A thickening for sauces is described by Gouffe under the name of Liaison b, VAllemande; this name, as its author himself admits, is confusing, the material having no con- nection with allemande sauce, but being mere flour-paste made with water, bouillon, or milk, and thez’efore differing greatly from a well-made dextrine thickening, or white roux, which not only contains butter, but holds the flour in a state of transformation. It is this flour-paste which has injured sauces in the estimation of the public, and we advise our readers to avoid the liaison h VAllemande and the velouU bourgeois produced therewith, and to adopt in all cases the flour dextrine thickening above described. A thickening of yolk of eggs is applied not only to sauces, but also to soups, blanquettes, and fricassees of chicken. For the incorporation of such a liaison with a sauce, the latter must be withdrawn from the fire, and allowed to cool some- what. Then a small portion of the sauce must be mixed very gradually with the yolks, and the small addition repeated until the liaison is very hquid and well mixed, and then only is it returned to the body of the sauce ; the latter is then heated with constant stirring to near, but not actually to, boiling. There is also a more rarely used mode of thickening broivn saiices loith blood of fowls or game ; in such a case the blood is treated as the yolks are treated in the process just described. The so-called liaison with butter and with mixtures of butter and cream are not true thickenings, but enrichments intended mainly for the enhancement of the taste. When they are employed with soups, it is mostly done to hide their want of savour. Cooks should avoid introducing con- cealed forms of fat into dishes needlessly, as they may prejudice physiological nutrition. GRAND SAUCES 235 General or Stock Sauces, also called Grand Sauces. The general sauces, cmdis gdndraux, stock saioces, are by some French authors also called grand sauces, meaning that they are made in bulk, and then modified {travailU) for particular purposes. The French author Courchamps has misapprehended this expression, and believing it to be a symbol of the high quality of a sauce, has claimed that a certain brown sauce, which he particularly favours and thinks the best of all sauces, should alone be termed grand sauce, and that mere espagnole should not be identified with it. This proposition hardly requires any discussion, but seems condemned by culinary history no less than by common practice. We shall see that there are five funda- mental sattces, from which a great number of finished sauces are derived ; they are, therefore, so to say, mother sauces, and in this character have been termed grand sazoces. The same definition clearly is applicable to the adjective grand in connection with the general or grand aspic, as it is termed in the French kitchen, namely, a savoury broth- jelly which may be further transformed either into stock sauces, or into real aspics, or jellies, or added to ragouts, fricassees, and soups. It is made in so concentrated a form that it might be called essence of aspic, and assume the position of a glaise ; it is prepared just like the best broths and coulis, with the addition of an ounce of gelatine to the pint of solution; it is generally made clear, and clarified with white of egg in the same manner as is described above for soups.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

A thickening for sauces is described by Gouffe under the name of Liaison b, VAllemande; this name, as its author himself admits, is confusing, the material having no connection with allemande sauce, but being mere flour-paste made with water, bouillon, or milk, and therefore differing greatly from a well-made dextrine thickening, or white roux, which not only contains butter, but holds the flour in a state of transformation. It is this flour-paste which has injured sauces in the estimation of the public, and we advise our readers to avoid the liaison h VAllemande and the velouU bourgeois produced therewith, and to adopt in all cases the flour dextrine thickening above described. A thickening of yolk of eggs is applied not only to sauces, but also to soups, blanquettes, and fricassees of chicken. For the incorporation of such a liaison with a sauce, the latter must be withdrawn from the fire, and allowed to cool somewhat. Then a small portion of the sauce must be mixed very gradually with the yolks, and the small addition repeated until the liaison is very liquid and well mixed, and then only is it returned to the body of the sauce ; the latter is then heated with constant stirring to near, but not actually to, boiling. There is also a more rarely used mode of thickening brown sauces with blood of fowls or game ; in such a case the blood is treated as the yolks are treated in the process just described. The so-called liaison with butter and with mixtures of butter and cream are not true thickenings, but enrichments intended mainly for the enhancement of the taste. When they are employed with soups, it is mostly done to hide their want of savour. Cooks should avoid introducing concealed forms of fat into dishes needlessly, as they may prejudice physiological nutrition. GRAND SAUCES General or Stock Sauces, also called Grand Sauces. The general sauces, coulis généraux, stock sauces, are by some French authors also called grand sauces, meaning that they are made in bulk, and then modified {travailU) for particular purposes. The French author Courchamps has misapprehended this expression, and believing it to be a symbol of the high quality of a sauce, has claimed that a certain brown sauce, which he particularly favours and thinks the best of all sauces, should alone be termed grand sauce, and that mere espagnole should not be identified with it. This proposition hardly requires any discussion, but seems condemned by culinary history no less than by common practice. We shall see that there are five fundamental sauces, from which a great number of finished sauces are derived ; they are, therefore, so to say, mother sauces, and in this character have been termed grand sazoces. The same definition clearly is applicable to the adjective grand in connection with the general or grand aspic, as it is termed in the French kitchen, namely, a savoury brothjelly which may be further transformed either into stock sauces, or into real aspics, or jellies, or added to ragouts, fricassees, and soups. It is made in so concentrated a form that it might be called essence of aspic, and assume the position of a glaise ; it is prepared just like the best broths and coulis, with the addition of an ounce of gelatine to the pint of solution; it is generally made clear, and clarified with white of egg in the same manner as is described above for soups.

The spirit of cookery