Cookery

Brown Thickening, or Roux Brun — This can be made at leisure, and put by for use as desired. The principal ingredients are flour and butter ; put a piece of the latter into a small saucepan, and when it is hot add the flour and stir over a bright fire with a wooden spoon until the mixture assumes a golden brown colour ; add to this the required quantity of good clear stock, draw it off the fire, and let it simmer at the side for an hour or so, then strain and bottle for further use. Butter Thickening, or Liaison au Beurre. — This is represented by a small quantity of butter which must be added to certain soups, sauces, and * vegetables just before serving, and it is over this apparently simple operation that many cooks go wrong, because they insist on putting in the butter too soon. If this is done, the particular characteristic flavour which the butter is intended to impart is entirely lost. The saucepan should be finally removed from the fire, and then only must the butter be thrown in and promptly stirred, so as to amalgamate quickly with the substance it is to thicken ; to the same species of thickening belongs a cream and butter mixture used for certain sauces and soups to which these ingredients combined lend a peculiarly mellow flavour. These standard and other household sauces should form part of the reserve material of every careful cook. For some reason or other, however, they often prove a serious stumbling-block to the inexperienced, to say nothing of the fact that they are not always easy to prepare in small quantities and at a moment’s notice ; it can be done, as I will show further on, but before giving the simplest recipes I can suggest, I must bring before my readers a wonderful addition to culinary articles, viz., the foundation sauces of the great French chef and philanthropist, Monsieur Charles Driessens ; after many years of study and research, he has succeeded in solidifying the three principal sauces so much used in French cookery, so that they are now within the reach of everybody, and by their means all kinds of entries and dainty dishes can be prepared at slight cost, and even less trouble. They are put up in glass jars, and will keep good a considerable length of time after being opened if they are stored in a dry place. They can be obtained from Messrs. Gosenza and Co., 95, Wigmore Street, W., or ordered through any good grocer. The above firm have secured the monopoly of this article for the United Kingdom and the Colonies. There are three of these sauces — the dark, which represents the well-known Italienne, the brown or espnynole, and the pale or allemande. A small and excellent collection of recipes by Monsieur Driessens himself has been translated, and is presented in the form of a most useful pamphlet with every bottle of C00KEEY. sauce. These should prove invaluable in every household where good cooking and variety are appreciated ; they only need mixing with a given quantity of water, and their mode of preparation is so prompt and simple that they are specially adapted for emergency dishes. The above-mentioned sauces can, if desired, still he made at home in this simplified form :