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Rice Sauce
3 tablespoons rice 2 cups milk 3 cloves 2 tablespoons butter Salt and pepper 1/2 onion Wash rice, add to milk, and cook in double boiler until soft. Rub through a fine strainer, return to double boiler, add onion stuck with cloves, and cook fifteen minutes. Remove onion, add butter, salt, and pepper.
A thickened milk sauce that uses rice starch instead of a flour roux, from the sauce chapter of Fannie Farmer's 1896 book. It is simple, but it depends entirely on cooking the rice long enough to disintegrate.
- The hingeThe rice must be genuinely mushy before you sieve it, or the sauce stays thin and grainy. In a double boiler over simmering water this can take considerably longer than the 15 or 20 minutes rice normally needs; the original assumes you will judge by texture rather than a clock.
- Which riceUse a plain long- or medium-grain white rice, not converted or parboiled rice, which resists breaking down.
- SievingA fine-mesh sieve and a wooden spoon or the back of a ladle works, but a stick blender in the pan followed by a quick pass through the sieve gives a smoother result with less effort.
- The onion and clovesHalf an onion stuck with three whole cloves is what French kitchens call an oignon cloute. Fifteen minutes of infusion is enough for a delicate flavour; leave it longer and the clove dominates.
- ConsistencyRice starch thickens further as it cools and will set almost to a paste in the refrigerator. Thin with hot milk to the consistency you want just before serving, and keep the sauce warm rather than reheating it hard.
- Yield and useAbout a cup and a half, enough for four to six servings. It suits poached or boiled fish, boiled fowl and mild white meats, where a flour-based white sauce would be the alternative.
- SeasoningSalt and pepper are unquantified; start with half a teaspoon of salt and adjust after the butter goes in. A grating of nutmeg is period-appropriate and helps a sauce this plain.
Rice was used as a thickener in European cookery before the flour roux became standard, and rice-thickened dishes were often recommended for invalids and children, on the grounds that flour was thought harder to digest. An onion stuck with cloves is a common device in both French and English kitchens. Farmer calls for a double boiler throughout the book, reflecting a period enthusiasm for gentle, controllable heat on unpredictable coal and wood ranges.