A light clear soup, nicely flavoured and prettily garnished, is far more appreciated, or more often selected, than thick soup when two soups are given ; though thick soups are also very popular, and should not on any account be discarded. In selecting the soups for a dinner every care should be taken so that the composition is not repeated in any other dish served for the same dinner. AN UP-TO-DATE HOTEL COOKING STOVE (SMITH AND WELLSTOOD) 91 CHAPTER X SAUCES AND THE IB COMPOSITION 1 The Theory of Sauces. — Sauces, said the late Alexis Soyer, are to cookery what grammar is to language, and the melody to music. This shows us at once how necessary it is that every cook should thoroughly understand this branch of cookery. In no other part of the culinary art is the skill and knowledge of a cook so prominently demonstrated. To be able to make a perfect sauce is, indeed, ‘ the height of the art of cooking.’ Brillat-Savarin, the well- known epicure and states- man, in his work ‘ La Philo- sophie du Gout,’ very justly says : ‘ On devient cuisinier, on devient rotisseur, on nait saucier,’’ which may be kain-makie translated that cooking and roasting are things that can be taught, but that it needs genius to make a sauce. The most simple of dishes can be made relishable by the addition of a good plain sauce, whilst the most excellent of dishes can be improved and be made still more palatable by a well-made sauce, just like a good painting is made more effective by being varnished. Before we enter into the details of the compositions of sauces, I am anxious' to point out that every sauce, whether plain or rich, must possess a distinct flavour and character. There are many plain sauces which are made quickly and of materials usually at hand. Let these be as the name implies, simple and pure, so that they may merely taste of the materials employed, from which such sauces take their name. Richer sauces require a longer and slower process of preparation. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the art of sauce- making was hardly known in England. The charge made at that time against the English nation by a celebrated French epigrammatist, who said that we had many religions but only one sauce, would hardly hold good now, for it is reckoned that there are at least 650 different 1 For individual recipes see Chapter XV. THE NEW CENTURY COOKERY BOOK sauces and gravies known at this moment. An ingenious cook will have as little trouble to form that number of sauces in different varieties, as a musician with his seven notes, or a painter with his palette and colours ; nor is it too much to assert that there is no other branch of cookery which offers better opportunities to display the ability of a cook than this. The art of sauce-making consists of extracting and combining certain flavours which are incorporated with the liquids. For this the gift of a good palate is essential, and the experience and skill of the most accomplished cook, as well as a thorough knowledge of the taste of those for whom he or she is cooking.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

A light clear soup, nicely flavoured and prettily garnished, is far more appreciated, or more often selected, than thick soup when two soups are given ; though thick soups are also very popular, and should not on any account be discarded. In selecting the soups for a dinner every care should be taken so that the composition is not repeated in any other dish served for the same dinner. AN UP-TO-DATE HOTEL COOKING STOVE (SMITH AND WELLSTOOD) CHAPTER X SAUCES AND THE THEIR COMPOSITION 1 The Theory of Sauces. — Sauces, said the late Alexis Soyer, are to cookery what grammar is to language, and the melody to music. This shows us at once how necessary it is that every cook should thoroughly understand this branch of cookery. In no other part of the culinary art is the skill and knowledge of a cook so prominently demonstrated. To be able to make a perfect sauce is, indeed, ‘ the height of the art of cooking.’ Brillat-Savarin, the wellknown epicure and statesman, in his work ‘ La Philosophie du Gout,’ very justly says : ‘ On devient cuisinier, on devient rotisseur, on nait saucier,’’ which may be translated that cooking and roasting are things that can be taught, but that it needs genius to make a sauce. The most simple of dishes can be made relishable by the addition of a good plain sauce, whilst the most excellent of dishes can be improved and be made still more palatable by a well-made sauce, just like a good painting is made more effective by being varnished. Before we enter into the details of the compositions of sauces, I am anxious' to point out that every sauce, whether plain or rich, must possess a distinct flavour and character. There are many plain sauces which are made quickly and of materials usually at hand. Let these be as the name implies, simple and pure, so that they may merely taste of the materials employed, from which such sauces take their name. Richer sauces require a longer and slower process of preparation. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the art of saucemaking was hardly known in England. The charge made at that time against the English nation by a celebrated French epigrammatist, who said that we had many religions but only one sauce, would hardly hold good now, for it is reckoned that there are at least 650 different 1 For individual recipes see Chapter XV. sauces and gravies known at this moment. An ingenious cook will have as little trouble to form that number of sauces in different varieties, as a musician with his seven notes, or a painter with his palette and colours ; nor is it too much to assert that there is no other branch of cookery which offers better opportunities to display the ability of a cook than this. The art of sauce-making consists of extracting and combining certain flavours which are incorporated with the liquids. For this the gift of a good palate is essential, and the experience and skill of the most accomplished cook, as well as a thorough knowledge of the taste of those for whom he or she is cooking.

The new century cookery book