bit of garlic. Moisten with a cupful of stock, add salt, a grate of nutmeg, and some English mustard; amalgamate thoroughly, and serve in a boat.

(_b_) Poivrade.--Take 3 parts olive oil, 1 of tarragon vinegar, a little mustard, plenty of pepper and salt to taste, beat them up with a fork until perfectly amalgamated.

(_c_) Piquante.--3 cloves garlic, 3 shallots, 3 anchovies, 2 tablespoonfuls mushroom, 1 oz. cayenne. Bruise all well together in a mortar, and mix with them 1½ pint boiling vinegar. Shake the bottle occasionally, and let it stand 2-3 weeks. Then strain and bottle for use.

(_d_) Brown Sharp Sauce.--Cut a small carrot and a few shallots into dice, put them into a stewpan with a small pat of butter, some parsley, and parsley roots, 2 or 3 slices lean ham, a little thyme, ½ bay leaf, a clove, a little mace, and a few grains of peppercorn and allspice. Set the stewpan on a slow fire till the contents attain a fine brown colour; keep stirring with a wooden spoon; pour into it 4 tablespoonfuls white vinegar, and add a lump of sugar. This must reduce until almost a glaze. Moisten this with some rich brown gravy, preferably with that made from veal and ham, but in any case it must have had mushrooms, parsley, and green onions boiled in it for flavouring, a little plain consommé should also be added; season with a little cayenne and salt. This should be tasted to ascertain whether it be salt enough, and also to ensure its not being too acid; should it be so, add a little more of the brown gravy; skim off the fat, strain the sauce through a tammy, and serve.

(_e_) White Sharp Sauce.--Put a small bunch of tarragon into a stewpan with 4 tablespoonfuls white vinegar (or, if there be no fresh tarragon, tarragon vinegar may be used), and about 20 peppercorns; let the vinegar reduce to a quarter of its original quantity. Have ready some good white sauce which has been flavoured with a few mushrooms, a bunch of parsley, and green onions. Pour 6 tablespoonfuls of this sauce into the stewpan with the vinegar, and 2 tablespoonfuls stock; let this reduce over a hot fire. Strain it through a tammy, and then put it again on the fire. When it has boiled, take it off the fire, thicken it with the yolks of 2 eggs and stir in a small bit of butter. Should it be rather brown, add a spoonful of cream to restore the white appearance, and add a little cayenne pepper and salt.

_Shrimp Sauce_ (Crevette).--Take ½ pint shrimps, pick out all the meat from the tails, pound the rest in a mortar with the juice of half a lemon and a piece of butter; pass the whole through a sieve. Make 1 pint melted butter, put the meat from the tails into it, add a dust of cayenne, and when the sauce boils stir into it the shrimp butter that has come through the sieve, with or without a tablespoonful of cream.

_Soubise Sauce._--Peel and blanch 6 onions, cool them in water, drain, and put them in a stewpan with sufficient water or white stock, to cover them; add some cayenne, bay leaf, a little mace, a small piece of ham or bacon; keep the lid closely shut, and simmer gently till tender, take them out, drain thoroughly, press through a sieve or tammy cloth, add ½ pint béchamel made in the following manner: Put into a stewpan a little parsley, 1 clove, ¼ bay leaf, some sweet herbs, and 1 pint white stock; when boiled long enough to extract the flavour of the herbs, &c., strain it, boil up quickly, and reduce to half the quantity, mix 1 tablespoonful arrowroot with ½ pint milk or cream, pour on the reduced stock, and simmer for 10 minutes.

_Spinach Greening._--Take enough spinach for a small dish, wash, and pound it in a mortar until quite soft; then lay it in a strong, clean kitchen cloth to wring out the juice. This is best done by 2 persons, one at either end of the cloth, each twisting the extremity round a wooden spoon to form a handle. This will enable them to wring the cloth so tightly as to easily extract all moisture from the spinach. This juice must be immediately placed in a small stewpan and held over the fire until it thickens, it must be then turned out upon a hair sieve to drain away the watery part. When this has all come away, rub the spinach green through the sieve with a wooden spoon, and it is then ready for use.

_Sweet Sauce._--(_a_) Melted butter and sugar.

(_b_) Ditto, with addition of either raspberry juice or raspberry vinegar.

(_c_) Mix arrowroot with cold water, pour boiling water on it, stirring till it thickens. Add to this lumps of broken sugar which have been rubbed on lemon peel (to imbibe the flavour), and the strained juice of a lemon.

(_d_) Cut the peel of a large lemon into very narrow strips, let them remain in water by the fire for 1-2 hours, then boil them up with Demerara sugar till like syrup, squeeze the juice in, put the lemon straws on the pudding, and pour the sauce over. This sauce is very good with Sir Watkin’s pudding.

(_e_) Melted currant jelly, with or without the addition of a little water. Wine or rum would be a considerable improvement to several of the above recipes (though not essential), especially to (_e_).

_Tartare Sauce._--(_a_) Stir into the yolk of a new-laid egg, drop by drop, 1 tablespoonful salad oil; when well mixed, add by degrees a little chili vinegar, 1 tablespoonful of vinegar, 3 teaspoonfuls mustard, a little salt and pepper, and some finely chopped parsley; beat all until of the consistency of cream; cover closely, and set in a cool place until wanted. It should be made 4-5 hours before used.

(_b_) To the yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs add the yolk of 1 raw egg, 1 teaspoonful mustard and a little salt. Mix the whole well together, then by degrees add ½ pint salad oil. Beat the whole well together until it becomes of the consistency of good paste, then add tarragon vinegar to taste. When the sauce is to be sent to table add a little chopped tarragon and chervil.

(_c_) Take 2 or 3 shallots, some chervil, and tarragon. Shred them fine, then add some mustard (either dry or wet), salt, pepper, and a very little oil and vinegar, stirring constantly. If your sauce gets too thick put a little more vinegar, and if it tastes too salt add a little oil and mustard.

_Tomato Sauce_ (Tomate).--(_a_) 10 lb. ripe tomatoes, 1 pint best brown vinegar, 2 oz. salt, ½ oz. cloves, 1 oz. allspice, ½ lb. white sugar, 1 oz. garlic, ½ oz. black pepper, ½ oz. cayenne pepper. Wipe the tomatoes clean, and boil or bake till soft; then strain and rub through a sieve that will retain the seeds and skins. Boil the juice for 1 hour, then add the above ingredients (all the spices must be ground). Boil all together for a sufficient time, which may be known by the absence of any watery particle, and by the whole becoming a smooth mass; 5 hours will generally suffice. Bottle without straining into perfectly dry bottles, and cork securely when cold. The garlic must be peeled. The proportions of spice may be varied according to taste.

(_b_) Take 1 peck tomatoes, 10 large onions, or shallots in proportion, 6 capsicums, and ½ lb. salt. Cut the tomatoes, onions, and capsicums very small, and work them well together with the salt. Let it stand 3 days in an earthen vessel, then add 1 oz. black peppercorns, 1 oz. allspice, and a few cloves, and boil it for nearly 1 hour, stirring it often to prevent it from burning. Then beat it through a colander, and when cold add ½ pint vinegar to keep it from fermenting, and bottle it up, adding 1 tablespoonful vinegar at the top of each bottle. Cork and seal it down, and it will keep for years.

(_c_) Choose ripe tomatoes, and bake till tender, pulp through a sieve. To every lb. of pulp allow 1 pint chili vinegar, 1 oz. garlic, 1 oz. shallot, plenty of horseradish, ½ oz. ground white pepper, ½ oz. salt. Boil the whole together until every ingredient is tender. Rub the mixture through a sieve; then to every lb. add the juice of 2 lemons. Boil the whole together until it attains the consistency of good cream. When cold bottle it; keep it dry and cool.

(_d_) Break with a wooden spoon ½ sieve ripe tomatoes, and rub them through a hair sieve into a preserving pan; set the pan on the fire, and keep stirring them until they boil well and become of the consistency of very thick cream; as soon as they boil, add 2 oz. shallots and 1 oz. garlic, keep stirring, and, just before taking them off the fire, put in a few chilies or a little cayenne pepper, adding salt to taste; pour off into wide-mouthed bottles as soon as sufficiently boiled, and when cold cork the bottles, covering the corks with resin.

(_e_) Cut up the tomatoes, and put them into a saucepan containing a little water, with some parsley, basil, marjoram, thyme, and laurel leaf according to taste, a clove of garlic, a few cloves, some whole pepper, and salt. Let them boil till thoroughly done, then strain off the water, and pass them through a hair sieve. Put a piece of butter in a saucepan, add to it when melted a spoonful of flour and the tomato pulp; mix thoroughly, and when hot the sauce is ready. (The G. C.)

(_f_) To every lb. tomato (ripe) rubbed through a sieve, after being baked, add 1 pint vinegar, 1 oz. garlic, 1 oz. shallot sliced very fine, ½ oz. white pepper, ½ oz. salt. Boil these together, and strain them through a hair sieve. To every lb. add the juice of 3 lemons, and boil the whole together till it has acquired the consistency of cream. When cold bottle it, and keep it in a dry place well corked.

(_g_) Boil in a covered jar, in a saucepan of water, ripe tomatoes, with ¼ oz. shred shallots to every lb. of the fruit. When quite tender rub the pulp through a sieve, and to every lb. add 1 pint vinegar and the juice of 2 lemons, ½ oz. salt, ¼ oz. white pepper ground, and 1 small teaspoonful cayenne pepper. Boil over a slow fire until the sauce is sufficiently thick. Keep it in ½ pint bottles, well corked and covered with bladder, in a dry place. Capsicums may be used instead of the cayenne, and if liked a very small quantity of garlic; either or both must be boiled in the jar with the tomatoes.

(_h_) Slice tomatoes, put them in a weak solution of salt and water for 2 days, then scald them well, as the salt is not to season but to toughen them a little. Put them in a kettle with water enough to just prevent them from burning, and let them slowly cook for an hour; then add 1 qt. vinegar, 1 full tablespoon each of powdered mace, allspice, and cloves, ½ spoonful mustard seed, 1 teacup brown sugar, and a few slices of onion. A little celery seed or other flavouring of celery is an improvement. Pour this on, and cook ½ hour longer.

(_i_) ¼ peck green or half-ripe tomatoes, 3 onions (or shallots, if preferred); slice them, cover with vinegar, and stew them well, with a spice bag of pepper, cloves, ginger, and chilies, until quite a pulp, when strain all the vinegar away, and press the pulp through a coarse sieve. Mix in a little cold vinegar, 1 oz. arrowroot, 1 oz. mustard, mix this with boiling vinegar, and add all to the pulp with cayenne pepper and salt to taste. Just boil it all up again, adding as much of the vinegar the tomatoes were stewed in as will make the sauce as thick as good cream. Sugar may be added if the tomatoes are very sour.