Tomato Sauce
1 cup cooked tomatoes 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 bay leaf Dash of red pepper 1 teaspoon onion juice 1 tablespoon butter 1½ tablespoons flour Add the seasonings to the tomatoes and let them boil for a few minutes. Melt the butter in a separate saucepan; stir in the flour; then slowly add the tomatoes, strained. Bring to a boil and serve.
A plain roux-thickened tomato sauce of the sort that once dressed croquettes, cutlets and boiled vegetables. It comes together in ten minutes and the only real decision is how thick you want it.
- YieldOne cup of tomatoes with 1 1/2 tablespoons flour gives roughly a cup of medium-bodied sauce; the recipe states no yield, but that is enough to dress meat or vegetables for about four. Halve the flour if you want something closer to a pouring sauce.
- "11/2 tablespoons"The run-together figure in the original is 1 1/2 tablespoons, slightly more flour than the equal-parts-butter-and-flour roux more usually given for a cup of liquid. Equal parts by volume also works and gives a slightly cleaner texture.
- Cooked tomatoesHere this means tomatoes already stewed and unseasoned, whether put up at home, tinned, or fresh and cooked down. Whole canned tomatoes crushed by hand are the closest match; passata is already smooth and will need no straining.
- Onion juiceGrate half a small onion on the fine side of a box grater and press the pulp through a sieve, or grate directly into the pan and strain it out later with the bay leaf. It gives onion flavor without specks or texture, which is the whole point of the technique.
- Strain after the boil, not beforeThe seasonings go into the tomatoes first and are strained out with the seeds and skin before the tomatoes meet the roux. Skipping the straining leaves you with a chunky sauce and a bay leaf to fish for.
- Cook the flourLet the butter and flour bubble together for a minute or two before adding liquid, or the sauce will taste of raw paste. Add the strained tomatoes a little at a time and whisk to keep it smooth.
- Red pepper"Dash of red pepper" is cayenne, not paprika or chile flakes. An eighth of a teaspoon is plenty for a cup of sauce.
- Seasoning at the endCanned tomatoes vary in acidity. Taste before serving and add a pinch of sugar if it bites, and more salt if the half teaspoon falls short.
Tomato sauce is often said to have reached American cookbooks by way of French cookery rather than Italian: this is a sauce tomate built on a butter-and-flour roux, one of the mother sauces codified by Escoffier in the early twentieth century, and it belongs to a chapter of sauces meant to be spooned over croquettes, cauliflower, macaroni or a plain broiled chop. The onion juice is a giveaway of the period's fondness for smooth, strained, uniformly textured sauces, achieved by extracting flavor and discarding the solids. Loose-leaf cook books like Mrs. Fryer's were sold as binders so pages could be added, swapped or replaced, each recipe compressed onto its single leaf.