The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-02-07
HINTS FOR SIMPLE SAUCES.
BY Chrlstlne Terhune Herrick.


story of woman who sought a place as
trained cook. She proclaimed herself
liable to cook anything for the finest din
ner in the land"
the land"
Can you make good croquettes,
sauces and entrees?" asked the prospec-
tive mi..tress.
Bridget hesitated.
"Shure, ma am, to tell you the truth,
niVer gave meself the throuble to learn
how to make thin things. But for bilin'
and bakin, l can't be bate"
The worthy woman was a repre-
sentative of a school that still flourishes,
alas in which a knowledge of "bilin' and
bakin' " is considered all that is neces-
sary to constitute a trained cook. Schools
of domestic science and the progressive
ness of the American housewife are re-
ducing the number of the class every
year. Yet there still remain only too
many to whom the first principles of
sauce making are unknown The very
name brings them terror. Ask them to
make brown gravy or a drawn butter,
and they will do it,-after a fashion.
Call for a butter sauce or a Spanish
sauce, and ten to one you will be Informed
that the aggrieved domestic didn't hire
to do fancy cookery"
Unfortunately, too many housekeep-
ers have her prejudices and her igno-
RANGES. They have taken fright al the
mere name of sauce, without tarrying to
learn how simple a thing the compound
really is. The principle on which near
ly every sauce is mixed is one of the
most readily grasped in all cookery. Any
sauce,-practically, every sauce,-con-
tains three elements. These are one
tablespoonful of flour, one tablespoon
full of butter and one-half pint Of liquid.
That is all, except a little seasoning.
Cook the three to the proper consist
ency,-the easiest of tasks,-season to
taste, and you have your sauce.
No matter what additions may be
made in seasoning, what variations in
the liquid used,-water, milk, cream
tomato or oyster liquor,-the essential
principle remains unchanged.
BY judicious use of sauces the house.
Keeper may vary her bill of-fare with
little expense and greater profit. 1t is
worth her while to make the small in
vestment of trouble for the sake of the
large return of general satisfaction.
WHITE SAUCE.
Put into a small saucepan one table,
spoonful of butter and as it melts over
the fire stir into it a rounded table,
spoonful of flour. Have ready the half
pint of milk, and as soon as the butter
and flour are we'll blended and begin to
bubble pour in the milk. Continue to
stir without intermission until the sauce
comes to good boil. In the course of
reaching this point it will attain the
correct thickness, which should be that
of heavy double cream. Season with
saltspoonful of salt and pinch of white
pepper, and it is ready 1 is invaluable
as medium in which to warm up fish
or white meats, to pour over podched or
shlrred or chopped hard boiled eggs. or
to use in half dozen other ways. Onion.
celery salt parsley or other condiments
of herbs may be added to the seasoning
to suit the taste
BROWN SAUCE.
Make as you did the white sauce. sub
shutting a half pint of consomme or
brown soup stock for the milk and
browning the flour instead of using it as
it is. A better color may be gained by
the use of few drops of the valuable
SCdoOiilHS huOWn as hllCHen bouquet
TOMATO SAUCE.
Cook slice of onion and a sprig of
parsley for fifteen or twenty minutes In
half pint of tomato liquor. This NAV
be drained from a can that has been
opened to prepare a dish of stewed to-
matoes, or in summer may be prepared
from the fresh tomatoes. Cook together
tablespoonful of butter and one 0f
flour, as in the preceding recipes. pour
the tomato liquor upon them ana cook
until the sauce has reached the right
consistency. If the tomato is very tart
1t will benefit it to add half teaspoon
ful of white sugar at the same time with
the other seasoning of a saltspoonful of
salt and pinch of white pepper.
OYSTER SAUCE.
Cook twelve small oysters for three
minutes In one gill of boiling oyster
liquor. Take them out and put them
where they will keep hot while you make
the sauce. For this cook together
tablespoonful of butter and one of dour
until they bubble, pour upon them tbe
gill OF liquor In which the oysters were
stewed, and g<ll of cream. Stir min
the sauce thickens, season with salt
1890 '-''NN PNPPIl ~ ldSlG ana a tinV
pinch or mace, put in the oysters
chopped into rather good sized pieces
stir In half teaspoonful of lemon-iuIce
and serve at once.
BUTTER SAUCE OR DRAWN BIT
TER.
Cook together a tablespoonful each of
butter and -four and when they reach
the bubbling point pour upon them q
half pint of boiling water, and cook. al
ways Stirring, until the sauce thickens.
Season to taste.
BUTTER TARTAR SAUCE.
Make a butter sauce as described
above, and when it is thick stir into 1t
ten drops of onion juice, pinch of must
ard which has been moistened with a
few drops Of vinegar and teaspoonful
of mixed sour pickles, minced very fine
Just at the last moment add cautiously
well-beaten egg, and as soon as this is
stirred in, take from the fire.
CAPER SAUCE.
For this again, a butter sauce is the
foundation. Make a half mint of tl,is