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Tomato Sauce (Simmer gently for an hour four)
Simmer gently for an hour, four large tomatoes cut in slices, one tablespoonful of minced onion, and three cloves. Rub through a sieve, add a cup of water with a teaspoonful of cornstarch, well mixed, and a teaspoonful of sugar. Simmer five minutes, add a tablespoonful of butter, season and serve. This sauce is especially appropriate with boiled tongue, ham or corned beef.
A straightforward sieved tomato sauce thickened with cornstarch. The only real pitfall is dilution: a cup of water added to four sieved tomatoes gives a thin sauce by modern taste.
- Tomato quantityFour "large" tomatoes: figure roughly 1 1/2 lb total. Out of season, a 14-oz tin of whole plum tomatoes, drained, behaves much the same after an hour's simmer.
- Simmer without liquidThere is no water in the first stage; sliced tomatoes release enough of their own juice. Use a heavy pan over low heat and stir now and then, or the pulp will catch before the hour is up.
- The water is optionalJudge the sieved purée first. If it is already the consistency of thin cream, mix the teaspoonful of cornstarch with a few tablespoons of water rather than a full cup, or the sauce will be watery and taste faintly of raw starch.
- Cornstarch handlingSlurry it cold and completely smooth before it goes in, and give it the full five minutes at a simmer — cornstarch needs to reach near boiling to thicken and lose its chalky edge.
- ClovesThree whole cloves for this volume is assertive. They are removed by the sieve, but taste before committing to the sugar; if the clove is dominant, the sauce wants a little more acid rather than more sweetening.
- Butter last, off the heat"Add a tablespoonful of butter" means swirl it in at the end for gloss. Once the butter is in, do not return the pan to a boil or it will separate.
- SeasonThe recipe assumes salt and pepper by eye. Salt lightly if the sauce is going with boiled tongue, ham or corned beef, all of which are already salty.
- YieldRoughly a cup of sieved pulp after the hour's simmer, about two cups once the cup of water goes in — enough for four to six servings alongside a boiled meat.
This is the plain sieved tomato sauce that turn-of-the-century American cookbooks printed by the dozen, distinguished from Italian practice by the cornstarch: a cheap, reliable thickener that let a cook skip the flour-and-butter roux and keep the sauce bright red. Cornstarch had been manufactured in quantity in the United States since the mid-nineteenth century and was promoted for sauces, puddings and pie fillings, which is why it turns up here in place of the French liaison. The suggested partners — boiled tongue, ham, corned beef — point to its real household role: a sharp, sweetened counterweight to cured and salted meats, the same job horseradish or mustard did at a colder table.