Olive Sauce

A short compound sauce built on a base the book assumes you already have on hand. Everything here depends on the brown sauce being decent to begin with.

• Brown sauceThe book assumes you already have this: in household books of this kind it usually means a brown roux let down with stock, at the fancier end an espagnole or demi-glace. A pint is 2 cups; a good reduced beef or veal stock thickened with a brown roux, or a jar of quality demi-glace loosened with stock, stands in for it.
• The olives"Large olives" most likely means brine-cured green olives of the Spanish type, then commonly sold with the pits in, though the recipe says nothing beyond the size. Pit them, chop coarsely, and taste the brine level first — if they are aggressively salty, blanch them a minute in plain water and discard it, or the finished sauce will need no seasoning and still be too salty.
• That half cup of waterThe olives are simmered in it, presumably to soften them and draw out salt; the recipe does not say whether the liquid is drained or goes in with them. If you add it, cook the olives until the water has reduced to a spoonful or two first, or it will thin the sauce.
• OnionA teaspoon of raw minced onion added to a boiling sauce will still taste raw. Sweat it in a little butter until translucent before it goes in.
• "Boil up"A brief return to the boil to marry the additions and re-tighten the sauce — a minute or two, no more. Long boiling dulls a brown sauce and drives off the olive character.
• Lemon lastAdd the tablespoon of lemon juice off the heat, just before serving. Held hot, the brightness flattens and the acid can thin the body of the sauce.
• Yield and servingMakes about 2 cups, enough for six to eight portions. A brown olive sauce of this type is usually suggested for duck, tongue and dark meats.