CREAM SAUCE FOR FISH

Knead very smoothly together with a strong-bladed knife, a _large_ teaspoonful of flour with three ounces of good butter; stir them in a very clean saucepan or stewpan over a gentle fire until the butter is dissolved, then throw in a little salt and some cayenne, give the whole one minute’s simmer, and add, very gradually, half a pint of good cream; keep the sauce constantly stirred until it boils, then mix with it a dessertspoonful of essence of anchovies, and half as much chili vinegar or lemon-juice. The addition of shelled shrimps or lobsters cut in dice, will convert this at once into a most excellent sauce of either. Pounded mace may be added to it with the cayenne; and it may be thinned with a few spoonsful of milk should it be too thick. Omit the essence of anchovies, and mix with it some parsley boiled very green and minced, and it becomes a good sauce for poultry.

Butter, 3 oz.; flour, 1 _large_ teaspoonful: 2 to 3 minutes. Cream, 1/2 pint; essence of anchovies, 1 large dessertspoonful (more if liked); chili vinegar or lemon-juice, 1 teaspoonful; salt, 1/4 saltspoonful.

SHARP MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL SAUCE.

(_English Receipt._)

For a rich sauce of this kind, mix a dessertspoonful of flour with four ounces of good butter, but with from two to three ounces only for common occasions; knead them together until they resemble a smooth paste, then proceed exactly as for the sauce above, but substitute good pale veal gravy, or strong, pure-flavoured veal broth, or shin of beef stock (which if well made has little colour), for the cream; and when these have boiled for two or three minutes, stir in a tablespoonful of common vinegar and one of chili vinegar, with as much cayenne as will flavour the sauce well, and some salt, should it be needed; throw in from two to three dessertspoonsful of finely-minced parsley, give the whole a boil, and it will be ready to serve. A tablespoonful of mushroom catsup or of Harvey’s sauce may be added with the vinegar when the colour of the sauce is immaterial. It may be served with boiled calf’s head, or with boiled eels with good effect; and various kinds of cold meat and fish may be re-warmed for table in it, as we have directed in another part of this volume. With a little more flour, and a flavouring of essence of anchovies, it will make, without the parsley, an excellent sauce for these last, when they are first dressed.

Butter, 2 to 4 oz.; flour, 1 dessertspoonful; pale veal gravy or strong broth, or shin of beef stock, 1/2 pint; cayenne; salt, if needed; common vinegar, 1 tablespoonful; chili vinegar, 1 tablespoonful. (Catsup or Harvey’s sauce, according to circumstances.)

FRENCH MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL,[55] OR STEWARD’S SAUCE.

Footnote 55:

The Maître d’Hôtel is, properly, the _House Steward_.

Add to half a pint of rich, pale veal gravy, well thickened with the white _roux_ of page 108, a good seasoning of pepper, salt, minced parsley, and lemon-juice; or make the thickening with a small tablespoonful of flour, and a couple of ounces of butter; keep these stirred constantly over a very gentle fire from ten to fifteen minutes, then pour the gravy to them boiling, in small portions, mixing the whole well as it is added, and letting it boil up between each, for unless this be done the butter will be likely to float upon the surface. Simmer the sauce for a few minutes, and skim it well, then add salt should it be needed, a tolerable seasoning of pepper or of cayenne in fine powder, from two to three teaspoonsful of minced parsley, and the strained juice of a small lemon. For some dishes, this sauce is thickened with the yolks of eggs, about four to the pint. The French work into their sauces generally a small bit of fresh butter just before they are taken from the fire, to give them mellowness: this is done usually for the _Maître d’Hôtel Sauce_.

MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL SAUCE MAIGRE,[56] OR WITHOUT GRAVY.

Footnote 56:

Maigre, made without meat.

Substitute half a pint of good melted butter for the gravy, and add to it the same seasonings as above. A double quantity of these sauces will be needed when they are required to cover a large fish; in that case they should be thick enough to adhere to it well. Melted butter, 1/2 pint; seasoning of salt and pepper, or cayenne; minced parsley, 2 to 3 teaspoonsful; juice, 1 small lemon.

For COLD MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL SAUCE, see Chapter VI.

THE LADY’S SAUCE.

(_For Fish._)

Pound to a very smooth paste the inside coral of a lobster with a small slice of butter, and some cayenne; rub it through a hair-sieve, gather it together, and mix it very smoothly with from half to three-quarters of a pint of _sauce tournée_ or of cream fish-sauce, previously well seasoned with cayenne and salt, and moderately with pounded mace; bring it to the _point_ of boiling only; stir in quickly, but gradually, a tablespoonful of strained lemon-juice, and serve it very hot. When neither cream nor gravy is at hand, substitute _rich_ melted butter mixed with a dessertspoonful or two of essence of anchovies, and well seasoned. The fine colour of the coral will be destroyed by boiling. This sauce, which the French call _Sauce à l’Aurore_, may be served with brill, boiled soles, gray mullet, and some few other kinds of fish: it is quickly made when the lobster butter of Chapter VI. is in the house.

Coral of lobster, pounded; cream sauce, or _sauce tournée_ (thickened pale veal gravy), 1/2 to 3/4 pint; lemon-juice, 1 tablespoonful; salt, cayenne, and mace, as needed. Or: _rich_ melted butter, instead of other sauce; essence of anchovies, 2 dessertspoonsful; other seasoning, as above.

_Obs._—The proportion of spices here must, of course, depend on the flavouring which the gravy or sauce may already have received.

GENEVESE SAUCE, OR SAUCE GÉNÉVOISE.

Cut into dice three ounces of the lean of a well-flavoured ham, and put them with half a small carrot, four cloves, a blade of mace, two or three very small sprigs of lemon thyme and of parsley, and rather more than an ounce of butter, into a stewpan; just simmer them from three-quarters of an hour to a whole hour, then stir in a teaspoonful of flour; continue the slow stewing for about five minutes, and pour in by degrees a pint of good boiling veal gravy, and let the sauce again simmer softly for nearly an hour. Strain it off, heat it in a clean saucepan, and when it boils, stir in a wineglassful and a half of good sherry or Madeira, two tablespoonsful of lemon-juice, some cayenne, a little salt if needed, and a small tablespoonful of flour very smoothly mixed with two ounces of butter. Give the whole a boil after the thickening is added, pour a portion of the sauce over the fish (it is served principally with salmon and trout), and send the remainder very hot to table in a tureen.

Lean of ham, 3 oz.; 1/2 small carrot; 4 to 6 cloves; mace, 1 large blade; thyme and parsley, 3 or 4 _small_ sprigs of each; butter, 1 to 1-1/2 oz.: 50 to 60 minutes. Veal gravy, 1 pint: 3/4 to 1 hour. Sherry or Madeira, 1-1/2 glassful; lemon-juice, 2 tablespoonsful; seasoning of cayenne and salt; flour, 1 tablespoonful; butter, 2 oz.: 1 minute.

_Obs._—A teaspoonful or more of essence of anchovies is usually added to the sauce, though it is scarcely required.