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Drawn Butter (Tablespoonfuls of flour)
2 tablespoonfuls of flour; 3 tablespoonfuls of cold butter; 1 cupful of water; seasoning.
Take 2/3 of the butter and melt it in a saucepan over the fire. As soon as it is melted, add the flour and stir until it bubbles. Care must be taken that it does not brown. The water is then gradually stirred in until the sauce boils. Add pepper and salt to taste. Remove from the fire, and stir in the rest of the butter, which has been broken into small pieces. If necessary, strain. Serve while very hot.
A basic white roux sauce enriched with cold butter at the end — the American nineteenth-century "drawn butter" that stood in for hollandaise alongside boiled fish and shellfish. It comes together in under ten minutes and depends entirely on temperature control at two points.
- The hinge: the final butterTake the pan off the heat before stirring in the reserved tablespoon of cold butter, and add it in small pieces. If the sauce is boiling when the butter goes in, the emulsion breaks and you get a greasy film on top rather than a glossy sauce.
- Cook the roux, don't colour itTwo tablespoons flour in two tablespoons melted butter needs about a minute of bubbling over medium heat to lose its raw taste. Drawn butter should be ivory; if it turns tan you have started a blond roux and the flavour shifts.
- Water, not milkThe thin liquid is deliberate — this is not a béchamel. For fish and oysters, substituting the hot cooking liquor or a light fish stock for some of the water gives a far better sauce, and other period drawn-butter recipes commonly direct this.
- Add the liquid graduallyPour in a little at a time and stir smooth before the next addition. Warm water incorporates more easily than cold, though cold works if you are patient.
- SeasoningThe original leaves salt entirely to taste, which matters here: if the sauce is going over salted boiled fish or oysters, season lightly and check at the end.
- YieldAbout one cup, enough to sauce four modest servings of fish or shellfish. It does not reheat well — the emulsion separates — so make it last and serve immediately.
- Straining"If necessary, strain" is insurance against lumps from an under-whisked roux. A fine sieve or a few seconds with a stick blender does the same job.