# The Virginia Housewife: or, Methodical Cook/Sauces

FISH SAUCE, TO KEEP A YEAR.
Chop twenty-four anchovies, bones and all, ten shallots, a handful of scraped horse radish, four blades of mace, one quart of white wine, one pint of anchovy liquor, one pint of claret, twelve cloves, and twelve pepper corns; boil them together till reduced to a quart, then strain it off into a bottle for use. Two spoonsful will be sufficient for a pound of butter.
SAUCE FOR WILD FOWL.
Take a gill of claret, with as much water, some grated bread, three heads of shallots, a little whole pepper, mace, grated nutmeg, and salt; let them stew over the fire, then beat it up with butter, and put it under the wild fowl, which being a little roasted, will afford gravy to mix with this sauce.
SAUCE FOR BOILED RABBITS.
Boil the livers, and shred them very small, chop two eggs not boiled very hard, a large spoonful of grated white bread, some broth, sweet herbs, two spoonsful of white wine, one of vinegar, a little salt, and some butter; stir all together, and take care the butter does not oil.
GRAVY.
Take a rasher or two of bacon, and lay it at the bottom of a stew pan, putting either veal, mutton, or ​beef, cut in slices, over it; then add some sliced onions, turnips, carrots, celery, a little thyme, and alspice. Put in a little water, and set it on the fire, stewing till it be brown at the bottom, which you will know from the pan’s hissing; then pour boiling water over it, and stew it an hour and a half; but the time must be regulated by the quantity. Season it with salt and pepper.
FORCEMEAT BALLS.
Take half a pound of veal, and half a pound of suet cut fine, and beat in a marble mortar or wooden bowl; add a few sweet herbs shred fine, a little mace pounded fine, a small nutmeg grated, a little lemon peel, some pepper and salt, and the yelks of two eggs; mix them well together, and make them into balls and long pieces—then roll them in flour, and fry them brown. If they are for the use of white sauce, do not fry them, but put them in a sauce-pan of hot water, and let them boil a few minutes.
SAUCE FOR BOILED DUCKS OR RABBITS.
Pour boiled onions over your ducks, or rabbits, prepared in this manner: peel some onions, and boil them in plenty of water; then change the first water, and boil them two hours: take them up and put them in a colander to drain, and afterwards chop them on a board; then put them in a sauce-pan, sprinkle a little flour over them, and put in a large piece of butter, with a little milk or cream. Set them over the fire, ​and when the butter is melted, they will be done enough. This is a good sauce for mutton also.
LOBSTER SAUCE.
Boil a little mace, and whole pepper, long enough to take out the strong taste of the spice; then strain it off, and melt three quarters of a pound of butter in it. Cut the lobster in very small pieces, and stew it till it is tender.
SHRIMP SAUCE.
Wash half a pint of shrimps very clean—mince and put them in a stew-pan, with a spoonful of anchovy liquor, and a pound of thick melted butter; boil it up for five minutes, and squeeze in half a lemon. Toss it up, and put it in a sauce-boat.
OYSTER SAUCE FOR FISH.
Scald a pint of oysters, and strain them through a sieve; then wash some more in cold water, and take off their beards; put them in a stew-pan, and pour the liquor over them; then add a large spoonful of anchovy liquor, half a lemon, two blades of mace, and thicken it with butter rolled in flour. Put in half a pound of butter, and boil it till it is melted—take out the mace and lemon, and squeeze the lemon juice into the sauce; boil it, and stir it all the time, and put it in a boat.
CELERY SAUCE.
Wash and pare a large bunch of celery very clean, cut it into little bits, and boil it softly till it is tender; ​add half a pint of cream, some mace, nutmeg, and a small piece of butter rolled in flour; then boil it gently. This is a good sauce for roasted or boiled fowls, turkeys, partridges, or any other game.
MUSHROOM SAUCE.
Clean and wash one quart of fresh mushrooms, cut them in two, and put them into a stew-pan, with a little salt, a blade of mace, and a little butter; stew them gently for half an hour, and then add half a pint of cream, and the yelks of two eggs beat very well—keep stirring it till it boils up. Put it over the fowls or turkies—or you may put it on a dish with a piece of fried bread first buttered—then toasted brown, and just dipped into boiling water. This is very good sauce for white fowls of all kinds.
COMMON SAUCE.
Plain butter melted thick, with a spoonful of walnut pickle or catsup, is a very good sauce; but you may put as many things as you choose into sauces.
TO MELT BUTTER.
Nothing is more simple than this process, and nothing so generally done badly. Keep a quart tin sauce-pan, with a cover to it, exclusively for this purpose; weigh one quarter of a pound of good butter; rub into it two tea-spoonsful of flour; when well mixed, put it in the sauce-pan with one table-spoonful of water, and a little salt; cover it, and set the sauce-pan ​in a larger one of boiling water; shake it constantly till completely melted, and beginning to boil. If the pan containing the butter be set on coals, it will oil the butter and spoil it. This quantity is sufficient for one sauce-boat. A great variety of delicious sauces can be made, by adding different herbs to melted butter, all of which are excellent to eat with fish, poultry, or boiled butchers’ meat. To begin with parsley—wash a large bunch very clean, pick the leaves from the stems carefully, boil them ten minutes in salt and water, drain them perfectly dry, mince them exceedingly fine, and stir them in the butter when it begins to melt. When herbs are added to butter, you must put two spoonsful of water instead of one. Chervil, young fennel, burnet, tarragon, and cress, or peppergrass, may all be used, and must be prepared in the same manner as the parsley.
CAPER SAUCE,
Is made by mixing a sufficient quantity of capers, and adding them to the melted butter, with a little of the liquor from the capers; where capers cannot be obtained, pickled nasturtiums make a very good substitute, or even green pickle minced and put with the butter.
OYSTER CATSUP.
Get fine fresh oysters, wash them in their own liquor, put them in a marble mortar with salt, pounded mace, and cayenne pepper, in the proportions of one ounce salt, two drachms mace, and one of cayenne to each pint of oysters; pound them together, and add ​a pint of white wine to each pint; boil it some minutes, and rub it through a sieve; boil it again, skim it, and when cold, bottle, cork, and seal it. This composition gives a fine flavour to white sauces, and if a glass of brandy be added, it will keep good for a considerable time.
CELERY VINEGAR.
Pound two gills of celery seed, put it into a bottle and fill it with strong vinegar; shake it every day for a fortnight, then strain it, and keep it for use. It will impart a pleasant flavour of celery to any thing with which it is used. A very delicious flavour of thyme may be obtained, by gathering it when in full perfection; it must be picked from the stalks, a large handful of it put into a jar, and a quart of vinegar or brandy poured on it; cover it very close—next day, take all the thyme out, put in as much more; do this a third time; then strain it, bottle and seal it securely. This is greatly preferable to the dried thyme commonly used, during the season when it cannot be obtained in a fresh state. Mint may be prepared in the same way. The flavour of both these herbs must be preserved by care in the preparation: if permitted to stand more than twenty hours in the liquor they are infused in, a coarse and bitter taste will be extracted, particularly from mint.