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Anchovies, Essence of, Mock
Boil a quart of old ale for a quarter of an hour, let it stand till it is cold; take five Dutch pickled herrings, with their liquor (removing the heads and roes), pound or mince them finely, and put them into the ale, with a stick of horse-radish scraped; boil the liquid for twenty minutes, then strain it. Hold a clean frying-pan over the fire, that it may be quite dry; put in a quarter of a pound of flour; keep stirring it with a wooden spoon, till it is of a reddish brown colour; put the liquor to it, and stir till it boils; when cold, bottle it. If not of sufficient colour, put a little lobster coral or cochineal to it. Probable cost, 1s. 4d. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A store sauce meant to stand in for bottled anchovy essence, then an expensive imported item. The critical step is the dry-browned flour: it supplies both the thickening and the colour, and it burns in seconds if you look away.
- Browned flour is the hingeToast the 4 oz (115 g) of flour in a dry pan over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until it is the colour of an old penny. It goes from tan to acrid very quickly, and scorched flour will ruin the whole quart. Add the strained liquid off the heat, in stages, to avoid lumps.
- Quart and measuresAn imperial quart is 40 fl oz, about 4 3/4 US cups. A quarter of a pound of flour is 4 oz, roughly a scant cup by modern scoop.
- Old aleA strong, dark, malty English ale rather than a hoppy modern IPA; heavy hopping will turn the finished sauce bitter as it reduces. A brown ale or old ale of 5 to 7 per cent is the closest match.
- Dutch pickled herringsThese were salt-cured or brine-matured herring sold in their own liquor, sharp and very salty. Maatjes fillets, salted herring, or drained rollmops are the nearest supermarket equivalents; taste before adding salt, since the sauce is meant to be intensely savoury on its own.
- Horse-radish stickA "stick" is a piece of fresh root, scraped clean, perhaps 3 to 4 inches. Prepared horseradish in vinegar is not a substitute here, as it will push the sauce sour.
- ColouringLobster coral and cochineal were added for appearance, to imitate the reddish-brown of commercial anchovy essence. The recipe treats them as optional; cochineal can be omitted with no effect on flavour, and lobster coral contributes little.
- Strain properlyStrain the herring liquid through a fine sieve lined with muslin before it meets the flour, or the finished essence will be gritty with bone and scale.
- KeepingDespite the instruction to bottle it, treat this as a fresh sauce, not a shelf-stable one: a low-acid fish and beer preparation bottled cold has no preservation margin. Refrigerate it and use it within a few days.
- Yield and use"Sufficient for two or three persons" reflects its use by the teaspoon, not the ladle. After two boilings and straining you will have appreciably less than the starting quart, enough to season many fish sauces, potted pastes and gravies.
Anchovy essence and its cousins, from Worcestershire sauce to the older "fish ketchups", were the nineteenth-century British larder's answer to the salted-fish seasonings that Roman cooks knew as garum. Real essence depended on imported anchovies, and the bottled article was dear enough that cookery writers offered mock versions built on cheaper North Sea herring, which the Dutch had been curing at sea in barrels since the late Middle Ages. Cassell's, an encyclopaedic household dictionary assembled for middle-class kitchens, quotes a probable cost of 1s. 4d., as it does for its recipes generally. The reliance on cochineal or lobster coral for colour is a reminder that these sauces were judged as much by their look in the cruet as by their taste.