Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches Part 22

MUSHROOM SAUCE.

Wash a pint of small b.u.t.ton mushrooms,--remove the stems and the outside skin. Stew them slowly in veal gravy or in milk or cream, seasoning them with pepper and salt, and adding a piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in a large proportion of flour. Stew them till quite tender, now and then taking off the cover of the pan to stir them.

The flavour will be heightened by having salted a few the night before in a covered dish, to extract the juice, and then stirring it into the sauce while stewing.

This sauce may be served up with poultry, game, or beef-steaks.

In gathering mushrooms take only those that are of a dull pearl colour on the outside, and that have the under part tinged with pale pink.

Boil an onion with them. If there is a poisonous one among them, the onion will turn black. Then throw away the whole.

EGG SAUCE.

Boil four eggs a quarter of an hour. Dip them into cold water to prevent their looking blue. Peel off the sh.e.l.l. Chop the yolks of all, and the whites of two, and stir them into melted b.u.t.ter.

Serve this sauce with boiled poultry or fish.

BREAD SAUCE.

Put some grated crumbs of stale bread into a sauce-pan, and pour over them some of the liquor in which poultry or fresh meat has been boiled. Add some plums or dried currants that have been picked and washed. Having simmered them till the bread is quite soft, and the currants well plumped, add melted b.u.t.ter or cream.

This sauce is for a roast pig.

MINT SAUCE.

Take a large bunch of young green mint; if old the taste will be unpleasant. Wash it very clean. Pick all the leaves from the stalks. Chop the leaves very fine, and mix them with cold vinegar, and a large proportion of powdered sugar. There must be merely sufficient vinegar to moisten the mint well, but by no means enough to make the sauce liquid.

It is only eaten in the spring with roast lamb. Send it to table in a sauce-tureen.

CAPER SAUCE.

Take two large table-spoonfuls of capers and a little vinegar.

Stir them for some time into half a pint of thick melted b.u.t.ter.

This sauce is for boiled mutton.

If you happen to have no capers, pickled cuc.u.mber chopped fine, or the pickled pods of radish seeds, may be stirred into the b.u.t.ter as a tolerable subst.i.tute.

PARSLEY SAUCE.

Wash a bunch of parsley in cold water. Then boil it about six or seven minutes in salt and water. Drain it, cut the leaves from the stalks, and chop them fine. Hare ready some melted b.u.t.ter, and stir in the parsley. Allow two small table-spoonfuls of leaves to half a pint of b.u.t.ter.

Serve it up with boiled fowls, rock-fish, sea-ba.s.s, and other boiled fresh fish.. Also with knuckle of veal, and with calf's head boiled plain.

APPLE SAUCE.

Pare, core, and slice some fine apples. Put them into a sauce-pan with just sufficient water to keep them from burning, and some grated lemon-peel. Stew them till quite soft and tender. Then mash them to a paste, and make them very sweet with brown sugar, adding a small piece of b.u.t.ter and some nutmeg.

Apple sauce is eaten with roast pork, roast goose and roast ducks.

Be careful not to have it thin and watery.

CRANBERRY SAUCE.

Wash a quart of ripe cranberries, and put them into a pan with about a wine-gla.s.s of water. Stew them slowly, and stir them frequently, particularly after they begin to burst. They require a great deal of stewing, and should be like a marmalade when done.

Just before you take them from the fire, stir in a pound of brown sugar.

When they are thoroughly done, put them into a deep dish, and set them away to get cold.

You may strain the pulp through a cullender or sieve into a mould, and when it is in a firm shape send it to table on a gla.s.s dish.

Taste it when it is cold, and if not sweet enough, add more sugar.

Cranberries require more sugar than any other fruit, except plums.

Cranberry sauce is eaten with roast turkey, roast fowls, and roast ducks.

PEACH SAUCE.

Take a quart of dried peaches, (those are richest and best that are dried with the skins on,) and soak them in cold water till they are tender. Then drain them, and put them into a covered pan with a very little water. Set them on coals, and simmer them till they are entirely dissolved. Then mash them with brown sugar, and send them to table cold to eat with roast meat, game or poultry.

WINE SAUCE.

Have ready some rich thick melted or drawn b.u.t.ter, and the moment you take it from the fire, stir in two large gla.s.ses of white wine, two table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar, and a powdered nutmeg. Serve it up with plum pudding, or any sort of boiled pudding that is made of a batter.

COLD SWEET SAUCE.

Stir together, as for a pound-cake, equal quant.i.ties of fresh b.u.t.ter and powdered white sugar. When quite light and creamy, add some powdered cinnamon or nutmeg, and a few drops of essence of lemon. Send it to table in a small deep plate with a tea-spoon in it.

Eat it with batter pudding, bread pudding, Indian pudding, &c.

whether baked or boiled. Also with boiled apple pudding or dumplings, and with fritters and pancakes.

CREAM SAUCE.

Boil a pint and a half of rich cream with four table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar, some pieces of cinnamon, and a dozen bitter almonds or peach kernels slightly broken up, or a dozen fresh peach leaves. As soon as it has boiled up, take it off the fire and strain it. If it is to be eaten with boiled pudding or with dumplings send it to table hot, but let it get quite cold if you intend it as an accompaniment to fruit pies or tarts.

OYSTER SAUCE.