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Poivrade Sauce, Easily Made
Put two ounces of butter into a stewpan, with two onions, a shallot, a carrot, a turnip cut into dice, two cloves, a bay-leaf, and a sprig of thyme. Stir these ingredients constantly over a gentle fire until they are lightly browned, then dredge a dessert-spoonful of flour over them, and add a little pepper and salt, a glass of claret, half a glass of vinegar, and a glass of water. Boil all gently for half an hour. Skim, strain, and serve. Time, ten minutes to fry the vegetables. Sufficient for four or five persons. Probable cost, 5d., exclusive of the wine.
A short brown sauce built on a mirepoix, sharpened with claret and vinegar. Everything depends on the colour you get on the vegetables before the liquid goes in.
- The hinge: browningTen minutes of constant stirring over a gentle fire should leave the diced vegetables an even light brown with the pan sticky at the bottom. That fond is the whole colour and depth of the sauce; pale vegetables give a thin, sour result, scorched ones give bitterness you cannot strain out.
- "A glass"In Victorian cookery books a glass of wine means a wineglassful, most often reckoned at about 2 fl oz (roughly 60 ml), though the measure was never standardised and larger glasses were sometimes meant. On the commoner reading you are adding about 60 ml claret, 30 ml vinegar and 60 ml water — a small quantity of liquid that reduces to a concentrated sauce.
- Spoon measuresA dessert-spoonful of flour is about 2 level teaspoons. Cook it in the fat with the vegetables for a minute before the liquid goes in, or the sauce tastes raw and pasty.
- Claret and vinegarClaret here means dry red Bordeaux; any dry, unoaked red works. Use red wine vinegar rather than distilled white — half a wineglass of harsh malt or spirit vinegar will dominate the finished sauce.
- StewpanA stewpan is simply a heavy-based saucepan with straight sides. Choose one wide enough that the diced vegetables sit in something close to a single layer, or they steam instead of browning.
- The pepperPoivrade means peppered, and the recipe's "a little pepper" is the one place to be generous. Coarsely crushed black peppercorns added with the liquid, then strained out, give the bite the name promises.
- Skimming and strainingSkim the fat that rises during the half-hour simmer, then press the vegetables firmly in the sieve to extract their juices before discarding them. The recipe reckons the yield sufficient for four or five persons; a sauce of this type is usually served with game or other roast and grilled meats.
- Seasoning at the endReduction concentrates both the salt and the vinegar, so hold back on both at the start and correct after straining. A small knob of cold butter whisked in off the heat rounds off the acidity.
Poivrade belongs to the family of sharp brown sauces that French cookery attached to game — a mirepoix of root vegetables browned in butter, moistened with wine and vinegar, and pointed with pepper. In the classical repertoire it is a labour of hours, built on an espagnole and a game stock and often finished with marinade from the meat itself; the "easily made" in this title is the point of the entry, offering a household cook the same sour-peppery effect from vegetables, flour and a wineglass of claret. The probable cost is quoted at fivepence, with the wine listed as an extra.