Cumberland sauce

Cumberland sauceis a savoury sauce of English origin, made withredcurrantjelly, mustard, pepper and salt,blanchedorange peel, andportwine. The food writerElizabeth Daviddescribed it as "the best of all sauces for cold meat".It is thought to be of 19th-century origin. Among the conjectural reasons for its name are honouring aDuke of Cumberlandor alternatively reflecting thecounty of its origin.
Piquant spicy fruit sauces rendered sharply sour withverjuiceor vinegar featured prominently inmedieval cuisine.Cumberland sauce, thought to have originated in the 19th century, is in that tradition. TheOxford English Dictionarydescribes it as "a piquant sauce served esp. with cold meat".The dictionary's earliest citation for a sauce of that name is 1878, but it is mentioned inThe Timessix years earlier, reporting a banquet in Berlin in September 1872, attended by the EmperorsWilhelm I,Franz JosephandAlexander II, at whichhure de sanglier(boar's head) was served with "sauce Cumberland".In 2009 a food historian, Janet Clarkson, identified an American citation from 1856, as well as details of some sauces from earlier in the 19th century that bore similarities to what became known as Cumberland sauce:she instancedWilliam Kitchiner'sThe Cook's Oracle, first published in 1817, which includes an unnamed "Wine sauce for Venison or Hare" in whichclaretorportare mixed with redcurrant jelly.
Elizabeth Davidfound a recipe from 1853 byAlexis Soyerfor what she says "is without doubt Cumberland sauce":
Soyer described his recipe as "the German method of making a sauce to be eaten with boar's head",and David followed up the German connection with mention of the popular belief that the sauce was named for theHanoverianprinceErnest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.She added that a simple connection with the county ofCumberland(now part ofCumbria) was also a possibility. Two Cumberland newspapers of the 1850s repeatedly carried advertisements for a bottled Cumberland sauce, although no hint was given of the ingredients.After commenting that the supposed Hanoverian origin was "as good as any and better than some", David added that it was odd that Cumberland sauce is not mentioned in any 19th-century cookery book, including those byEliza Acton,Mrs BeetonandCharles Elmé Francatelli. The first printed recipe for a specifically named Cumberland sauce identified by David was in a French book about English food, published in 1904. She found further French associations: Henry Babinski described a similar sauce in hisGastronomie pratique(1907),andAuguste Escoffierpopularised it and printed his recipe in the "Sauces anglaises froides" section of hisMa cuisine(1934), particularly commending the sauce as an accompaniment to cold venison.
In David's view it is "the best of all sauces for cold meat – ham, pressed beef, tongue, venison, boar's head or pork brawn".More recentlyMichel Roux, Sr.wrote of Cumberland sauce that it was his favourite sauce for terrines, pâtés and game. "We often serve it atThe Waterside Innand I never tire of it. It adds an entirely new dimension to a pork pie bought from the delicatessen".
A Polish variant omits mustard and wine, addshorseradish, and fries the orange zest before adding it to the mixture.A New Zealand version adds gratedbeetroot.Recipes for more or less the generic version on Soyer's lines appear in cookery books from, among other countries, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and the US.