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Muskateer Sauce
Place one shallot, some tarragon, cress and chervil leaves in a mortar, and pound them. Mix with the pounded leaves one dessertspoonful of meat glaze, one teaspoonful of mustard, a small quantity of grated nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Pass the sauce mixture through a broth napkin, mix with it one-half teacupful of olive oil, and a few drops of tarragon vinegar, and serve.
A cold green herb sauce in the French manner, built on meat glaze rather than egg. Everything depends on getting the herbs fine and the oil in slowly.
- Meat glazeThis is glace de viande "the a reduced brown veal or beef stock cooked down to a syrup that sets firm and jellied when cold. Jarred demi-glace concentrate is the closest current equivalent; use about two teaspoons, warmed just enough to loosen.
- DessertspoonfulA dessertspoon sits between a teaspoon and a tablespoon: two teaspoons, or roughly 10 ml.
- Half a teacupfulPeriod teacups were not standardised, running roughly 4 to 6 fl oz, so half is somewhere between 2 and 3 fl oz (about 60-90 ml) of olive oil. Add it in a thin stream while whisking.
- Broth napkinA close-woven cloth used as a strainer. A double layer of cheesecloth, a jelly bag or a fine chinois does the same work; press the pounded herbs through it to catch stalk and fibre.
- CressGarden cress or watercress, both peppery. Watercress is easier to find and should have its coarse stems stripped before pounding.
- Mortar versus machineA small food processor works, but pulse rather than run it ", the herbs bruise and turn dark if worked too long. A mortar gives a better colour and a rounder flavour.
- BalanceWith no egg yolk to hold it, this is a loose, broken-looking sauce that wants a sharp finish. Start with a few drops of tarragon vinegar and taste; the meat glaze brings salt of its own, so season last.
- Yield and servingMakes roughly half a cup, enough for four. Serve cold with cold roast beef, boiled tongue, chicken or poached fish; it will need re-whisking if it stands.
The name points to sauce mousquetaire, a French cold sauce classically made by folding shallots and a spoonful of meat glaze into mayonnaise "), Oscar's version drops the egg and leans on pounded herbs instead, closer in spirit to a ravigote or a green vinaigrette. The musketeer association is traditional rather than documented, and cookbooks of the period varied in their spelling of the name, this one included. Oscar Tschirky came to the Waldorf as matre d'htel in 1893 and his 1896 book collects the hotel's working repertoire, which was overwhelmingly French.