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POIVRADE SAUCE (a very good sharp Sauce)
Dissolve two ounces of butter over a gentle fire, and put with it a small slice of ham cut into dice, a scraped carrot, a turnip, an onion, a shallot, a bay-leaf, a blade of mace, a small sprig of thyme, a stick of celery cut small, and twenty peppercorns. Stir these ingredients over the fire till they are nicely browned, then add gradually a wine-glassful of vinegar, a table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, a glass of port or sherry, a tea-spoonful of powdered sugar and half a pint of good-brown sauce. Simmer gently by the side of the fire, and carefully remove the scum as it rises. Strain, and serve hot. When thick brown sauce is not at hand, dissolve one ounce of butter in a saucepan, mix an ounce of flour smoothly with it, and stir quickly over a slow fire for three or four minutes, or until it is nicely browned. Moisten gradually with a little broth, or failing this, water, until the sauce is of the consistency of thick cream. Boil it a minute or two, and it is ready for use. The quantity of vinegar used in this recipe may be increased or diminished, according to taste. Time, half an hour to simmer the sauce. Probable cost, 1s. for this quantity. Sufficient for six or eight persons.
A classic peppery brown sauce, built on a browned mirepoix and a vinegar-and-fortified-wine cut. Nothing here is difficult, but the measurements and one or two ingredients need translating.
- The hinge: brown, don't scorchThe whole character of the sauce comes from the vegetables, ham and peppercorns taking real colour in the butter before any liquid goes in. The recipe specifies a gentle fire, so allow the time that takes; if the butter solids blacken, the finished sauce turns bitter and the spoonful of sugar will not pull it back.
- Wine-glassful and glassA Victorian wine-glassful is about 2 fl oz (1/4 cup) — that is the vinegar. The "glass of port or sherry" is the same order of size, though the term is looser; 2 to 3 fl oz works. Start at the lower end of the vinegar and adjust at the finish, as the recipe itself invites.
- Half a pint of brown sauceAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1 1/4 US cups. The "good brown sauce" meant is espagnole or a well-made brown stock reduction, not bottled brown table sauce.
- The fallback rouxThe ounce-of-butter-to-ounce-of-flour brown roux at the end is a working substitute. One ounce of flour is roughly 1/4 cup by volume. Brown it slowly, moisten with warm stock rather than water if you have it, and expect the finished sauce to taste shallower than one built on real espagnole.
- Mushroom ketchupA thin, dark, salty mushroom-and-spice condiment, not tomato ketchup. It is still sold by specialist grocers; a tablespoon of a good soy-free Worcestershire or a spoonful of mushroom soy plus a drop of anchovy stands in for the savoury depth.
- Blade of maceA blade is one piece of the lacy outer covering of nutmeg. If you only have ground mace, a small pinch is enough — it is assertive, and the sauce is strained, so whole spice is easier to control.
- Heat and skimming"Simmer gently by the side of the fire" means the barest tremble, uncovered, for the half hour given. Keep skimming: the butter and ham fat rise, and if they stay in, the strained sauce breaks greasy on the plate.
- Finishing and yieldStrain through a fine sieve, pressing the vegetables only lightly, then taste for vinegar and sugar. The recipe calls it sufficient for six or eight persons; that suggests a modest quantity of finished sauce, of the kind served with a joint of game or venison.
Poivrade means simply "peppered," and the sauce belongs to the French repertoire of sharp brown sauces served with game, venison and dark roasted meats — the acid and pepper were understood to answer the richness and, in older practice, the strong flavour of well-hung meat. It sits in the sauce chapter of a household dictionary like Cassell's because late-Victorian English cookery had absorbed a working version of the French sauce system: a base brown sauce made in quantity, then flavoured several different ways as the week's dishes required. The mushroom ketchup is the English fingerprint on an otherwise Continental formula; bottled mushroom, walnut and anchovy ketchups were pantry staples in Britain long before tomato ketchup became the default, and cooks reached for them the way a modern kitchen reaches for a splash of soy or Worcestershire. The "probable cost, 1s." is characteristic of Cassell's too — the book was written for households keeping accounts, and price per dish was information as practical as the timing.