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Cold Orange Sauce
Place in a bowl six tablespoons currant jelly with one and a half ounces sugar and the grated rind of two oranges. Sharply stir with wooden spoon for five minutes, then squeeze in juice of the two oranges and one lemon, pour in two tablespoons port or sherry, and mix whole well together; season with a saltspoon each salt and cayenne, mix well again, strain sauce into a sauce bowl and serve.
An uncooked jelly-based sauce of the Cumberland type, meant to be served cold with cold meats. It comes together in ten minutes and needs no heat at all.
- The hinge: break the jelly firstThe recipe calls for five minutes of sharp stirring before any liquid goes in. Red currant jelly is a set gel; beating it with sugar and zest works it into a smoother base that will take the juice more readily. Added at the start, the juice would likely slacken the mixture before the jelly had broken down.
- A saltspoonRoughly a quarter teaspoon. A quarter teaspoon of cayenne is assertive by modern standards — start with an eighth and taste, since the sauce cannot be simmered down or diluted easily afterwards.
- One and a half ounces sugarA weight, not a volume: about 42 g, or a generous 3 tablespoons of granulated. Currant jelly is already sweet, so taste before adding it all.
- Currant jelly means red currantIn books of this period "currant jelly" almost always means red currant, a tart, firm-setting jelly that was a pantry staple. Grape or apple jelly will not give the same acidity or the clean colour; imported red currant jelly is the direct substitute.
- Zest and strainingThe grated rind flavours the sauce, and the final straining takes it back out, leaving a clear glossy liquid. If you prefer texture and a stronger orange note, you can leave the zest in; blanching the rind in strips first will take the edge off any bitterness.
- Port or sherryRuby port suits it better than tawny; if using sherry, a dry amontillado rather than a cream sherry, since the jelly supplies the sweetness.
- Yield and serviceAbout a cup, enough for six to eight. It is a cold-table sauce: cold ham, tongue, game, venison, duck, or a raised pie. Keep it refrigerated in a covered jar.
This is a Cumberland sauce in all but name — currant jelly, citrus, port and cayenne, uncooked and served cold with meat. The name is generally traced to the Hanoverian Dukes of Cumberland, and the sauce entered the international restaurant repertoire in the late nineteenth century, where Escoffier codified a version; here it appears under a plain descriptive title instead. Its logic belongs to an older tradition still: sweet-sharp fruit preserves eaten with cold roast meat, the same instinct that puts redcurrant jelly beside mutton and cranberries beside turkey. It requires no cooking: a sauce that could be beaten up in a bowl and sent out in a boat.