A guide to modern cookery

Quantities Required for Four Quarts.—One lb. of pale roux (Formula 20), five quarts of white veal stock (Formula 10). Dissolve the roux in the cold white veal stock and put the saucepan containing this mixture on an open fire, stirring the sauce with a spatula or whisk, so as to avoid its burning at the bottom. Add one oz. of table-salt, a pinch of nutmeg and white powdered pepper, together with one-quarter lb. of nice white mushroom parings, if these are handy. Now boil and move to a corner of the fire to despumate slowly for one and a half hours, at the same time observing the precautions advised for ordinary Espagnole (Formula 22). Strain through muslin into a smaller saucepan, add one pint of white stock, and despumate for another half hour. Strain it again through a tammy or a Sieve into a wide tureen, and keep moving it with a spatula until it is quite cold. I am not partial to garnishing Velouté Sauce with carrots, an onion with a clove stuck into it, and a faggot, as many do. The stock should be sufficiently fragrant of itself, without requiring the addition of anything beyond the usual condiments. The only exception I should make would be for mushroom parings, even though it is preferable, when possible, to replace these by mushroom liquor. But this is always scarce in kitchens where it is used for other purposes; wherefore it is often imperative to have recourse to parings in its stead. The latter may not, however, be added to the stock itself, as they would blacken it; hence I advise their addition to the Velouté during its preparation. 26—VELOUTE DE VOLAILLE This is identical with ordinary Velouté, except that instead of having white veal stock for its liquor, it is diluted with white poultry stock. The mode of procedure and the time allowed for cooking are the same. 26a—FISH VELOUTE Velouté is the base of various fish sauces whose recipes will be given in Part II. Prepare it in precisely the same way as poultry velouté, but instead of using poultry stock, use very clear fish fumet, and let it despumate for twenty minutes only. (See fish fumet No. 11.) 27—ALLEMANDE SAUCE OR THICKENED VELOUTE Allemande Sauce is not, strictly speaking, a basic sauce. However, it is so often resorted to in the preparation of other sauces that I think it necessary to give it after the Veloutés, from which it is derived. Quantities Required for One Quart. The yolks of 5 eggs. 4 the juice of a lemon. I pint of cold white stock. ¢ pint of mushroom liquor. I quart of Velouté, well despumated. Mode of Procedure.—Put the various ingredients in a thickbottomed sauté-pan and mix them carefully. Then put the pan on an open fire, and stir the sauce with a metal spatula, lest it burn at the bottom. When the sauce has been reduced to about one quart, add one-third pint of fresh cream to it, and reduce further for a few minutes. It should then be passed through a fine strainer into a tureen and kept moving until quite cold. Prepared thus, the Allemande Sauce is ready for the preparation of the smaller sauces. Butter must only be added at the very last moment, for if it were buttered any earlier it would most surely turn. The same injunction holds good with this sauce when it is to be served in its original state; it should then receive a small addition of cream, and be buttered so that it may attain its required delicacy ; but this addition of butter and cream ought only to be made at the last moment, and away from the fire. When a sauce thickened with egg yolks has any fat substance added to it, it cannot be exposed to a higher temperature than 140 degrees Fahrenheit without risking decomposition. 28—BECHAMEL SAUCE Quantities Required for Four Quarts. 1 lb. of white roux. % oz. of salt, 1 pinch of mignon- 44 quarts of boiling milk, ette, and grated nutmeg, and 4 lb. of lean veal. 1 small sprig of thyme.