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Sauces

The skill and knowledge of a cook are shown in nothing more assuredly than in the way in which she manufactures and chooses sauces. M. Soyer used to say that sauces are to cookery what grammar is to language and the gamut is to music; and another great authority says that " a good sauce ought to call into activity each ramification of the palatic organs." However this may be, sauce ought certainly to serve either as a relish or a finish to the meat which it accompanies: it ought, too, to be carefully made, and attractively sent to table. It will be found that in this book the names of the sauces appropriate to be served with each dish are usually mentioned in the instructions for making it. With regard to sauces in general it should be remembered that hot sauces should be served very hot; that when sauces need to be kept hot they should not be kept boiling, but should be put into a bain-marie, or, failing this, the saucepan should be placed in a vessel containing boiling water; that eggs and acids should not be added to sauce until it has cooled for two minutes, and, after they have been added, the sauce should be stirred without ceasing, and should not be allowed to boil; that cream should be boiled before it is mixed with boiling sauce, and that the sauce should be stirred well after it is put in. An enamelled saucepan is the best in which to make sauce.