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SOUBISE SAUCE (for Roast Mutton, Boiled Veal, and Cutlets)
Peel four large onions, and cut them into thin slices; sprinkle a little pepper and salt upon them, together with a small quantity of grated nutmeg; put them into a saucepan with a slice of fresh butter, and steam gently till they are soft. They must not be allowed to acquire any colour. Dredge a table-spoonful of flour upon them, put a freshly-boiled mealy potato with them, and add half a pint of milk, or a quarter of a pint of white stock, and a quarter of a pint of cream. Stir the sauce over the fire till it is quite smooth, rub it through a coarse sieve, pressing the onion strongly, that none may remain behind; and, before serving, heat again without allowing it to boil. Time, about an hour. Probable cost, 8d., if made with milk. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A classic onion purée sauce, thickened as much by the onions and a potato as by flour. The whole point is pale, sweet onion with no browning at all.
- No colour, everSweat the onions covered over the lowest heat with a scrap of butter and a pinch of salt to draw out moisture. Any browning gives a caramel note and a beige sauce, which is the one fault a soubise cannot carry.
- Quantities in modern termsHalf a pint is 10 fl oz in the imperial measure this book uses, so about 1¼ US cups; a quarter pint is roughly ⅔ cup. Four large onions is around 1½ lb trimmed.
- White stockThat means an unroasted veal or chicken stock, pale and lightly seasoned. A good low-sodium chicken stock stands in; avoid anything dark or heavily reduced.
- The potatoIt is there as a thickener and to soften the flour taste. Use a floury variety — russet or Maris Piper — freshly boiled and still hot, or it will go gluey when sieved.
- Sieve or blenderPressing through a coarse sieve was the only way to get a smooth purée when this was written. A blender or stick blender does it in seconds, though a final pass through a fine sieve still improves the texture.
- Do not boil at the endThe recipe says to reheat without boiling: cream brought to the boil can separate, and the sauce can catch on the pan bottom. Reheat to just steaming.
- TimingThe stated hour is mostly the slow sweat. Twenty-five to thirty minutes covered on low is usually enough for sliced onions to collapse without colour.
- Yield and seasoningFour to five servings as written. Check the salt after sieving — the cream and potato mute it considerably.
Soubise is generally traced to the household of the Princes de Soubise in eighteenth-century France, and like most such attributions it more likely honours the patron than records an inventor; the cooks of great French houses routinely named dishes for their employers. In French practice the name covers both an onion purée served as a garnish and a béchamel heavily enriched with cooked onion, and Cassell's version sits between the two — flour and milk for body, but with the onions themselves doing most of the thickening, helped by a boiled potato. Its pairing here with mutton and veal reflects Victorian logic about pale meats and pale sauces: mutton was often served with onion in some form, and a smooth white soubise was the refined alternative to the boiled onion sauce of plainer tables.