No. 456

Curry Sauces, Indian and with Apples

Sauces au Kari, a l'Indienne et aux Pommes

Curry.—Brown in some butter four ounces of minced onions, adding to it one teaspoonful of curry; two minutes later moisten with two gills of veloute (No. 415), two ounces of mushroom peelings, and a bunch of parsley garnished with a bay leaf. Reduce the sauce, and pour into it slowly about two gills of chicken broth (No. 188), and at the very last moment two spoonfuls of good raw cream. Pass the sauce through a tammy, and incorporate into it a piece of fresh butter, then heat it up without boiling.

Curry, Indian.—Put into a saucepan four ounces of ham, two ounces of onions, two ounces of mushrooms, all minced up very fine, a bunch of parsley garnished with as much bayleaf as thyme, one onion with three cloves in it, one teaspoonful of ground sweet Spanish pepper, a dash of cayenne pepper, a dessertspoonful of curry, a pinch of mace and one quart of chicken broth (No. 188). Let simmer and reduce to half; add one quart of allemande sauce (No. 407), and a pinch of saffron, pass it through a tammy and just when ready to serve incorporate into it two ounces of fresh butter.

Curry with Apples.—Put four ounces of butter into a saucepan, adding to it four ounces of apples, four ounces of onions, two ounces of ham, all finely shreded, a pinch of mace, a teaspoonful of pepper-corns, a bay leaf and as much thyme. Set the saucepan on a moderate fire, and let all fry till the onions begin to brown, being careful to stir it constantly, and add a tablespoonful of curry, the same of vinegar, a teaspoonful of sugar, one quart of veloute (No. 415), two gills of veal blond (No. 423) and one teaspoonful of meat glaze (No. 401). Pass all through a tammy and add two gills of cream.

← No. 455 Currant Sauce, with Red Wine, Port Wine, Cal Hot Sauces No. 457 Danish Sauce →

For the Modern Kitchen

Three variations on a French kitchen's idea of curry, all of them built on a mother sauce rather than on a spice paste. The controlling rule for all three: once cream and raw butter go in, the sauce must never boil again.

Gills and spoonfulsA gill is half a cup, so two gills is one cup. Ranhofer's unqualified "spoonful" is usually taken as a tablespoon, since he names the dessertspoon or teaspoon when he wants them.
The base saucesVelouté (No. 415) is a white roux thinned with veal or chicken stock; allemande (No. 407) is velouté finished with an egg-yolk and cream liaison. Because allemande carries yolks, the second sauce especially cannot be brought to a boil after it is added or it will curdle and break.
Veal blond and meat glazeVeal blond (No. 423) is a pale veal stock; meat glaze (No. 401) is glace de viande, stock reduced to a syrup. A teaspoon of commercial demi-glace concentrate stands in for the glaze; for the blond, light veal or chicken stock is close enough.
Sweet Spanish pepperThis is paprika, not black pepper and not a fresh chile. Use sweet Hungarian or Spanish paprika; the cayenne alongside it supplies the heat.
Curry powderThe "curry" here is a jar of ready-blended curry powder of the period, typically turmeric-heavy and mild, and usually already containing coriander, fenugreek and ginger. In the first and apple versions the powder goes into hot butter with the onions, which suits it; the Indian version simply adds it to the broth.
Mushroom peelingsTrimmings kept back for flavouring stock. Two ounces of chopped mushroom stems or whole button mushrooms does the same work; they are strained out anyway.
TammyA tammy is a woven worsted cloth through which the sauce was wrung by two people twisting opposite ends. A fine chinois with a ladle, or a conical strainer lined with muslin, gives the same result with far less mess.
Reduction timeNo times are given. Expect 15–20 minutes to reduce a quart of broth by half in a wide pan, and 8–10 minutes for the first sauce's velouté-and-broth stage. Judge by body: the sauce should coat a spoon before the cream goes in.
YieldThe first sauce makes roughly 2 cups, enough for four to six portions of chicken or veal. The Indian version and the apple version each finish at about 1½ quarts — banquet quantities. Halve or quarter them for domestic cooking.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete reference for a great restaurant kitchen, and its curry sauces show how thoroughly nineteenth-century French cooking absorbed curry powder on its own terms. There is no onion-and-spice masala fried down and no coconut; instead the powder is treated as one seasoning among many, folded into velouté or allemande and finished with cream and butter in the classic manner. The apple version reflects Anglo-Indian practice, where apple, sometimes with vinegar and sugar, was a standard sweet-sour softener in curry sauces served in British and American dining rooms. Ranhofer's cross-references to numbered mother sauces are the real point of the entry: in a brigade kitchen the velouté and the allemande were already standing on the stove, and "curry" was a variation on stock in hand rather than a dish begun from scratch.