SAUCES AND SAUCE-MAKING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 17 October 1925, Page 19

SAUCES AND SAUCE-MAKING.

A good cook can always be known by her sauces, for perhaps the greatest failing of the amateur is the way in which she -spoils or neglects this most essential part of the daily meal (says an Australian exchange). A well-made sauce should be the rule and not the exception, but how few cooks ever think of the sauce until 10 minutes before it is required. A curious “substance,” either lumpy or watery, with no known taste, and apparently lacking its due ingredients, is how the much-maligned sauce generally comes to our tables. How different from this ‘are the varied and delicious concoctions met with abroad, in which quality and flavour are united in happy combination. A Continental chef plans his sauces with the same care as his principal dishes —for will they not make or mar his finest efforts. He knows only too well the ruinous effect of that “dash of flour” and “drop of boiling water” with which the apprentice “rounds off” the dinner menu. The French cook always has a little jar of fresh “roux” or ‘ < blanc ’ ’ at hand when sauce time comes, as in this way she has no need to fret and worry over the proper colour and consistency for ordinary white or brown sauce. To make roux, slowly melt -Jib of butter over the fire, skim it and let it settle. Then dredge in Boz of fine flour, stir carefully until a light golden brown. Then put in a closed jar for use. Blanc is the same thing as roux, but the flour is not allowed to brown, so* that it is only stirred long enough to be thoroughly blended and cooked. White sauce is made by a piece of blanc being put into some hot milk before it reaches boiling point and allowed to dissolve, stirring all the time. Brown sauce is made by dissolving a piece of roux in a similar way in a cupful of soup or broth. Seasoning can be added to taste. White Sauce. —To make perfect white sauce without roux put a table-spoonful of flour into a table-spoonful of melted butter, in a saucepan, and stir until smooth. Then add a breakfast-cupful of new milk with salt and pepper to taste, and stir until creamy. Let the sauce boil *for a moment or two. Brown Sauce can be made in a similar way. only the flour and butter must bo sirred over the fire until they are a. golden brown, and the mixture must be “thinned” with water, broth, or stock, with seasoning to taste. With white sauce as a basis, all manner of appetising recipes can be followed, such as cheese sauce. Add half a cupful of grated cheose to each cupful of white sauce, with a little made mustard. Egg Sauce. —Chop 2 hard-boiled eggs into dice and mix them into 2 cupfuls of white sauce with a dessert-spoonful of finely chopped parsley. Celery Sauce. —Break a head of celery into small pieces. AVash, scrape and boil them until tender in boiling salted water. Chop small and mix with a breakfast-cupful (or more) of white swflee. Season to taste.

' Onion Sauce. —Prepare a mediumsized onion and put into cold water. Bring the water to the boil and continue cooking until the onion is tender. Chop small and stir into a large breakfastcupful of white sauce. Season. The following recipes for other sauces can also be recommended. Olandese Sauce (for fish or asparagus).—Beat a large tablespoonful of butter to a cream, and then add the yolk of one egg and beat well together. Add a good squeeze of lemon juice and I cupful of hot water (poured in by degrees). Beat all the time and stir over the fire in a saucepan of boiling water until like smooth, thick cream. Bo very careful not to boil, and when sufficiently cooked remove from fire and stir for a minute or two before serving. This recipe makes only a small quantity. Bread Sauce (for roast chicken). — Put a cupful of milk on the stove in a saucepan with a tiny prepared onion stuck with two cloves. Bring to the boil and then add a dessert-spoonful of butter and 2 tabJe : spoonfuls of fine white bread crumbs. Lot all simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Thou take out the onion, add pepper and salt to taste, and serve very hot. Tomato Sauce.—Peel and cut 4 large tomatoes into pieces, and put in a saucepan with two ounces of butter, a teaspoonful of castor sugar, the juice of half a lemon, pepper, salt, and half a cupful of white stock or water. Bring to the boil, and simmer slowly until the tomatoes are cooked. Pass the mixture through a seive and return to thctsaucepan. Mix a teaspoonful of cornina or arrowroot in a’little stock or water, and stir into the mixture. Bring to the boil again, stirring carefully, and let it boil for a moment or two. Serve very hot.

Bich Mayonaise Sauce (with oil). — This is an old Italian recipe, made by putting the yolk of an egg into a basin wifi. 4 a teaspoonful of salt and a pinch of Cayenne pepper. If possible the bowl should stand in ice. The egg is then beaten up and a cupful of pure olive oil is added drop by drop. The entire goodness of the sauce depends on adding the oil very slowly. When it first, begins to thicken alternate the oil with a few drops of Tarragon vinegar until you have put in one and a half teaspoonfuls of vinegar (or lemon .juice). In summer time it is a good plan to mix the grated yolk of a hard-boiled egg with the raw yolk, as the sauce is made much more quickly and is less likely to curdle. This sauce can be made still richer by adding a half cupful of very stiffly whipped cream just before serving.

Another variation of this sauce is made by pounding a few sprigs of parsley and watercress and a leaf or two of spinach or lettuce in a mortar, with a few cooked green peas and a little lemon juice .and then straining the juice of the crushed herbs into the mayonaise. (These Italian recipes come from a Tuscan cookery book).

French Melted Butter Sauce. —Put a scant ounce of butter in a saucepan, and when melted stir in a dessert-spoonful of flour. When blended add a cupful of cold water, and stir till the mixture boils. Let it cook for a few moments and then remove saucepan from fire. .Tust before serving add a good squeeze of. lemon juice and a small ounce of butter cut into small pieces. Add a dust of very finely chopped parsley and serve at once. The sauce must not bo heated again after the butter is added. It should be at boiling point when removed from the stove, and the heat should be sufficient to melt and butter evenly. If the sauce ever seems too thick, stir in a little boiling water.