The Skilful Cook Part 12

Stir and boil three minutes; add the sauce, pepper and salt, and colouring.

Put the heart on a hot dish, remove the paper, and pour the gravy round it.

If preferred, the heart may be baked.

SAUCES.

Sauces are often failures, chiefly because they are not made of a proper consistency; and because the flour in them is not sufficiently cooked.

It should be remembered that the starch in flour wants to be _well boiled_, otherwise it will be indigestible, and the sauce will have a raw, pasty taste. A sauce is not ready when it _thickens_, but should be boiled for quite three minutes. Its consistency should depend on what it is to be used for. Ordinary sauces, served in a sauce tureen, should be fairly thick; the proportions taken should be 1 oz. of b.u.t.ter; oz. of flour; pint of milk. If the sauce is to be used to coat anything very thinly (new potatoes, for example), oz. of flour, instead of oz., would be sufficient. If a sauce is required to entirely mask a small piece of fish, or chicken, &c., 1 oz. of flour should be used, with the proportions of milk and b.u.t.ter already given. Every ingredient should be properly weighed or measured. Carelessness in this respect is a mark of ignorance, and _must_ occasion failures.

For making most of the ordinary sauces, the b.u.t.ter is melted first in a small stewpan, care being taken that it does not discolour; the flour is then mixed with it. If the mixing is not perfect, the sauce will be lumpy. The milk, stock, or water, is then poured in, and the sauce is stirred _one way_, until it has boiled three minutes. If cream is used, it is then added, and allowed just to boil in the sauce.

In making economical sauces, when less b.u.t.ter and flour are used (_see_ Economical Family Sauce), the method employed is different. The flour is then mixed very smoothly with a little of the milk, water, or whatever is used, and then added to the remainder, which may be cold or boiling; but greater care is required to keep it smooth when the liquid is poured in boiling.

English Melted b.u.t.ter.

_Ingredients_--1 oz. of b.u.t.ter.

oz. of flour.

pint of water.

Pepper and salt.

_Method._--Melt the b.u.t.ter in a small stewpan.

Mix in the flour smoothly.

Add the water; stir and cook well.

Then add pepper and salt, and it is ready to serve.

Plain White Sauce.

_Ingredients_--1 oz. of b.u.t.ter.

oz. of flour.

pint of milk.

A few drops of lemon juice.

Pepper and salt.

_Method._--Melt the b.u.t.ter in a small stewpan.

Mix in the flour smoothly.

Add the milk.

Stir and cook well.

Then add the lemon juice and seasoning.

A little cream may also be added if desired.

Maitre d'Hotel Sauce.

_Ingredients_-- oz. of b.u.t.ter.

oz. of flour.

pint of milk.

A few drops of lemon juice.

Pepper and salt.

A teaspoonful of finely-chopped parsley.

_Method._--Melt the b.u.t.ter in a small stewpan.

Mix in the flour smoothly.

Add the milk; stir and cook well.

Then add the lemon juice, seasoning, and chopped parsley.

Mayonnaise Sauce.

_Ingredients_--2 yolks of eggs.

1 gill of salad oil.

2 tablespoonfuls of taragon vinegar.

Pepper and salt.

_Method._--Put the yolks, which must be perfectly free from the whites, into a basin, which in summer time should be placed on ice.

Work them well with a whisk or wooden spoon, adding the oil drop by drop.

When the sauce is so thick that the whisk, or spoon, is moved with difficulty, the oil may be added more quickly, but still very gradually.

Lastly, add the taragon vinegar and seasoning.

_Note._--Success in making this sauce depends on first dividing the yolks completely from the whites. Secondly, in keeping them and the oil quite cold. Thirdly, on adding the oil, drop by drop, until the sauce is perfectly thick. If the sauce is made in a warm place, or the oil mixed in too quickly, it is apt to curdle. Should this occur, put a yolk in another basin and very slowly add the sauce to it, stirring briskly; this will generally make it smooth again. Two yolks will be sufficient for any quant.i.ty of sauce, taragon vinegar being added in proportion to the oil used.

Tartare Sauce.

_Ingredients_--2 yolks.

pint of salad oil.

2 tablespoonfuls of taragon vinegar.

1 teaspoonful of finely-chopped parsley.