No. 485

Juvigny Sauce

Sauce Juvigny

This sauce is made by putting a teaspoonful of chives and the same quantity of parsley, both finely chopped, into a saucepan with two ounces of butter, set it on the fire and add to it one tablespoonful of shallots; fry all lightly without coloring, then put in one pint of veloute (No. 415), one gill of white wine, some salt, pepper, and nutmeg, let boil up for a few minutes; despumate well, and just when serving stir in a tablespoonful of small capers.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A compound velouté in the classic Delmonico's manner: an aromatic butter base, a pint of mother sauce, wine, and a garnish added off the heat. Nothing here is difficult, but two of the terms are no longer current.

DespumateThis simply means to skim — draw off the froth and any butter that rises as the sauce simmers, tilting the pan and lifting the scum with a ladle. Doing it properly is what separates a clear, glossy sauce from a greasy one, so allow a few minutes of gentle simmering rather than a hard boil that emulsifies the fat back in.
A gillHalf a cup, 4 fl oz. Use a dry white wine with acidity — the pint of velouté is rich and bland, and the wine is the only sharpness apart from the capers.
Velouté, No. 415Ranhofer's velouté is a white veal or chicken stock thickened with a pale butter-and-flour roux and cooked down until it coats a spoon. A pint of good unsalted chicken stock thickened with about 1 oz butter and 1 oz flour, simmered 20 minutes and strained, stands in acceptably. Do not substitute canned gravy or a cornstarch slurry; the texture is the point.
The shallotsA tablespoon of finely chopped shallot, added after the herbs, must sweat without taking any color — browned shallot turns the sauce grey and gives it a fried note. Keep the heat low and stir; two to three minutes is enough.
Capers at the last momentThe capers go in only at the moment of serving, as the recipe directs; they are not meant to boil in the sauce, which leaches brine and spreads their bitterness. Rinse and drain salted capers first; brined ones need only draining.
HerbsThe chives and parsley are cooked in the butter at the start, which is unusual by modern habit and mutes their color. If you want the sauce greener, hold back half the chives and stir them in with the capers.
SeasoningThe recipe asks only for 'some salt, pepper, and nutmeg' with no quantities; a scrape of nutmeg, no more than an eighth of a teaspoon freshly grated for a pint, suits. Salt cautiously until the capers are in, since they carry salt of their own.
YieldRoughly a pint and a quarter after skimming and a few minutes' boiling. The book gives no serving suggestion here; a sauce of this kind would suit poached or roast white meats and poached fish.

A Little History

The sauce comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium he assembled after some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is typical of the book's method: a numbered mother sauce, here velouté, varied by small additions and given a proper name.