No. 588

Chantilly Apple Sauce with Horseradish a la Sanford

Sauce Chantilly aux Pommes et au Raifort a la Sanford

Core a pound of sour apples, lay them in a saucepan with a little water; when done drain out and press through a very fine sieve. Add to the pulp one ounce of powdered sugar and two ounces of grated horseradish; stir well and beat in lightly the value of one pint of well-drained whipped cream. Serve this sauce separately with young ducks or goslings.

← No. 587 Apple Sauce Cold Sauces No. 589 Apple Sauce, English Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold whipped-cream sauce built on apple pulp and fresh horseradish, meant to go alongside roast duck. It is simple, but it collapses if handled carelessly, and the horseradish is not the jarred kind.

Fold, do not stirThe apple pulp must be completely cold before the cream goes in, and the cream is folded in at the last moment. Warm pulp or vigorous stirring melts the cream and you are left with a thin pink-grey slop that will not recover.
"The value of one pint" of whipped creamMost likely a pint measured after whipping, which would be roughly one cup of heavy cream before beating; the phrasing is ambiguous and could also mean a pint of cream whipped. Whip to soft peaks only; stiff cream folds in as lumps.
HorseradishTwo ounces means fresh root, peeled and grated fine, about half a cup loosely packed. Bottled prepared horseradish is packed in vinegar and brine and will thin the sauce and sour it; if it is all you have, drain it hard and expect a sharper, more acidic result.
Sour applesA cooking apple that breaks down: Bramley, Granny Smith, Rhode Island Greening. Sweet dessert apples give a flabby pulp and the ounce of sugar then makes the sauce cloying against the duck fat.
No peeling requiredThe apples are only cored, cooked in a little water until soft, then pressed through a fine sieve, which leaves the skins behind. A food mill with the fine plate does the same job faster; a blender does not, since it purees the skin back in.
SugarOne ounce of sugar is about two tablespoons if read as fine granulated, which is the likelier sense here; modern confectioners' sugar is lighter, so an ounce of that is nearer four tablespoons. Taste after the horseradish goes in and before the cream, as heat in the root varies with its age.
Timing and yieldMakes roughly three cups, enough for six to eight. Make the apple base a day ahead if you like, but fold in the cream within an hour of serving; the horseradish loses its bite and the cream weeps if it stands.
GoslingsA young goose is now a special order from a butcher. The sauce works as intended with duck, and equally well with cold roast pork or smoked trout.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was Charles Ranhofer's summation of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its cold-sauce chapter is full of dishes tagged with the names of patrons and colleagues; "à la Sanford" is almost certainly one of those dedications rather than a place or technique. The construction itself is French in method and Northern European in flavour: chantilly is the standard kitchen term for sweetened whipped cream, generally traced to the Château de Chantilly and traditionally attributed to Vatel, though the attribution is folklore rather than record. Apple with horseradish, on the other hand, belongs to the German and Austrian table, where grated horseradish folded into apple or cream is the usual accompaniment to boiled beef and roast goose. Ranhofer's contribution is to put the two together and lighten the whole thing with cream, producing a sauce that cuts the fat of a young duck the way a plain apple sauce cannot.