Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-20
THE PHILOs0PHY OF sAUCEa
Creole Cooks Know How to Pnt Strength
in Their Compounds.

Creole Cooks Know How to Put Strength
in Their Compounds.
A Creole prepares delicate, savory sauce
tartare, sauce au win blanc. sauce piquante,
ct al. simultaneously with the dishes she
intends them to complete. It is to her close
attention and skillful selection of materials
success is due. She watches, with an eye as
keenly alert as the artists to the subtle
variations of color on his palette, the pro-
cess of evolving the smooth velvety liquid
from the blending of -four and butter.
Among her humble kitchen furnishings the
wooded spoon for stirring sauces is always
found; the acids she uses may attack q
metal spoon and impart disastrous flavor
Fiine knows not the chemical process; she
only tastes the result
A filet de boeuf or de poisson; the tender
remnants of poule d'eau; the bits Of soup
meat and shreds of vegetables she separates
with delicate nicely, and serves as bonnes
touches, of which you partake with COM
fortlng sense OF their supreme SAVIOR and no
desire to question further.
1t goes without saying that the Creole
cook does nothing by measurement, vet
close observation reveals that there is
method in her 'sbits" and 'handfuls" of
this o. that One may evolve reliable rec
ipe frJ m ones experience in following the
cvAcocting of her dishes. 1t is with herbs
that Fifne works her greatest charms; she
ties together all sorts of pungent green
things and calls the little bunch of parsley,
and the garni is not for the eye but for the
palate. This bouquet is for her court
bouillon, her ragout, and salmi de canards.
For her sauces she chops them to pow
der or pounds them to paste.
Thus for the maitre d'hotel, the simplest
of sauces, -Fifine chops q teaspoonful of
parsley, until it is a powder, then adds
little chives; she mixes the two thor
oughly with a big lump of butter, a tea
spoonful of lemon juice, very little grated
nutmeg, and some salt and freshly ground
pepper; this sauce she spreads on her first
grilled two-inch beef steak, and turns it
over and about twice or thrice. She wishes
you to be ready that it may be served with
the least possible delay, and you eat it with
devout belief in the aphorism that "good
cookery is the foundation of all happiness"
Another indispensable to the Cfeole
cooks happiness when concocting sauce is
huile d'olive. And yet she is economical
to an astonishing degree. Some there are
who cannot reconcile economy and the lavish
use Of olive oil; they forget its nourishing,
strengthening qualities. Fifne uses the
yolks of four hard-boiled eggs, handful
each of tarragop, garden cress, chives and
parsley; these she pounds to paste, and
then rubs through wire sieve; now she
uses the olive oil with lavish hand, and
adds lemon juice from time to time and by
the few drops, turning the wooden spoon
always in the same direction; and now a
sprinkling of pepper, a pinch of salt and a
littls anisette, or parfait amour.
Does this seem an e1travagant compound?
1t is not, since it is sauce that makes
perfect luncheon of simple faxed cold fish,
delicate slices of cold beet, veal, mutton, or
the remains of yesterdays game or fowl :