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Sauces, to Thicken

Sauces may be thickened with roux, brown and white, arrowroot, ground rice, flour, eggs, butter, and milk, or cream. (For thickening with roux see ROUX, BROWN.) When eggs are used, the yolks only are needed. The sauce should be allowed to cool for two minutes. The yolks should then be beaten, mixed with a little of the sauce, and added gradually to the rest. The sauce should then be stirred without ceasing until it is quite hot, and it should on no account be allowed to boil. Flour, ground rice, and arrowroot should first be mixed smoothly with a little cold liquor, and to this should be added a little hot liquor. The mixture should then be poured slowly with one hand into the sauce, which should be well stirred with the other, and it should be allowed to boil until it is so thick that it will coat the spoon. Butter and milk, or cream, though often spoken of as thickening sauces, tend more to enrich than to thicken them. Cream or milk should be boiled before being added to boiling sauce, and butter should always be stirred into the sauce cold the moment before serving, and after the saucepan has been taken from the fire.