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Caper Sauce (Two tablespoons of butter one)
Two tablespoons of butter, one tablespoonful of flour, mix well; pour on boiling water (or white stock) until it thickens; add one hard boiled egg chopped fine, and two tablespoonfuls of capers.
A plain butter-and-flour sauce with capers and egg, of the kind served with boiled mutton, boiled fowl or game birds. The proportions are given loosely, so a little judgement is needed on the liquid.
- Cook the roux firstThe hinge is giving the butter and flour a minute or two together over low heat before any liquid goes in. Otherwise the sauce tastes of raw flour, which no amount of capers will hide.
- How much liquidTwo tablespoons of butter to one of flour will thicken roughly a cup of liquid to a pouring sauce. Add it in stages, whisking, and stop when it coats a spoon; the original's "until it thickens" is the only guide it gives.
- Boiling water or white stockWhite stock here means a light, unbrowned veal or chicken broth. Water makes a serviceable sauce but a bland one; use stock, or the strained cooking liquid from whatever the sauce is to accompany.
- Butter to flourTwo to one is a butter-heavy roux by modern habit, which gives a glossier, richer sauce than the usual equal-parts version. It can break if boiled hard once thickened, so keep it just below a simmer.
- CapersBrine-packed capers can go in as they are; salt-packed ones should be rinsed and soaked briefly first. Add them at the end and off the heat, since prolonged cooking dulls their sharpness. A spoonful of the caper brine or a squeeze of lemon lifts the whole thing.
- The eggChop the hard-boiled egg fine and fold it in last, warming it through only. It thickens the sauce slightly and softens the vinegar edge of the capers.
- SeasoningNo salt or pepper is specified. Taste at the end and season after the capers, which bring their own salt.
- YieldRoughly a cup or a little more once the egg and capers are in, enough for several servings as an accompaniment. It thickens as it stands and can be loosened with a spoonful of hot stock.
Caper sauce belongs to the family of English white sauces built on a butter-and-flour base, the type nineteenth-century cookbooks called drawn butter or melted butter, and it was a standard partner to boiled mutton and boiled fowl. The capers are the unopened flower buds of Capparis spinosa, a Mediterranean shrub; pickled in brine or vinegar they travelled well and were a pantry staple in English-speaking kitchens long before fresh Mediterranean produce was available, which is why a sauce like this could be made in any season from stores. The chopped hard-boiled egg is a habit shared with egg sauce for salt fish, and suggests a homely version rather than the restaurant style, which would strain the sauce smooth.