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Olive Sauce, for Ducks, Fowls, Beefsteaks, Etc
Take four ounces of fine olives. Remove the stones by cutting the fruit round and round in ribbons, in the same way that apples are pared. By this means they will be the same shape when done that they were at first. Throw them into boiling water for three or four minutes, then drain them, and put them into cold water to soak until the salt taste is extracted. Drain them, and simmer them gently in three-quarters of a pint of good brown gravy. Serve very hot. A cut lemon should be sent to table with this sauce, so that a little of the juice may be squeezed in if the addition is approved. Time to simmer, half an hour. Probable cost, 1s. Sufficient for eight or nine persons.
A Victorian sauce built on two things: pitted olives that hold their shape, and a proper brown gravy. Both need attention before you start.
- The spiral pit removalCutting the flesh away in one continuous ribbon around the stone lets the olive be reassembled into its original shape. A small sharp paring knife and firm, unripe green olives make this possible; soft black olives will tear. Pre-pitted olives work perfectly well if you do not care about the look.
- Three-quarters of a pintAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz, so this is 15 fl oz, roughly 1 3/4 cups. Four ounces of olives is about 3/4 cup drained.
- "Good brown gravy"In Cassell's this most likely means a reduced brown sauce built on meat and vegetables and thickened with browned flour, rather than pan drippings stirred with flour. A demi-glace or a well-reduced dark stock is the nearest modern equivalent. The sauce has almost no other seasoning, so a thin gravy leaves you with salty water.
- Blanch and soak, and do not skip itThis is the hinge. Brined olives will make the finished sauce inedibly salty as it reduces. The blanch plus a cold soak (change the water once or twice, taste one) pulls out most of the salt. Modern olives vary hugely in cure strength, so judge by taste rather than by the clock.
- Half an hour is longThirty minutes suits a slack Victorian gravy that wanted reducing. With a concentrated stock or demi-glace, 10 to 15 minutes at a bare simmer is enough to marry the flavours without turning the olives to mush or over-reducing to a salt glaze.
- Season at the endBecause the salt level depends entirely on how well the olives soaked, hold back any additional salt until the sauce is finished. The lemon sent to table does the work of brightening; a squeeze off the heat is often better than at the table.
- YieldEnough for eight or nine servings as an accompaniment — about 3 tablespoons each from the 15 fl oz. Halve it for a household dinner.
Olive sauce belongs to the French repertoire that British cookery books absorbed in the nineteenth century, and the pairing of duck with green olives remains standard in Provençal and Languedoc cooking. Cassell's places the entry among sauces for ducks, fowls and beefsteaks because a brown sauce sharpened with something salty and acidic was a common answer to rich or fatty meat.