No. 617

Orange Sauce

Sauce a l'Orange

Have half a pound of currant jelly (No. 3670), two gills of port wine, the juice of three oranges and of two lemons, and the peel of two oranges grated into sugar. Dissolve the currant jelly and the flavored orange sugar with the liquids, add a grain of salt, and a dash of cayenne, then strain the sauce; it should be more light than consistent. This sauce is excellent for either cold or hot game.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is Ranhofer's version of what most cooks now call Cumberland sauce, and it comes together in about ten minutes. The only technique that needs decoding is the sugared orange peel.

Gills to cupsA gill is half a cup, so two gills of port is one cup. Half a pound of currant jelly is roughly three-quarters of a cup.
The flavored orange sugarGrating the peel into sugar means rubbing the zest through a few tablespoons of granulated sugar so the oils are absorbed — an oleo-saccharum. Let it sit ten minutes before dissolving it; that rest is what gives the sauce its perfume rather than a raw citrus edge.
Heat with restraintWarm the jelly and sugar with the port and juices only until dissolved. A hard boil drives off the wine's aroma and sets the pectin, which is the opposite of the "more light than consistent" texture called for.
Currant jellyRed currant jelly, not black currant preserve and not jam. If you cannot find it, a good redcurrant jelly from the preserves aisle is the same product; sweetened blackcurrant will overwhelm the citrus.
StrainingStrain through a fine sieve while still warm to catch zest, pulp and any undissolved pectin. Pressing on the solids will cloud it.
Balance at the endTwo lemons plus three oranges is a wide range depending on fruit size. Taste after straining and adjust with a little more sugar or lemon juice — it should read tart first, sweet second.
Yield and serviceThe finished sauce comes to something over two cups. Chill before serving; it thickens somewhat in the refrigerator and keeps for several days covered.
What to serve it withCold or hot game, as written, but it does equally well with roast duck, venison, cold ham or a country pâté.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete professional system, and its cold sauce chapter is essentially the French repertoire of the day set down for an American kitchen. The combination of red currant jelly, port, orange and lemon with a bite of cayenne is close to what English cooks call Cumberland sauce, though most versions of that sauce also carry mustard and shallot; the name is often traced to the Duke of Cumberland, but the attribution is traditional rather than documented, and Ranhofer files it under a French description instead. Its logic is the old one governing game: strong, sometimes gamey meat wants acid and sweetness together, the same reasoning that put fruit jellies beside venison and hare long before port wine was available to do the work. The trick of grating zest directly into sugar is older still, a long-standing confectioner's method for capturing citrus oil.