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Supreme Sauce
1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup flour 1 1/2 cups hot Chicken Stock 1/2 cup hot cream 1 tablespoon mushroom liquor 3/4 teaspoon lemon juice Salt and pepper Make same as Thin White Sauce, and add seasonings.
Maitre d'Hotel Butter 1/4 cup butter 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1/2 tablespoon finely chopped parsley 3/4 tablespoon lemon juice Put butter in a bowl, and with small wooden spoon work until creamy. Add salt, pepper, and parsley, then lemon juice very slowly.
A velouté enriched with cream — the classic sauce suprême, built on the same roux method as the book's thin white sauce. Two points decide whether it works: the roux must cook without browning, and the liquid must go in hot.
- ProportionsA quarter cup of butter to a quarter cup of flour is roughly 4 tablespoons each (about 55 g butter, 30 g flour) to 2 cups of liquid total. That is a medium-bodied sauce, thick enough to coat but still pourable.
- "Same as Thin White Sauce"Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook it over low heat without letting it colour, then add the hot stock gradually, whisking smooth before each addition. The recipe's insistence on hot stock and hot cream is deliberate; adding the liquid all at once is what produces lumps.
- Mushroom liquorThis means the strained soaking or cooking liquid from mushrooms, not a spirit. Liquid from a can of mushrooms, or the reduced liquid from sautéed or dried mushrooms, both serve; a tablespoon is there for depth rather than mushroom flavour as such.
- CreamPeriod "cream" is unlikely to be as light as modern table cream, though it need not be as rich as heavy whipping cream either; either will work. The recipe calls for it hot, and it is safest not to let the finished sauce boil hard.
- Lemon juice lastAcid added to a hot cream sauce over direct heat can curdle it. Take the pan off the heat, then stir the juice in.
- Chicken stockThe strength of the stock decides the sauce. A well-made unsalted stock is best, since the sauce reduces slightly and packaged broth can turn salty; season at the very end.
- YieldAbout 2 cups, enough for six to eight servings over poached chicken, sweetbreads, veal or delicate fish.
- The compound butterFor the maître d'hôtel butter, have the butter soft but not melted, and add the lemon juice drop by drop while working it in, or it will refuse to combine. Roll in parchment, chill firm, and cut in coins to melt over grilled fish or steak.