For this purpose you may use coarse pieces of the lean of beef or veal, or the giblets and trimmings of poultry or game. It must be stewed for a long time, skimmed, strained, thickened, and flavoured with whatever condiments are supposed most suited to the dish it is to accompany.
In preparing meat to stew for gravy, beat it with a mallet or meat-beetle, score it, and cut it into small pieces; this makes it give out the juices. Season it with pepper and salt, and put it into a stew-pan with butter only. Heat it gradually, till it becomes brown. Shake the pan frequently, and see that it does not burn or stick to the bottom. It will generally be browned sufficiently in half an hour. Then put in some boiling water, allowing one pint to each pound of meat. Simmer it on coals by the side of the fire for near three hours, skimming it well, and keeping it closely covered. When done, remove it from the heat, let it stand awhile to settle, and then strain it.
If you wish to keep it two or three days, (which you may in winter,) put it into a stone vessel, cover it closely, and set it in a cool place.
Do not thicken this gravy till you go to use it.
Mutton is unfit for made gravy.
MELTED BUTTER,
SOMETIMES CALLED DRAWN BUTTER.
Melted butter is the foundation of most of the common sauces. Have a covered sauce-pan for this purpose. One lined with porcelain will be best. Take a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, cut it up, and mix with it about two tea-spoonfuls of flour. When it is thoroughly mixed, put it into the sauce-pan, and add to it four table-spoonfuls of cold water. Cover the sauce-pan, and set it in a large tin pan of boiling water. Shake it round continually (always moving it the same way) till it is entirely melted and begins to simmer. Then let it rest till it boils up.
If you set it on hot coals, or over the fire, it will be oily.
If the butter and flour is not well mixed it will be lumpy.
If you put too much water, it will be thin and poor. All these defects are to be carefully avoided.
In melting butter for sweet or pudding sauce, you may use milk instead of water.
Spread some fine flour on a plate, and set it in the oven, turning it up and stirring it frequently that it may brown equally all through.
Put it into a jar, cover it well, and keep it to stir into gravies to thicken and colour them.
TO BROWN BUTTER.—
Put a lump of butter into a frying-pan, and toss it round over the fire till it becomes brown. Then dredge some browned flour over it, and stir it round with a spoon till it boils. It must be made quite smooth.
You may make this into a plain sauce for fish by adding cayenne and some flavoured vinegar.
PLAIN SAUCES.
LOBSTER SAUCE.—
Boil a dozen blades of mace and half a dozen pepper-corns in about a jill and a half (or three wine-glasses) of water, till all the strength of the spice is extracted. Then strain it, and having cut three quarters of a pound of butter into little bits, melt it in this water, dredging in a little flour as you hold it over the fire to boil. Toss it round, and let it just boil up and no more.
Take a cold boiled lobster,—pound the coral in a mortar, adding a little sweet oil. Then stir it into the melted butter.
Chop the meat of the body into very small pieces, and rub it through a cullender into the butter. Cut up the flesh of the claws and tail into dice, and stir it in. Give it another boil up, and it will be ready for table.
Serve it up with fresh salmon, or any boiled fish of the best kind.
Crab sauce is made in a similar manner; also prawn and shrimp sauce.
ANCHOVY SAUCE.—
Soak eight anchovies for three or four hours, changing the water every hour. Then put them into a sauce-pan with a quart of cold water. Set them on hot coals and simmer them till they are entirely dissolved, and till the liquid is diminished two-thirds. Then strain it, stir two glasses of red wine, and add to it about half a pint of melted butter.
Heat it over again, and send it to table with salmon or fresh cod.
CELERY SAUCE.—
Take a large bunch of young celery. Wash and pare it very clean. Cut it into pieces, and boil it gently in a small quantity of water, till it is quite tender. Then add a little powdered mace and nutmeg, and a very little pepper and salt. Take a tolerably large piece of butter, roll it well in flour, and stir it into the sauce. Boil it up again, and it is ready to send to table.
You may make it with cream, thus:—Prepare and boil your celery as above, adding some mace, nutmeg, a piece of butter the size of a walnut, rolled in flour; and half a pint of cream. Boil all together.
Celery sauce is eaten with boiled poultry.
When celery is out of season, you may use celery seed, boiled in the water which you afterwards use for the melted butter, but strained out after boiling.
NASTURTIAN SAUCE.—
This is by many considered superior to caper sauce and is eaten with boiled mutton. It is made with the green seeds of nasturtians, pickled simply in cold vinegar.
Cut about six ounces of butter into small bits, and put them into a small sauce-pan. Mix with a wine-glass of water, sufficient flour to make a thick batter, pour it on the butter, and hold the sauce-pan over hot coals, shaking it quickly round, till the butter is melted. Let it just boil up, and then take it from the fire. Thicken it with the pickled nasturtians and send it to table in a boat.
Never pour melted butter over any thing, but always send it to table in a sauce-tureen or boat.
WHITE ONION SAUCE.—
Peel a dozen onions, and throw them into salt and water to keep them white. Then boil them tender. When done, squeeze the water from them, and chop them. Have ready some butter that has been melted rich and smooth with milk or cream instead of water. Put the onions into the melted butter, and boil them up at once. If you wish to have them very mild, put in a turnip with them at the first boiling.
Young white onions, if very small, need not be chopped, but may be put whole into the butter.
Use this sauce for rabbits, tripe, boiled poultry, or any boiled fresh meat.
BROWN ONION SAUCE.—
Slice some large mild Spanish onions. Cover them with butter, and set them over a slow fire to brown. Then add salt and cayenne pepper to your taste, and some good brown gravy of roast meat, poultry or game, thickened with a bit of butter rolled in flour that has first been browned by holding it in a hot pan or shovel over the fire. Give it a boil, skim it well, and just before you take it off, stir in a half glass of port or claret, and the same quantity of mushroom catchup.
Use this sauce for roasted poultry, game, or meat.
MUSHROOM SAUCE.—
Wash a pint of small button mushrooms,—remove the stems and the outside skin. Stew them slowly in veal gravy or in milk or cream, seasoning them with pepper and salt, and adding a piece of butter rolled in a large proportion of flour. Stew them till quite tender, now and then shaking the pan round.
The flavour will be heightened by having salted a few the night before in a covered dish, to extract the juice, and then stirring it into the sauce while stewing.
This sauce may be served up with poultry, game, or beef-steaks.
In gathering mushrooms take only those that are of a dull pearl colour on the outside, and that have the under part tinged with pale pink.
Boil an onion with them. If there is a poisonous one among them the onion will turn black. Then throw away the whole.
EGG SAUCE.—
Boil four eggs ten minutes. Dip them into cold water to prevent their looking blue. Peel off the shell. Chop the yolks of all, and the whites of two, and stir them into melted butter. Serve this sauce with boiled poultry or fish.
BREAD SAUCE.—
Put some grated crumbs of stale bread into a sauce-pan, and pour over them some of the liquor in which poultry or fresh meat has been boiled. Add some plums or dried currants that have been picked and washed. Having simmered them till the bread is quite soft, and the currants well plumped, add melted butter or cream.
This sauce is for a roast pig.
MINT SAUCE.—
Take a large bunch of young green mint; if old the taste will be unpleasant. Wash it very clean. Pick all the leaves from the stalks. Chop the leaves very fine, and mix them with cold vinegar, and a large proportion of powdered sugar. There must be merely sufficient vinegar to moisten the mint well, but by no means enough to make the sauce liquid. It should be very sweet.
It is only eaten in the spring with roast lamb. Send it to table in a sauce-tureen.
CAPER SAUCE.—
Take two large table-spoonfuls of capers and a little vinegar. Stir them for some time into half a pint of thick melted butter.
This sauce is for boiled mutton.
If you happen to have no capers, pickled cucumber chopped fine, or the pickled pods of radish seeds, may be stirred into the butter as a tolerable substitute, or nasturtians.
PARSLEY SAUCE.—
Wash a bunch of parsley in cold water. Then boil it about six or seven minutes in salt and water. Drain it, cut the leaves from the stalks, and chop them fine. Have ready some melted butter, and stir in the parsley. Allow two small table-spoonfuls of leaves to half a pint of butter.
Serve it up with boiled fowls, rock-fish, sea-bass, and other boiled fresh fish. Also with knuckle of veal, and with calf's head boiled plain.
APPLE SAUCE.—
Pare, core, and slice some fine apples. Put them into a sauce-pan with just sufficient water to keep them from burning, and some grated lemon-peel. Stew them till quite soft and tender. Then mash them to a paste, and make them very sweet with brown sugar, adding a small piece of butter and some nutmeg.
Apple sauce is eaten with roast pork, roast goose and roast ducks.
Be careful not to have it thin and watery.
CRANBERRY SAUCE.—
Wash a quart of ripe cranberries, and put them into a pan with about a wine-glass of water. Stew them slowly, and stir them frequently, particularly after they begin to burst. They require a great deal of stewing, and should be like a marmalade when done.
After you take them from the fire, stir in a pound of brown sugar.
When they are thoroughly done, put them into a deep dish, and set them away to get cold.
You may strain the pulp through a cullender or sieve into a mould, and when it is in a firm shape send it to table on a glass dish. Taste it when it is cold, and if not sweet enough, add more sugar. Cranberries require more sugar than any other fruit, except plums.
Cranberry sauce is eaten with roast turkey, roast fowls, and roast ducks.
PEACH SAUCE.—
Take a quart of dried peaches, (those are richest and best that are dried with the skins on,) and soak them in cold water till they are tender. Then drain them, and put them into a covered pan with a very little water. Set them on coals, and simmer them till they are entirely dissolved. Then mash them with brown sugar, and send them to table cold to eat with roast meat, game or poultry.
WINE SAUCE.—
Have ready some rich thick melted or drawn butter, and the moment you take it from the fire, stir in two large glasses of white wine, two table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar, and a powdered nutmeg. Serve it up with plum pudding, or any sort of boiled pudding that is made of a batter.
COLD SWEET SAUCE.—
Stir together, as for a pound-cake, equal quantities of fresh butter and powdered white sugar. When quite light and creamy, add some powdered cinnamon or nutmeg, and the juice of a lemon. Send it to table in a small deep plate with a tea-spoon in it.
Eat it with batter pudding, bread pudding, Indian pudding, &c. whether baked or boiled. Also with boiled apple pudding or dumplings, and with fritters and pancakes.
CREAM SAUCE.—
Boil a pint and a half of rich cream with four table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar, some powdered nutmeg, and a dozen bitter almonds or peach kernels slightly broken up, or a dozen fresh peach leaves. As soon as it has boiled up, take it off the fire and strain it. If it is to be eaten with boiled pudding or with dumplings send it to table hot, but let it get quite cold if you intend it as an accompaniment to fruit pies or tarts.
OYSTER SAUCE.—
Take a pint of oysters, and save out a little of their liquor. Put them with their remaining liquor, and some mace and nutmeg, into a covered saucepan, and simmer them on hot coals about ten minutes. Then drain them. Oysters for sauce should be large.
Having prepared in another saucepan some drawn or melted butter, (mixed with oyster liquor instead of water,) pour it into a sauce-boat, add the oysters to it, and serve it up with boiled poultry, or with boiled fresh fish.
Celery, first boiled and then chopped, is an improvement to oyster sauce.
