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Fish, or Vegetables
297. It is seldom necessary to buy meat for this favourite sauce, as the proportion of that flavour is but small; the water that has boiled fowls, veal, or rabbit, or a little broth that may be in the house, or the feet and necks of chickens, for raw or dressed veal, will suffice. Stew with a little water any of these with a bit of lemon-peel, some sliced onion, some white peppercorns, a little pounded mace or nutmeg, and a bunch of sweet herbs, until the flavour is good; then strain it, and add a little good cream, a piece of butter, and a little flour; salt to the taste. A squeeze of lemon may be added after the sauce is taken off the fire, shaking it well. Yolk of egg is often used for fricassees, but cream is better, as the former is apt to curdle. Another, cheaper, but very good. --Add to a little boiling milk a blade of mace, and thicken with flour and butter, and flavour with pepper, salt, and a little Worcestershire sauce, or cucumber or mushroom
A Victorian white sauce built on scraps rather than stock cubes, meant for fricassees of chicken or veal and, as the heading indicates, for fish or vegetables. The method is sound; only the vocabulary and the proportions need translating.
- The hinge: do not boil after the cream goes inOnce the strained infusion is thickened and the cream added, keep it just below a simmer. Hard boiling will split the cream and dull the delicate flavour the long infusion was meant to build.
- What "stew until the flavour is good" meansRoughly 30-45 minutes at a bare simmer with the poultry feet, necks or veal trimmings, using only enough water to cover, is a reasonable reading; the recipe gives no time. You are making a small, concentrated infusion, not a stockpot.
- Working proportionsThe recipe gives no quantities. As a working guide, for 2 cups of strained liquid use about 2 tablespoons butter kneaded with 2 tablespoons flour, and 1/3 to 1/2 cup cream, which yields enough sauce for a fricassee for four.
- Flour and butterThe recipe simply says to add a piece of butter and a little flour; the simplest way to do this without lumps is to mash them to a paste and whisk it into the hot liquid in small pieces, each addition smooth before the next, then cook two or three minutes to lose the raw flour taste.
- A blade of maceOne dried blade of mace is the outer covering of a nutmeg, milder and more floral than the nut. A generous pinch of ground mace, or a light grating of nutmeg, stands in.
- Sweet herbsNot sweet in the sugar sense: a small bundle of parsley stalks, thyme and a bay leaf, tied so it lifts out cleanly before straining.
- The lemon at the endAdd the squeeze off the heat and shake rather than stir, exactly as written. Acid dropped into a hot cream sauce on the burner is the surest way to make it grainy.
- Egg yolksThe warning holds. If you do use yolks, temper them with a ladle of hot sauce and hold the finished sauce below 180F; the cream version is more forgiving and reheats better.
- The cheaper versionMilk infused with mace, thickened with butter and flour, seasoned and sharpened with a bottled sauce. Worcestershire will tint it brown, so use it sparingly if you want the sauce to stay pale.