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Tartare Sauce for Broiled Fish (Mrs. Lincoln)
1 tablespoonful vinegar; 1 teaspoonful lemon juice; 1 saltspoonful salt; 1/3 cupful butter; 1 tablespoonful Worcestershire sauce. Mix vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl, and heat over hot water. Brown the butter in an omelet pan, and strain into the other mixture. To be served hot.
A hot, sharp butter sauce rather than the cold mayonnaise-based tartare most cooks expect. It comes together in a few minutes and depends entirely on how far you take the butter.
- SaltspoonfulA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. Worcestershire is already salty, so taste before adding more.
- Butter quantityOne-third cupful is 5 tablespoons plus a teaspoon, about 75 g. Browning drives off water and the solids are strained out, so the butter that reaches the bowl measures noticeably less than it started.
- The hinge: brown, do not burnMelt the butter over medium heat and keep it moving until the milk solids at the bottom turn hazelnut brown and it smells nutty, roughly 4 to 6 minutes. Past that it turns black and bitter, and there is no rescuing it. Pull the pan off the heat while it is still a shade lighter than you want.
- Why it is strainedStraining leaves the toasted milk solids behind so the sauce stays clear and does not carry scorched flecks. A fine sieve or a coffee filter both work.
- Omelet panAny small, shallow skillet. A pale interior makes it easier to judge the colour of the butter, though the iron and steel omelet pans of the period were dark and cooks went by smell and the look of the foam.
- Keeping it hotThe acid and butter will separate if the sauce sits over direct heat. Hold it in the bowl over hot, not simmering, water and whisk briefly before serving.
- YieldAbout 6 tablespoons, enough for four portions of broiled fish. It is potent; spoon it over rather than pooling it under.