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HANOVER SAUCE (suitable for Fowls, etc.)
Soak the thin rind of half a lemon in half a pint of cream for an hour or more. Boil the liver, and pound it in a mortar, with a dessert-spoonful of lemon-juice and a little salt and cayenne. Add the strained cream. Stir it over the fire for a few minutes. It must not boil. Serve in a tureen. Probable cost, 1s. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A liver-thickened cream sauce of the kind Victorian cooks made from the giblets that came with a bird. It is quick, but it will split if it boils.
- The hinge: never let it boilCream enriched with pounded liver and acidulated with lemon juice will curdle the moment it simmers. Hold it below 180F, stirring, just until it thickens enough to coat a spoon.
- "Half a pint" of creamAn imperial half pint is 10 fl oz, or about 1 1/4 US cups. Use heavy or double cream; single cream and half-and-half have too little fat to stand up to the lemon.
- Which liverThe recipe assumes the liver of the bird being served, which came inside the fowl. Buy 2-3 oz of chicken livers if yours arrives without giblets, and trim off any green-stained tissue, which is bitter.
- Cook the liver throughSimmer it 8-10 minutes until firm and no pink remains at the centre, then cool slightly before pounding. Liver intended to be pureed into a warm sauce should not be left rare.
- The rindPare the zest of half a lemon in wide strips with a peeler, taking no white pith, and steep it in the cold cream an hour or longer. Strain it out before the cream goes into the liver.
- PoundingA mortar gives the smoothest result, but a small food processor or a stick blender in a jug does the work in seconds. Press the puree through a fine sieve if you want the silky texture the original intends.
- SeasoningA dessert-spoonful is about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. Cayenne here is a warming background note, not heat: start with a pinch and taste after the cream is in, since dairy mutes it.
- Yield and serviceEnough for three or four, as stated, alongside a roast or boiled fowl. The recipe directs it to be sent out in a tureen; serve it hot, as it thickens and dulls as it cools, and reheating past a simmer will break it.
Sauces built on the pounded liver of the bird they accompany are old and thrifty, running from medieval sauces bound with liver and bread through the French sauce au foie to the giblet gravies of the English kitchen. The origin of the name is unclear: 'Hanover' may be no more than a nod to the dynasty that had sat on the British throne since 1714, and there is nothing here to indicate a documented German original. Its presence in Cassell's, which arranged its entries alphabetically, reflects the assumption that a cook dealing with a fowl would have the giblets to hand and would think it wasteful not to use them. The recipe gives the probable cost as a shilling, cream being the expensive part.