“Perfection in the art of cookery is attainable only by lengthened experience and careful study of the qualities of foods and the application of sauces and seasonings. It is chiefly in knowing how to make and apply sauces that a cook shows her skill.”

—Old Writer.

Suggestions

Use pastry flour for gravies and sauces.

The sauce should be a little more salt than the food with which it is to be served.

As a rule, the sauce should be poured around, not over the food.

No positive general rule can be given for thickening, as flour varies and different kinds of liquid require different proportions. Also the evaporation of liquids, in different quantities, varies.

About one tablespoon of flour may be calculated for each cup of water; but for milk, cream or tomato that amount is quite too much.

Do not make sauces too thick. A sauce should not be a paste. The consistency of medium cream is about right for nearly all; some should be thinner, and a few slightly thicker.

As they thicken by standing, make sauces thinner at first than required.

A Roux is a mixture of oil or butter, and flour, heated together for thickening sauces. It is used in the following manner;

Heat the oil, without browning, in a saucepan; add the flour, rub smooth with wire batter whip, then add liquid, hot, stirring until smooth. The sauce should come to the boiling point only and be removed at once from the fire as otherwise the oil will separate. Adding flour to hot oil cooks it more perfectly than a boiling liquid and obviates the raw flour taste.

Directions for flavoring, pp.24–27.

1 Plain Nut Sauce

1 tablespn. raw nut butter, 1 pt. water. Mix butter with water, boil ½ hr., add salt with water to make 1½–2 cups; thicken slightly.

Serve with nut and legume dishes, over boiled rice and with some vegetables. Steamed nut butter may be used instead of raw.

2 Nut Onion Sauce

Cook sliced onions with plain sauce.

3 Nut and Tomato Sauce

Use ? tomato instead of all water in plain sauce. A little browned flour sometimes.

4 Nut Gravy for Roasts

Cook browned flour, onion, garlic, bayleaf and a very little tomato with plain sauce. A little sage occasionally.

5 Nut and Tomato Bisque Sauce

Thicken nut and tomato bisque, p.93, slightly.

May use steamed or roasted nut butter, nutmese, or the water from boiled peanuts with a little lemon juice, for nut sauces.

6 Simple Brown Sauce

• 2 tablespns. oil or melted butter
• 2 tablespns. flour
• 1–2 teaspns. browned flour
• 1 pt. water
• salt

Follow directions for making sauce with roux.

7 Brown Onion Sauce

Simmer without browning sliced or chopped onion in oil, before adding flour to brown sauce.

8 Savory Sauce

Add a delicate flavoring of leaf sage to brown or brown onion sauce.

9 Roast Gravy—par excellence

A little tomato, onion, a trifle of thyme and bay leaf with nut cream in brown sauce. Simmer, strain.

10 ConsommÉ Sauce

ConsommÉ with more browned flour and tomato or onion, thickened. Roux may be used.

11 Celery ConsommÉ Sauce

• ½ cup finely-sliced celery
• 2 tablespns. oil or melted butter
• 2 tablespns. flour
• 1 pt. consommÉ

Add celery to hot oil, then flour and hot consommÉ with more salt if necessary.

? 12 Everybody’s Favorite

• ? tablespn. butter
• 1? tablespn. oil
• ½–1 clove garlic
• 1–2 teaspns. browned flour
• 1½–2 tablespns. white flour
• 1¾ cup boiling water
• ¾ cup milk
• salt
• ½ tablespn. chopped parsley

Throw crushed or finely-chopped garlic into oil and proceed as for sauce with roux, adding parsley last, of course. The sauce is nice without the parsley. Raw or steamed nut butter may be used.

13 Almond and Tomato Cream Sauce—starchless

• ½ tablespn. almond butter
• 1 cup strained tomato
• ½ teaspn. salt

Rub butter smooth with tomato, heat to boiling, add salt and serve.

This sauce heated with stewed okra makes a delightful omelet sauce, or side dish, or dressing for trumese, toast or rice.

? 14 Old Fashioned Milk Gravy

• 1 pt. rich milk (part cream)
• 2–2½ tablespns. browned flour No.1

Blend the flour with cold water or milk, stir into boiling milk, boil up and add salt. Or, put 1–1½ tablespn. of oil in a sauce pan; when just hot add the flour, then hot milk, stir until smooth and add salt.

? 15 Sour Cream Gravy

• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 tablespn. flour
• ½–1 teaspn. browned flour
• boiling water
• salt

Mix cream and flour, pour boiling water over, stirring constantly, to make of the desired consistency; boil thoroughly, add salt, serve. The gravy may be flavored.

16 Cream or White Sauce

• 2 tablespns. oil or melted butter
• (or 1 tablespn. solid butter)
• 1½ tablespn. flour
• 1 pt. milk
• salt

Follow directions for sauce with roux. Or, heat milk, without oil, in an oiled frying pan, to just boiling; add slowly, stirring, flour blended with water or milk. Boil up well, remove from fire, add salt.

¼–? cream and ? water may be used instead of milk.

For vegetables the sauce should be thinner. A teaspoonful of sugar improves the flavor with carrots and turnips.

? 17 Tomato Cream Sauce

Especially suitable for mashed peas or sweet potatoes.

Add ½ cup rich strained tomato and more salt to each pint of cream sauce.

18 Cream of Tomato Sauce

• 1 pt. strained tomato
• 1 tablespn. flour
• ¼ cup cream (½ cup if thin)
• 1 teaspn. salt

Thicken boiling tomato, add cream, remove from fire, add salt.

Do not add the salt before the cream.

19 Cream of Tomato Sauce—Sister Howard’s

• 1–1½ tablespn. butter
• finely-sliced onion
• 1–1½ tablespn. flour
• 1 pt. tomato
• 2–3 tablespns. cream
• salt

Simmer onion in butter without browning, add flour, hot tomato, cream and salt.

CREAM SAUCE VARIATIONS

20 Mint Cream—Add chopped mint to cream sauce. Use for green peas, mashed dry green peas, poached or hard boiled eggs and other dishes.

21 Cream of Celery—Use water in which celery was cooked, with cream, or milk and oil or butter, for cream sauce, and add stewed celery.

22 Cream of Onion—Add stewed, crushed, boiled onions to cream sauce. Or, add cooked onions to roux in pan, then add milk. Or, simmer without browning, chopped raw onions in oil, before adding flour.

23 Cream of Parsley—Chopped parsley in cream sauce.

24 Cream of Spinach—Pour cream sauce gradually stirring, into macerated, cooked spinach; heat; strain through wire strainer if necessary.

25 Lavender—Finely-chopped, cooked purple cabbage in cream sauce.

26 Golden—Mashed or grated cooked carrots in cream sauce, with or without onion and garlic.

27 Brown Cream—Use 1–1½ (according to brownness) tablespn. browned flour in cream sauce recipe.

28 Egg Cream—Add yolks of 2 eggs to each pint of cream sauce.

29 Egg Cream No. 2—1 tablespn. butter, 1 teaspn. flour, 1 cup milk, 2 beaten eggs, salt, 1–2 tablespns. lemon juice if desired, chopped parsley.

30 Egg Cream-non-starch—For stewed cucumbers, oyster plant, asparagus and carrots. To each pint of vegetables, ½ tablespn. butter, ½ cup thin cream or rich milk, yolk of 1 egg, salt. Richer cream may be used and butter omitted. Use the yolks of 3 eggs only for a pint of cream.

31 Egg—Add hard boiled eggs in dice or coarsely-chopped, to cream sauce.

32 Bread Sauce

• ? cup fine dry bread crumbs (or ?–1 cup stale crumbs)
• 1 pt. dairy or nut milk
• salt

Soak crumbs in half the milk in double boiler till soft; beat until smooth; add salt and the remainder of the milk, heat, strain through coarse strainer, if necessary. If the milk is not rich a little butter may be added just before serving. Browned coarse crumbs (fine croutons) may be sprinkled over the dish with which the sauce is served.

Flavor sauce with onion, onion and sage, chives, celery salt, or onion and parsley, sometimes.

33 Bread and Bean Sauce—Sister Elsie’s

• 1 cup mashed beans
• ¼–½ cup bread crumbs (from salt rising bread if you have it)
• 1½ cup rich milk
• 1 teaspn. flour
• salt
• 1 tablespn. butter if desired

Milk from raw nut butter gives another sauce.

34 Drawn Butter

• 1½–2 tablespns. butter
• 1 tablespn. flour
• 1 cup boiling water
• salt

Rub butter and flour together, pour boiling water over, heat to boiling, remove from fire and add salt; or, follow directions for sauce with roux.

VARIATIONS OF DRAWN BUTTER

35 Cream—Use 1¼ cup milk instead of water in preceding recipe.

36 Tomato—Use ¼–½ cup of strained tomato, and water to make 1¼ cup, in drawn butter. Flavor with onion if desired.

37 Egg—Chopped or sliced hard boiled eggs in drawn butter.

38 Sour—½ to 1 tablespn. lemon juice to each cup of liquid in drawn butter.

39 Onion—Add crushed boiled onions to drawn butter. Use sometimes 1¼–1½ tablespn. browned flour No.1, instead of white flour. May simmer (without browning) sliced or chopped raw onion in butter before adding flour.

40 Drawn Butter Sauce

Add ½ cup of cream to plain drawn butter.

41 Emerald Parsley Sauce

Add 3–4 tablespns. chopped parsley to drawn butter of 1 pt. of water. 2 or 3 teaspns. lemon juice may be added, also a little mint and sugar sometimes.

A nice way to prepare the parsley is to wash it well and boil 10 m. in salted water, drain, chop and bruise to a pulp. Milk with less flour may be used for the sauce.

42 Tarragon Sauce

Substitute finely-chopped fresh tarragon for parsley in preceding recipe. Use a little lemon juice if desired.

? 43 Sauce for Meat and Vegetable Pies

Rub together 5 tablespns. oil or melted butter and 5 to 6 tablespns. of flour; add 1 qt. boiling water, boil well, add salt. Or, make as sauce with roux.

Allow a few slices of onion to stand in sauce for 10 m., then strain and it is nice for the table for any use.

44 Gravy for Rhode Island Johnny Cakes

• 1 tablespn. oil
• 1 teaspn. butter
• 1 level teaspn. browned flour
• 1 level teaspn. white flour
• ½ cup water
• salt
• a little powdered sage

45 Cream of Lentil Gravy

• 1 cup mashed lentils
• 1 cup rich milk or thin cream
• 1 teaspn. flour
• salt

Thicken milk with flour blended with water and combine with lentils; heat. Add finely-sliced celery and chopped parsley for some dishes.

46 Nut and Lentil Gravy

• ½ cup lentils (large cupful after cooking)
• ¼–? cup strained tomato
• ¼ tablespn. nut butter
• 1 cup water

Mix nut butter with water and add with tomato to mashed lentils. Heat to boiling, strain through fine strainer, add salt.

47 Swiss Lentil Gravy

• 1 cup mashed lentils
• 1–2 teaspns. browned flour
• slices of onion
• 1 teaspn. white flour
• salt

Heat lentils, browned flour and onion together for 10 m. Thicken with white flour stirred smooth with water. Add salt, strain, reheat.

48 Vegetable Gravy

• 3 tablespns. chopped onion
• 3 tablespns. finely-slice celery
• 2 tablespns. grated carrot
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 large bay leaf
• 5 tablespns. oil
• 5 tablespns. white flour
• 1–2 teaspns. browned flour
• ½ cup strained tomato
• 3½ cups boiling water
• a trifle of thyme
• salt
• 1 tablespn. chopped parsley

Simmer vegetables and bay leaf in oil for 10 m. Do not brown. Add brown and white flour, tomato and water; boil. Remove bay leaf; add salt, thyme and parsley; serve. Celery tops may be used instead of sliced stalks. The gravy may be strained.

49 Olive Sauce

• 2 tablespns. olive oil
• 1 tablespn. chopped onion
• 1–1½ tablespn. flour
• 1 teaspn. browned flour
• 1 pt. water, milk, or raw nut butter milk (1 tablespn. raw nut butter cooked in water 20 m. to ½ hr.)
• 10–15 ripe olives
• 1–2 tablespns. lemon juice if desired

Prepare sauce in the usual manner and add sliced or chopped olives just before serving.

50 Olive and Nut Butter Sauce

Make thin cream of roasted nut butter, boil up, add chopped or sliced ripe olives and salt if necessary. A little tomato may be used.

For a cold sauce, stir nut butter smooth with tomato or water and add chopped olives.

51 Cream of Fresh Mushroom Sauce

Cook chopped stems and imperfect mushrooms in salted water for 10 m. Add water. Thicken a little more than for an ordinary sauce. Add a little heavy cream, heat.

Mushrooms may be cooked for 20 m. in milk and butter in a double boiler or on back of range.

52 Mushroom and Asparagus Sauce

Use asparagus liquor for part of the liquid in the preceding recipe and add a few cooked asparagus tips.

53 Boundary Castle (Fresh Mushroom) Sauce

For timbales, mashed lentils, macaroni, rice, potatoes or toast, broiled trumese, croquettes, patties and corn meal porridge.

• 2 tablespns. oil
• 3 tablespns. chopped onion
• ½ tablespn. browned flour
• 2½ tablespns. white flour
• 2 tablespns. tomato
• ¾–1 teaspn. salt
• ¾–1 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1 tablespn. chopped parsley

Simmer but do not brown onion in oil for 10 m., add browned and white flour mixed, then tomato, with water for thick sauce. Now add with their liquor, the mushrooms which have been cooked for 10 m. and water to make of the right consistency, with the salt and parsley.

When served with timbales decorated with truffles, use juice of truffles in sauce.

54 Italian (Dried Mushroom) Sauce

• 2 tablespns. butter and oil
• 2 tablespns. chopped onion
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 1½–2 tablespns. flour
• mushroom liquor with hot rich milk to make 1 pt.
• ¼ cup dried mushrooms
• salt

Heat oil, add onion and garlic, simmer, add flour, then liquid, and lastly the mushrooms which have been soaked for 2 hours, chopped, and cooked for 5 m. in the water in which they were soaked. Serve sometimes over split biscuit, on a platter, with slices of broiled trumese on top, sprinkled with chopped parsley.

For variety, add 1 teaspn. browned flour and 2 tablespns. tomato to the sauce.

For Italian Tomato Sauce, use ½ cup tomato instead of the mushrooms.

55 Canned Mushroom Sauce

• 2 tablespns. oil or butter
• 2 tablespns. onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1½–2 tablespns. flour
• 2 teaspns. browned flour
• ¼ cup tomato
• a trifle of thyme
• a very little sage
• ½ cup sliced, canned mushrooms
• 1 pt. liquid—water and mushroom liquor
• salt

Proceed as in other similar recipes.

? 56 Dried Mushroom Brown Sauce

• 3 level tablespns. butter
• 2 level tablespns. flour
• 2 level teaspns. browned flour
• ½ cup strong dried mushroom liquor
• 1½ cup milk
• salt

May add a few chopped dried mushrooms cooked 5 m. after soaking 4–5 hours. A little lemon juice may be added if liked.

? 57 Sauce Imperial

• 1 qt. stewed tomatoes
• 1 or 2 large bay leaves
• 2 large sprigs thyme (or ¼ teaspn. dry thyme)
• 1 tablespn. chopped onion
• ? of a lemon, rind and all
• 2 tablespns. oil
• 2½ or 3 tablespns. flour
• salt

Cook all except flour, oil and parsley together for 20 m. Strain, heat oil, add flour and the strained tomato mixture. Then add 1¼ to 1½ teaspn. salt (or enough to destroy the acid taste of the tomato), and the parsley.

? 58 Chili Sauce

• 4 qts. stewed tomatoes
• 2–3 pints finely-sliced onion
• 1 cup sugar
• 1¼ cup lemon juice
• 1¾–2¼ tablespns. salt
• 1½–2 tablespns. celery salt
• 4 large bay leaves
• ¼–½ teaspn. thyme

Cook tomato, onion and bay leaf together until onions are tender; then add dry ingredients (which have been mixed together), and the lemon juice. Boil up well, put into jars and seal. Thyme and bay leaf may omitted.

? 59 Tomato Catsup

• 2 qts. strained, stewed tomato
• 1 large head of celery
• 4 tablespns. sugar
• 4 teaspns. salt.

Slice celery very fine, add with sugar and salt to the boiling tomatoes; cook until the celery is tender and the sauce rather thick.

60 Other Catsups

Very delightful sauces may be made by cooking a consommÉ, the nut French soup and other suitable soups down thick.

61 Peas and Carrot Sauce

Add cooked carrots cut into dice or fancy shapes, and cooked green peas, to thickened white soup stock, p.77. They may be added to cream sauce or drawn butter.

62 Pink Sauce

Fruit color, or rich red beet juice in drawn butter or white sauce. Sauce may be flavored with onion, garlic and lemon juice or with celery.

63 Apple and Onion Sauce

Simmer chopped onion in oil 5–10 m. Add thick slices of apple with salt and a very little water. Cover close; cook until apples are tender. Serve with broiled trumese or nutmese, or with omelets or scrambled eggs.

64 Another

Apples in quarters, not pared, grated onion, a little tomato, sugar, salt and celery salt, water to cook apples tender. Rub through colander.

65 Currant Sauce

• 1 qt. currants
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 teaspn. celery salt
• ½ teaspn. salt
• 2–3 tablespns. sugar
• ½ cup water

Cook onion in water, with salt and sugar. When tender, add currants and celery salt; cook until currants are broken but not till the seeds are hard. Put into jars boiling hot. Seal.

66 Currant Sauce No.2

• 1 qt. currants
• 1 small head celery—1 pt. finely sliced
• 3 or 4 tablespns. sugar
• ½ teaspn. salt
• 1 cup water

Simmer all together until currants are broken. Seal in jars. Or, cook celery in salted water, add currants and sugar, and cook until currants are broken only.

67 Baked Gooseberry Sauce

• 1 pt. ripe gooseberries
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup water
• a little salt

Put all into baking dish, cover close, bake about an hour.

68 Jellied Chutney Sauce

• 1 pt. currant juice
• 1 pt. red raspberry juice
• 1 cup orange juice
• 3½ cups granulated sugar
• 1–1½ cup ground seeded raisins
• particles of thin yellow shavings of half an orange

Make jelly and add a little at a time to raisins. Stir in orange rind and put into tumblers. Rind may be omitted.

69 Tomato Chutney

• 1 qt. sliced tomatoes
• 1 qt. sliced onions
• ¾ cup lemon juice
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup chopped raisins
• salt

Cook all together 1½, hour.

70 Ripe Cucumber Chutney

• 1 qt. pared and seeded ripe cucumber in cubes
• ? cup lemon juice
• ¾ cup sugar
• ? teaspn. ground coriander seed
• ?–¼ teaspn. celery salt
• ½ cup seeded raisins

Soak cucumber in cold water over night, drain; cook with the sugar, raisins and part of the lemon juice until soft; add the other ingredients, heat well and seal in jars.

71 Apple and Green Tomato Chutney

• 2 qts. chopped tart apples
• 3 cups (1 lb.) seeded raisins
• 3–4 cups brown sugar
• 3–4 cups lemon juice
• 1–2 cups water
• 2 qts. chopped green tomatoes
• 1 large onion chopped
• ?–½ cup salt

Grind tomatoes through food chopper, drain, pour cold water over and drain after 1 hr., mix all ingredients, let stand in stone jar over night.

In the morning set jar in kettle of cold water with something underneath to keep it from the bottom of the kettle; heat to boiling, cook 6 hrs., stirring occasionally. Seal in jars. May cook carefully in preserving kettle on pad or ring.

72 Brother Coates’ Mother’s Chutney

• ¾ pt. lemon juice
• ¼ pt. water
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 3–6 cloves of garlic
• 3 level tablespns. salt
• ½ cup chopped onion and
• ¼ cup shallots or ¾ cup onion
• 1 pt. gooseberries (¾ pt. canned)
• ¾–1 pt. quartered apples—½ as many dried apples
• ¾ cup raisins

Chop fruit fine, boil in ½ the lemon juice and water with the sugar. Chop onions, shallots and garlic fine, mix with salt and remaining lemon juice and water and add to boiling fruit. Cook well together and put into jars.

73 Mint Sauce

• 1 tablespn. chopped spearmint
• 1 tablespn. brown sugar
• 2 tablespns. lemon juice
• 2 tablespns. boiling water

Pour boiling water over mint, add lemon juice and sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Do not heat sauce. Proportions of mint, sugar and lemon juice may be varied and water may be omitted.

74 Currant Mint Sauce

Add chopped mint to melted currant jelly. The addition of particles of thin yellow rind of orange makes a variation.

75 Sauce AmÈricaine

Cook in double boiler like custard, adding only a part of the water at first.

A little less water may be used.

For variety add chopped or sliced olives, or onion juice and parsley, or olives and onion.

76 Sauce for Breaded Carrots

Cream the yolk of a hard boiled egg with a tablespn. of butter; place on back of range and add ½–1 tablespn. of lemon juice with water to make 2 tablespns., and salt. As soon as the mixture thickens, pour it over the carrots.

77 Sour Sauce for Carrot Timbale

• 1 tablespn. butter
• yolks of 3 eggs
• 2 tablespns. cream
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1½ tablespn. lemon juice
• ¼–½ teaspn. salt

Mix creamed butter and beaten yolks of eggs with cream; pour boiling water over; cook in double boiler until thick. Remove from fire, add lemon juice and salt. Serve at once. Excellent without lemon juice.

78 Lemon Butter Sauce

Cream butter and work into it lemon juice to taste. Add chopped parsley, 1 tablespn. to each half cup of butter.

A few chopped nuts may also be added.

79 Pickle for Beets, String Beans and Carrots

2 parts lemon juice, 1 part water, 1–1¼ part sugar, a trifle of salt or none; heat to boiling, pour over vegetables, drain off. Repeat twice.

With string beans a little celery salt or finely-sliced celery may be used.