The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1914-07-13
Mischief of White Sauce
Ut butter is hard to digest. although
BY JANE EDDINGToN.

l.,
Drowned butter is believed to be an
exception TO this rule.
| Pie crust and all the pastries Of
butter or It's equivalen. and hour have
no envia BILE reputation ms wholesome
foods. They are notoriously ind:gcsti-
bic. especially II poorly made and not
thoroughly cooked.
The roux or thickcninE for whit.
sauce Is dietetically the same thing az
PIE crust. In the sauce the butter is
simply dissolved and cooked in milk.
Instead OF being baked IN the oven,
where II may be somewhat caramelized
and rendered more wholesome
Butter is put into sauces for season
ing them, ana 1t may be put In last as
well as hrrt although ii sauce Will no,
take as much this way, which may
be an advantage il is the -four. or itx
equivalent which does the thickeninE.
and II this is not thoroughly cooked
the fact Is more obvious when IL +.
not cooked with butter. that is. tho
sauce seems poorer which il ano,bcr
ming TO De gained in thickcning tho
sauce and cooking II well before any
butter is added to season IL
AS cook. enc blcsses the originator
1
rs 1t Is often called. the white sauce
being originally or white meat STOCK
'Hickened. This sauce Of milk. butter
and flour Is easy to make and the ira.
terials are TO BE- had without previous
cooking efforts. 1t forma the basis OF
Il great number of dishes and can no
most variousiy modified.
Foreigners. who are accustomed 10
having all vegetables dressed in bu,-
Tor /. sarl..
them In haf-cookcd. pasty white
sauce. Al their best when served
that is with tho thinnest OF sauces
'hey are none too good. Tho dietitian
unrescrvedly condemns this sauce and
iorbids II 10 those troubled with an acid
stomach or any digestive dinlcul,y
Perhaps !; is partly or largely respon
sib!e Tor the fact that VIC arc nation
or ayspeptics. Badly made, IL is worse
imam fried things and Is supremely bad
when II is !ncomplctely cooked
Poor cooks. though, use the white
sauce eternally. They will even make
II basis for a Hollandaise sauce.
canned vegetables have little enough
of aroma and flavor II they are en-
HANGED with fresh 'avors and good but
ter but masked In white sauce they are
tastcless and almost worthless as food
Fresh vegetables. II served in any Kind
OF thickcned sauce, should be In ono
made OF the water in which they are
boiled. which often contains their es-
sence and their precious mineral mat
ter. To throw II away and substitute
milk sauce is 10 make the vegetables
less palatable and far Inferior as food
The Lima bean is one Of the vere
tables that may be supremacy good.
IL served In the thickcned liquid In
which IL Is cooked with plenty of but
ter added when 1t is off the stove There
rs justification for serving caulinower
and chopped cabbage in n thin cream
sauce, but TO serve green beans in such
Il sauce is hardly moro justi1able than
serving chopped spinach in the same
way.
The carrot loses much Of its sweet
ness and character II cooked in more
than just enough water to cook away
when it is cooked in much water and
then serred in white sauce. IL is done
an injustice, and its real delightfulness
cannot be known. II is unma ginably
unlike carrots steamed, mashed and
we'll seasoned
There are four or flve classes OF white
sauce. according to thickness. Those
used for binding, as in croquettes. are
thick and. ii some egg is used, no
butter need be added
Reform White sauce--wet the
amount OF -four to >be used with cold
milk to dissolve It; then aad the milk
needed Put over q slow fire and stir
r''iS'o"tiS until mick. COOK for TWEEN
" minutes. If in double boiler thu
stirring need not be constant after the
sour has once swollen all 1t will Take
from the fire and add butter. The salt
should be added at the beginning. and
other seasonings may be
Butter contains an acid which ts not
improved by cooking. The cream SOUPS
winch may be so wholesome are un-
| wholesome when made with poorly
cooked white sauces. They NAV be-
made of thick purees of vegetables
thinned with milk and then thickened
with an egg yolk and only the least
DIT OF butter. At present prices two or
three egg yolks will cost less than the
amount of butter used In making a
cream sauce basis OF cream SOUP for
six people. The soup Will have greater
food value thickened with the egg. as
well as be so much more wholesome.
Excellent cooks who are not dieti
tians recommend the white sauce he.
cause II adds food value to vegetable.
but even so its value In this respect
can In no sense countcrbalance the fact
that 1t is indigestible. No matter how
much food value 1t has. It amounts to
nothing IL 1t cannot be utilized by the
digestion. The white sauce. as ordj-
narily made, cannot be fully utilized.
and for this reason it's effects ON tho
health arc anything but desirable,