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Spanish Sauce, to Make a Small Quantity Of
Butter a stewpan, and lay in the bottom of it a couple of slices of lean ham and a pound of lean beef or veal, or half a pound of each cut into small pieces. Pour upon the meat as much stock or water as will barely cover its surface, and boil it until it becomes thick, like gum. Check the heat of the fire a little, and simmer the preparation until it is brightly coloured, taking care that it does not burn. Add gradually a pint of stock or water, and put into the saucepan with the liquor a sliced carrot, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, half a bay-leaf, an onion stuck with two cloves, two shallots, a quarter of a blade of mace, and four or five peppercorns. Simmer the sauce for about an hour, or till it is strong and agreeably flavoured; strain it, and let it stand till cold. When wanted, remove the cake of fat from the top, heat the sauce, thicken with a spoonful of brown thickening, and simmer till it is of the consistency of cream. Remove the fat as it is thrown up, add a glassful of sherry or Madeira, and serve. Time, altogether, an hour and a half. Probable cost, 2s. per pint.
This is sauce espagnole built the long way: a small quantity of meat is reduced to a glaze in the pan, that glaze is caramelised, then re-dissolved in stock and infused with aromatics. The whole success of it rests on the browning stage.
- The hinge: browning the glaze"Boil it until it becomes thick, like gum" means reduce the liquid to a sticky glaze that films the pan. Then drop the heat and let that glaze catch to a deep russet without scorching — a burnt fond gives a bitter sauce nothing later can fix. Deglaze with the pint of stock the moment the colour is right.
- Brown thickeningThis is Victorian shorthand for a brown roux — flour cooked in butter or clarified drippings until it is the colour of a hazelnut shell. A "spoonful" here is roughly a tablespoon, enough to bring a pint of sauce to coating consistency.
- A blade of maceMace is the lacy covering of the nutmeg seed, sold now as blades or ground. A quarter blade is a very small amount; if using ground mace, a pinch is the equivalent, and add it at the simmering stage rather than earlier.
- Shallots and the clove-stuck onionTwo shallots means two whole bulbs, peeled and left whole or halved. The onion stuck with cloves is a standard infusion trick — the cloves are easy to retrieve at straining and do not disintegrate into the sauce.
- HamTwo slices of lean unsmoked gammon or a piece of prosciutto crudo works; heavily smoked supermarket bacon will dominate the finished sauce.
- Cooling is not optionalThe instruction to let the sauce stand cold and lift off the cake of fat is the cleanest way to degrease it. Refrigerate overnight and the fat lifts in one disc. Skimming hot only gets part of it, which is why the recipe tells you to keep removing fat afterwards as well.
- The wineA "glassful" in this period is around 2 fl oz (a quarter cup) of a wineglass measure. Add it at the end and simmer only a minute or two — long boiling drives off the aroma that was the point of adding it.
- Yield and useAbout a pint, on the evidence of the pint of stock added and the cost quoted per pint. It is a mother sauce rather than a finished one: use it as the base for a sauce for roast or braised meat, game, or as the foundation for demi-glace.
Espagnole was one of the foundation sauces of the classical French kitchen, from which dozens of others were derived by addition. The name is often linked to Spanish influence at the French court, though this is traditional explanation rather than documented fact; another suggestion is the Spanish ham used to give the sauce depth. Large kitchens made espagnole in quantity over several days; the interest of this entry is that it is scaled down for a household with one stewpan, allows water in place of stock, and quotes a price per pint — two shillings being a real consideration for a cook working to a weekly book.