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Currant Sauce
312. Boil an ounce of dried currants in half a pint of water for a few minutes; then add a small tea-cupful of bread crumbs, six cloves, a glass of port-wine, and a bit of butter. Stir it till the whole is smooth.
A sweet-spiced wine sauce thickened with breadcrumbs, meant for venison, hare or roast game birds. It comes together in about ten minutes and wants only stirring at the end to smooth out.
- Currants here are dried grapes"Dried currants" means Zante currants — small dried grapes sold as currants — not fresh red or black currants. An ounce is a scant 3 tablespoons.
- Half a pintIn a British book of this period that is 10 fl oz, so about 1¼ cups. Some of it will boil away during the few minutes' boiling.
- A small tea-cupful of bread crumbsRead this as roughly ½ cup of soft crumbs torn from stale bread, not dried packaged crumbs, which absorb far more liquid. Add them gradually and stop when the sauce coats a spoon.
- The clovesSix whole cloves are strong in this quantity. Either fish them out before serving or tie them in muslin so the sauce does not turn medicinal as it stands.
- A glass of portAbout ¼ cup. The recipe adds it along with the crumbs, cloves and butter rather than at a separate stage.
- The stirring at the endThe butter — a tablespoon is enough — goes in off the heat or over very low heat and is stirred until the sauce is glossy. Boiling hard after the butter is added will split it.
- Yield and servingMakes roughly a cup and a half. The recipe names no dish; serve hot in a sauceboat with venison or hare.