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Cream or White Sauce
1 tablespoon flour 1 tablespoon butter 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon salt II 1 cup milk 2 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons butter teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons flour III 3 tablespoons butter 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon salt Melt butter in saucepan, then add flour, stirring till mixture becomes foamy, but not brown. Add milk, continue stirring to insure smoothness, cook till thickened. Season.
White sauce I is used in preparation of creamed vegetables. II is used in cream soups and scalloped dishes. III is that usually used for croquettes.
ALL RECIPES IN THIS BOOK CALL FOR FLAT OR LEVEL MEASUREMENTS } The general rule for use of white sauce for creamed scalloped vegetables is to use half as much white sauce as vegetables. For example, for one pint of potatoes, use one cup of white sauce. For croquettes, use equal amounts of white sauce and meat. Chill mixture before using. 1 peck ripe tomatoes, finely chopped 12 onions (size of egg) finely chopped
Three graded thicknesses of the same roux-based sauce, built on a fixed one cup of milk. The proportions are what matter here; the method is identical for all three.
- The three gradesThe book's II is the medium, 2 tablespoons each butter and flour per cup of milk, and III the thick, 3 tablespoons each. The figures for I are missing from this transcription; by the usual graded pattern a thin sauce runs about 1 tablespoon each per cup, but the book's own numbers for it cannot be read here.
- SaltA teaspoon of salt per cup of milk is heavy by current taste; a quarter to a half teaspoon suits most palates, adjusted after the sauce has thickened and reduced slightly.
- Cook the flour firstThe instruction to stir until the mixture foams but does not brown is the hinge. That bubbling stage cooks the raw starch taste out of the flour; skip it and the sauce tastes pasty no matter how long it simmers afterward.
- Adding the milkWarm milk added in stages, whisked smooth between each, gives the least trouble. Once all the milk is in, simmer two or three minutes at a bare bubble so the starch fully swells.
- Ratios for dishesHalf as much sauce as vegetable for creamed and scalloped dishes; equal parts sauce and meat for croquettes. One cup of medium sauce is roughly 8 fl oz and will coat a pint of cooked potatoes.
- Chilling croquette mixtureThe recipe says only to chill the mixture before using; chill the thick sauce and meat until firm before shaping, since a warm mixture will not hold a shape and bursts in the fat.
- SkinIf the sauce is to stand, press plastic wrap or a butter paper onto the surface. Otherwise it forms a skin that reappears as lumps when reheated.
White sauce in this graded form is the domestic descendant of béchamel, reduced to a memorizable arithmetic of one, two and three tablespoons per cup. American cooking schools of the late nineteenth century taught the graded sauces early, and this book assigns them: I for creamed vegetables, II for cream soups and scalloped dishes, III for croquettes. The boxed reminder that all measurements are level marks the period, level measuring being a discipline the cooking-school writers pressed against older heaped and guessed quantities.