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Currant Jelly Sauce
1 onion 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon flour 1/2 cup currant jelly 1 stalk celery 1 bay-leaf 2 tablespoons vinegar 2 cups stock Slice the onion and cook in the butter till it begins to color, then add the flour and herbs and stir until brown. Add the vinegar and the stock and simmer twenty minutes. Strain, skim off all the fat, put in the jelly and stir it until it is melted. This sauce is used with game.
A brown sauce built on a roux, sharpened with vinegar and finished with currant jelly off the heat. It is the classic accompaniment to venison and other game.
- Add the jelly last, off high heatOnce the sauce is strained and skimmed, drop the heat before stirring in the jelly; the recipe says only to stir it until it is melted, and hard boiling is generally held to dull the fruit flavour.
- Brown the roux properlyMost of the colour comes from the onion and the flour, with the stock adding more. Cook the flour in the butter until it smells nutty and turns the shade of a walnut shell, stirring constantly so it does not scorch.
- StockUse unsalted or low-sodium brown stock, ideally veal or beef. The recipe calls for no salt at all, so a salted commercial broth will finish harsh.
- "Herbs"The only aromatics listed are the celery stalk and the bay-leaf, so that is what the word covers here. A sprig of thyme and a few crushed peppercorns are in keeping if you want more depth.
- VinegarTwo tablespoons of a mild wine vinegar suits the sauce; distilled white vinegar is sharper than what was likely intended. Red wine vinegar pairs best with the currant.
- Currant jellyRed currant jelly, not black currant preserve and not jam with fruit in it. If red currant is unavailable, a tart crab-apple or quince jelly is closer than grape.
- ConsistencyTwenty minutes of simmering will reduce two cups of stock only modestly. If the strained sauce still looks thin, reduce it further before adding the jelly rather than adding more flour.
- YieldRoughly two cups of finished sauce, depending on how far the stock reduces.
Currant jelly with game is a long-established fruit-and-meat pairing in English and French cooking, the tart jelly cutting the richness and the strong flavour of venison, hare and wild birds. Red currant jelly was a common item in American pantries of the period, put up at home in summer and drawn on for sauces like this one and for Cumberland sauce; the technique here is a small brown sauce of the espagnole type, given a sweet-sour finish.