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SAXONY SAUCE (a German recipe)
Place a piece of butter in a casserole, together with a table-spoonful of flour, to thicken, till almost browned. Then add a sufficient quantity of water in which fish was boiled, a shallot minced, some pale vinegar, a little white wine, and a good tea-spoonful of mustard. Stir these ingredients until the preparation boils well. Before sending to table, add some very thin slices of lemon and a piece of cold butter to make the sauce oily.
A brown-roux fish sauce built on court-bouillon rather than stock, finished with mustard, lemon and cold butter. The whole thing takes about fifteen minutes once you have the fish liquor.
- The hinge: the final butterThe cold butter goes in at the end, after the sauce has boiled. "To make the sauce oily" appears to mean glossy and enriched rather than greasy; adding it off the heat and not letting the sauce boil again afterwards will help keep it from separating, though the recipe does not say so.
- "A casserole"Here this most likely means a saucepan or small stewpan on the stovetop, following the French sense of the word, rather than a covered baking dish. A heavy pan of about a quart will let the roux brown evenly.
- QuantitiesThe original gives only the tablespoon of flour and the teaspoon of mustard. For a workable sauce: 1 tablespoon butter to the tablespoon of flour, about 1 cup fish liquor, 1 shallot, 2 teaspoons vinegar, 2 tablespoons white wine, and 1 to 2 tablespoons cold butter to finish. Yield is roughly a cup, enough for four servings of fish.
- "Water in which fish was boiled"The recipe assumes a kitchen that has just poached fish and says no more than that. A light fish stock or the strained liquor from steaming mussels or poaching fillets both work; commercial fish stock is often salty, so hold back on seasoning until the sauce has reduced.
- Roux colour"Till almost browned" is a blond-to-light-brown roux, three to five minutes over medium heat, smelling of toasted biscuit. Take it past that and the flour loses thickening power and the sauce turns bitter under the mustard.
- "Pale vinegar"A white wine vinegar or cider vinegar. Malt and modern distilled white vinegar are both too aggressive here.
- MustardThe recipe does not say which kind. In English books of the period "mustard" often meant the powder, though a prepared German or Dijon-style mustard suits the sauce and can go in with the liquid. If using dry powder, about half a teaspoon, given time in the simmering sauce to lose its raw edge.
- The lemon slicesCut them paper-thin and add them at the last moment, as directed. Left to sit in the hot sauce the pith turns it bitter; they are there for aroma and appearance as much as acidity.
Nineteenth-century English cookery books collected sauces by nationality, and "Saxony sauce" belongs to a long list of continental attributions — Genoese, Dutch, Poivrade, Piquante. The style may owe something to German practice: a browned roux rather than the pale one an English or French cook would use for fish, sharpened with vinegar and prepared mustard. The frugality is period-typical too: the poaching liquor from the fish becomes the base of the sauce that dresses it, so nothing is thrown away. Finishing off the heat with cold butter is the technique later codified in French kitchens as monter au beurre.