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Grayling, Sauce For
Put a table-spoonful of sherry, or any white wine, into a saucepan, with one tea-spoonful of anchovy essence, the juice of half a lemon, a tea-spoonful of powdered herbs, of which two parts should be parsley and one thyme, an inch of lemon-rind, two cloves, six peppercorns, and a shallot finely minced. Shake the pan over the fire for five or six minutes; strain the gravy, and mix with it three ounces of butter, a table-spoonful of flour, and a quarter of a pint of cream, or new milk. Simmer gently, stirring all the time, until the sauce is hot, but it must not boil. Probable cost, 6d., if made with milk. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A butter-and-cream sauce built on a tiny aromatic reduction, meant for a delicate freshwater fish. The whole thing hinges on heat control at the end.
- Never let it boilOnce the butter, flour and cream go in, the sauce is held below a simmer and stirred constantly. Boiling this ratio of fat to liquid will split it into greasy pools, and reheating will not bring it back.
- A quarter of a pintIn an English book of this period that is 5 fl oz, or about two-thirds of a cup.
- The reduction is very smallOne tablespoon of wine plus lemon juice will not survive five or six minutes over a strong flame. Keep the heat gentle and the pan covered between shakes, or you will strain nothing at all.
- Anchovy essenceA thin Victorian bottled fish seasoning, usually anchovies pounded with brine, vinegar and spice. Anchovy paste thinned with a little water is the closest substitute; a scant teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce will supply a salty savoury note, though not the same one.
- Powdered herbsDried parsley and thyme ground fine, two parts to one. Fresh herbs work if you chop them very small, but use roughly three times the volume.
- New milkFresh whole milk, straight from the dairy and unskimmed. Whole milk is the modern equivalent; the sauce is noticeably more stable made with cream, as the alternative suggests.
- Fat to flourThree ounces of butter to one tablespoon of flour is barely thickened by modern standards — the flour is there to steady the emulsion, not to build a béchamel. Expect a pouring sauce, not a coating one.
- YieldEnough for three or four portions of fish, about a cup of finished sauce. Make it while the grayling cooks and serve it at once; it does not hold well on a warm stove.
Grayling (Thymallus thymallus) is a river fish of the same family as trout and salmon, prized by Victorian anglers and, because it does not travel or keep well, rarely sold in fishmongers' shops. Its genus name Thymallus is traditionally said to come from a faint scent of thyme on a freshly caught fish, though the claim is unverified and the English word 'grayling' derives from the fish's grey colouring; it is at least a pleasing coincidence that thyme is one of the two herbs specified here. The sauce itself is a standard piece of late-nineteenth-century English fish cookery: a sharp aromatic infusion of wine, shallot, lemon and spice, strained clear and then enriched with butter and cream, with anchovy essence supplying the savoury depth. The costing in pence, given for milk rather than cream, is typical of Cassell's, which addressed households keeping a close eye on the weekly books.