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Sauce Piquante
2 tablespoons butter or other fat 2 onions 2 carrots 2 shallots Thyme 1 bunch parsley 2 cloves 1 clove of garlic 2 tablespoons flour 1 cup beef or veal stock 1/2 cup vinegar Salt and pepper Melt butter or other fat, slice into it onions, carrots and shallots. Add a little thyme, minced parsley, cloves and clove of garlic. Let this mixture cook until the carrot is soft, then add flour. Let it cook for five minutes more, and add beef or veal stock and vinegar, skim, and strain through a sieve. Add salt and pepper when boiling.
A classic brown vegetable-and-vinegar sauce, thickened with a roux made directly in the pan with the vegetables. The proportions are generous with acid, so the reduction and skimming steps matter.
- Cook the roux properlyAfter the flour goes in, the five minutes of cooking is what removes the raw-flour taste and lightly browns the mixture. Keep it moving over medium heat; scorched flour will make the finished sauce bitter and no amount of straining will fix it.
- Vinegar strengthHalf a cup of vinegar to one cup of stock is sharp by current taste, and older household vinegars varied in strength from today's standardised product. Add half, simmer, then adjust.
- "1 bunch parsley"Read this as a small handful of stems and leaves, perhaps a quarter cup once minced. It is being used for flavour and then strained out, so precision is not critical.
- ClovesThe two cloves are the whole spice buds; the separate "clove of garlic" is unrelated. Leave both whole so the sieve catches them.
- ShallotsTwo shallots most likely means two whole bulbs rather than two of the cloves a large shallot separates into. If unavailable, use a small quantity of extra onion plus a little white of leek.
- Simmer timeNo time is given after the liquid goes in. Twenty to thirty minutes at a bare simmer lets the vegetables give up their flavour and reduces the vinegar's harshness before straining.
- StrainingPressing the solids against the sieve rather than discarding them whole will carry more of the vegetable flavour and colour into the finished sauce.
- YieldSomething over a cup of finished sauce, enough for four to six servings of grilled or braised meat. It will keep a few days refrigerated and reheats readily.