Modern cookery, in all its branches

Pour half a pint of good but not very thick, boiling melted butter to the well-beaten yolks of two or three fresh eggs, and stir them briskly as it is added ; put the sauce again into the saucepan, and shake it high over the fire for an instant, but do not allow it to boil or it will curdle. Add a little lemon-juice or vinegar, and serve it immediately. NORFOLK SAUCE, OR RICH MELTED BUTTER WITHOUT FLOUR. Put three tablespoonsful of water into a small saucepan, and when it boils add four ounces of fresh butter ; as soon as this is quite dissolved, take the saucepan from the fire, and shake it round until the sauce looks thick and smooth. It must not be allowed to boil after the butter is added. W ater, 3 tablespoonsful ; butter, 4 oz. WHITE MELTED BUTTER. Thicken half a pint of new milk with rather less flour than is directed for the common melted butter, or with a little arrowroot, and stir into it by degrees after it has boiled, a couple of ounces of fresh butter cut small ; do not cease to stir the sauce until this is entirely dissolved, or it may become oiled, and float upon the top Thin cream, substituted for the milk, and flavoured with a few strips of lemon-rind cut extremely thin, some salt, and a small quantity of pounded mace, if mixed with rather less flour, and the same proportion of butter, will make an excellent sauce to serve with fowls or other dishes, when no gravy is at hand to make white sauce in the usual way. BURNT OR BROWNED BUTTER. Melt in a frying-pan three ounces of fresh butter, and keep it stirred slowly over a gentle fire until it is of a dark brown colour ; then pour to it a couple of tablespoonsful of good hot vinegar, and [chap. V. season it with black pepper and a little salt. In France this is a favourite sauce with boiled skate, which is served with plenty of crisped parsley, in addition, strewed over it. It is also often poured over poached eggs there : it is called beurre noir. Butter, 3 oz. ; vinegar, 2 tablespoonsful ; pepper ; salt. CLARIFIED BUTTER. Put the butter into a very clean and well-tinned saucepan or enamelled stewpan, and melt it gently over a clear fire; when it just begins to simmer, skim it thoroughly, draw it from the fire, and let it stand a few minutes that the butter-milk may sink to the bottom ; then pour it clear of the sediment through a muslin strainer or a fine hair-sieve ; put it into jars, and store them in a cool place. Butter thus prepared will answer for all the ordinary purposes of cookery, and remain good for a great length of time. In France, large quantities are melted down in autumn for winter use. The clarified butter ordered for the various receipts in this volume, is merely dissolved with a gentle degree of heat in a small saucepan, skimmed, and poured out for use, leaving the thick sediment behind. VERY GOOD EGG SAUCE. Boil four fresh eggs for quite fifteen minutes, then lay them into plenty of fresh water, and let them remain until they are perfectly cold. Break the shells by rolling them on a table, take them off, separate the whites from the yolks, and divide all of the latter into quarter-inch dice ; mince two of the whites tolerably small, mix them lightly, and stir them into the third of a pint of rich melted butter or of white sauce : serve the whole as hot as possible.