The Cook's Decameron Part 8

No. 11. Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients: Velute sauce, essence of mushrooms, b.u.t.ter.

Mix two dessert-spoonsful of essence of mushrooms with a cupful of Velute sauce (No. 2), reduce, keep on stirring, and just before serving add an ounce of b.u.t.ter. This sauce can be made with essence of truffle, or game, or shallot.

No. 12. Neapolitan Sauce

Ingredients: Onions, ham, b.u.t.ter, Marsala, blond of veal, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, cloves, mushrooms, Espagnole sauce (No. 1), tomato sauce, game stock or essence.

Fry an onion in b.u.t.ter with some bits of cut-up ham, then pour a gla.s.s of Marsala over it, and another of blond of veal, add a sprig of thyme, a bay leaf, four peppercorns, a clove, a tablespoonful of mushroom cuttings, and reduce half. In another saucepan put two cups of Espagnole sauce, one cupful of tomato sauce, and half a cup of game stock or essence. Reduce a third, and add the contents of the first saucepan, boil the sauce a few minutes, and pa.s.s it through a sieve. Warm it up in a bain-marie before using.

No. 13. Neapolitan Anchovy Sauce

Ingredients: Anchovies, fennel, flour, spices, parsley, marjoram, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, cream.

Wash three anchovies in vinegar, bone and pound them in a mortar with a teaspoonful of chopped fennel and a pinch of cinnamon. Then mix in a teaspoonful of chopped parsley and marjoram, a squeeze of lemon juice, a teaspoonful of flour, half a gill of boiled cream and the bones of the fish for which you will use this sauce. Pa.s.s through a sieve, add a clove of garlic with a cut in it, and boil. If the fish you are using is cooked in the oven, add a little of the liquor in which it has been cooked to the sauce. Take out the garlic before serving. Instead of anchovies you may use caviar, pickled tunny, or any other pickled fish.

No. 14. Roman Sauce (Salsa Agro-dolce)

Ingredients: Espagnole sauce, stock, burnt sugar, vinegar, raisins, pine nuts or almonds.

Mix two spoonsful of burnt sugar with one of vinegar, and dilute with a little good stock. Then add two cups of Espagnole sauce (No. 1), a few stoned raisins, and a few pinocchi* (pine nuts) or shredded almonds.

Keep this hot in a bain-marie, and serve with cutlets, calf's head or feet or tongue.

*The pinocchi which Italians use instead of almonds can be bought in London when in season.

No. 15. Roman Sauce (another way)

Ingredients: Espagnole sauce, an onion, b.u.t.ter, flour, lemon, herbs, nutmeg, raisins, pine nuts or almonds, burnt sugar.

Cut up a small bit of onion, fry it slightly in b.u.t.ter and a little flour, add the juice of a lemon and a little of the peel grated, a bouquet of herbs, a pinch of nutmeg, a few stoned raisins, shredded almonds or pinocchi, and a tablespoonful of burnt sugar. Add this to a good Espagnole (No. 1), and warm it up in a bain-marie.

No. 16. Supreme Sauce

Ingredients: White sauce, fowl stock, b.u.t.ter.

Put three-quarters of a pint of white sauce into a saucepan, and when it is nearly boiling add half a cup of concentrated fowl stock. Reduce until the sauce is quite thick, and when about to serve pa.s.s it through a tamis into a bain-marie and add two tablespoonsful of cream.

No. 17. Pasta marinate (For masking Italian Frys)

Ingredients: Semolina flour, eggs, salt, b.u.t.ter (or olive oil), vinegar, water.

Mix the following ingredients well together: two ounces of semolina flour, the yolks of two eggs, a little salt, and two ounces of melted b.u.t.ter. Add a gla.s.s of water so as to form a liquid substance. At the last add the whites of two eggs beaten up to a snow. This will make a good paste for masking meat, fish, vegetables, or sweets which are to be fried in the Italian manner, but if for meat or vegetables add a few drops of vinegar or a little lemon juice.

No. 18. White Villeroy

Ingredients: b.u.t.ter, flour, eggs, cream, nutmeg, white stock.

Make a light-coloured roux by frying two ounces of b.u.t.ter and two ounces of flour, stir in some white stock and keep it very smooth. Let it boil, and add the yolks of three eggs, mixed with two tablespoonsful of cream and a pinch of nutmeg. Pa.s.s it through a sieve and use for masking cutlets, fish, &c.

Soups

No. 19. Clear Soup

Ingredients: Stock meat, water, a bunch of herbs (thyme, parsley, chervil, bay leaf, basil, marjoram), three carrots, three turnips, three onions, three cloves stuck in the onions, one blade of mace.

Cut up three pounds of stock meat small and put it in a stock pot with two quarts of cold water, three carrots, and three turnips cut up, three onions with a clove stuck in each one, a bunch of herbs and a blade of mace. Let it come to the boil and then draw it off, at once skim off all the sc.u.m, and keep it gently simmering, and occasionally add two or three tablespoonsful of cold water. Let it simmer all day, and then strain it through a fine cloth.

Some of the liquor in which a calf's head has been cooked, or even a calf's foot, will greatly improve a clear soup.

The stock should never be allowed to boil as long as the meat and vegetables are in the stock pot.

No. 20. Zuppa Primaverile (Spring Soup)

Ingredients: Clear soup, vegetables.

Any fresh spring vegetables will do for this soup, but they must all be cooked separately and put into the soup at the last minute. It is best made with fresh peas, asparagus tips, and a few strips of tarragon.