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Veloute Sauce, or White Cullis
Butter the bottom of a stewpan, and cover it with thin slices of lean ham. Place upon these three pounds of the knuckle of veal and an old hen, if this is to be had, or the bones of a cold roast chicken. Pour in half a pint of stock, and let it boil away till it is reduced to glaze. Draw it back before it has time to acquire any colour, pour upon it seven pints of stock, and add a small onion in which one clove has been stuck, a carrot, a little parsley, half a bay-leaf, a small sprig of thyme, and a little pepper and salt. Let it simmer gently, and skim frequently till the goodness is all drawn from the veal. Strain it, let it get cold, and free it from fat. Make a roux in a stewpan of equal parts of butter and flour. Before it can brown, moisten it with the stock, and add it to the sauce. Stir the sauce over the fire till it boils, and let it simmer gently by the side of the fire till it ceases to throw up grease. Skim carefully, strain through a cloth, and the sauce will be ready for use. For veloute sauce made in a large quantity, see PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY, page xxviii. Time, two hours. Probable cost, 3s. 6d. for this quantity.
One of the classic mother sauces in its Victorian form: a veal-and-poultry stock built on a ham-scented glaze, then thickened with a pale roux and clarified by long, patient skimming. The hinge is colour — nothing in the pan may brown at any stage, or the sauce is no longer velouté.
- Keep everything blondThe initial reduction is drawn off the heat the moment it becomes glaze, and the roux is moistened "before it can brown." Any gold in the pan turns the finished sauce ivory-grey and gives it a toasted flavour that belongs in an espagnole.
- Quantities in modern termsHalf a pint is 10 fl oz in imperial measure, about 1¼ US cups; seven pints is roughly 4 US quarts. Three pounds of veal knuckle plus a fowl carcass in 4 quarts of liquid is a generous ratio and will give a stock that sets to jelly when cold.
- The roux is unmeasuredThe original gives only "equal parts of butter and flour" with no weight. For a coating velouté, figure about 3 oz each of butter and flour per quart of strained stock; less if you want a sauce for napping rather than binding.
- An old henA stewing hen — a laying bird past her prime — has far more gelatine and flavour than a modern broiler. Butchers and Asian and Latin markets still sell them as "stewing hen" or gallina. The cold roast chicken bones are offered only as a fallback, "if this is to be had" giving the hen preference.
- Two hours is optimisticVeal knuckle generally needs three to four hours at a bare tremble before the "goodness is all drawn" from it; judge by the bones falling apart, not the clock.
- Simmering by the side of the fireThis is the skimming technique the French call dépouiller: the pan is set off-centre so it boils on one side only, driving fat and scum to the cool side where they can be lifted off. On a modern hob, slide the pan half off the burner and skim the still edge.
- Cool the stock safely"Let it get cold" meant a cold larder. Chill the strained stock quickly — a shallow pan, or an ice bath — rather than leaving a gallon of it standing warm overnight; then lift the fat cap off the set jelly.
- Yield and keepingExpect about 3 quarts of finished sauce, more than a single household meal needs; the entry itself points elsewhere for a larger quantity. It refrigerates for three or four days and freezes well, though the roux thickening loosens slightly on thawing and wants a whisk over heat.
Velouté — from velours, velvet — is one of the sauces Carême codified in the early nineteenth century and Escoffier later fixed as a mother sauce, and this entry catches it at a moment when English kitchens were still translating the French vocabulary: hence the doubled title, since "cullis" is an old anglicisation of coulis, which then meant a rich strained meat essence rather than the fruit or vegetable purée it means now. The entry cross-refers to "The Principles of Cookery" for a large-quantity version, treating the sauce as infrastructure rather than a dish — a foundation for fricassées, blanquettes and the whole family of white sauces. At 3s. 6d. for three pounds of veal knuckle and a fowl, it was not a cheap thing to keep on hand.