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Brown Sugar Sauce (C brown sugar C water small T)
1 C brown sugar 1/2 C water 1 small T flour Cook until it thickens.
Pinch salt 1 T soft butter Mrs. C. L. Thomson.
A plain boiled brown sugar sauce for puddings, of the kind church cookbooks printed by the dozen. The whole recipe hinges on dispersing the flour before heat touches it.
- Reading the abbreviationsC is cup, T is tablespoon. "1 small T flour" means a scant tablespoon, not a heaped one — roughly 2 teaspoons. The sauce should pour, not mound.
- Mix the flour coldWhisk the flour into the water first, then add the sugar. Stirred into hot syrup it is apt to form lumps that are difficult to beat smooth.
- How long "until it thickens" isOver medium heat, about 3 to 5 minutes after it comes to a simmer. Flour needs to actually boil for a minute or so to lose its raw taste and reach full thickening power.
- The butter goes in off the heatThe list places salt and soft butter after the cooking instruction, which suggests they were added at the end. Stir the butter in once the pan is off the burner so it emulsifies rather than separating into a slick.
- Brown sugarBrown sugar of the period varied in colour and degree of refinement; light brown is probably the safer match. Dark brown gives a stronger molasses note, which is not wrong here but changes the balance against a plain pudding.
- Yield and useAbout a cup — enough for four modest servings. Suited to steamed puddings, cottage pudding, bread pudding or gingerbread, served warm.
- If it sets too firmIt thickens further as it cools. Thin with a spoonful of hot water or milk when reheating; do not boil it hard a second time.
Sauces like this one belong to the era of the steamed and baked puddings that closed out many an American family dinner — cottage pudding, suet pudding, gingerbread — dishes deliberately dry and plain, built to be finished with something sweet poured over. Think of it as a pourable cousin to hard sauce: sugar, water, a thickener and butter, requiring no eggs, no cream and no cooking skill beyond stirring. Brown sugar was the cheaper sugar, and a version leaning on it rather than white marks the recipe as everyday rather than company fare. Compiled cookbooks such as this one, with each contribution signed with the donor's married name, preserve exactly this sort of unassuming domestic shorthand in their sauce chapters — a cook writing down what she already knew by heart, for neighbors who mostly did too.