Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Sauce Ravigote is made by adding to mayonnaise a ravigote — that is, equal quantities of minced chervil, chives, burnet, and tarragon. Mayonnaise, Tartare Sauce, and Ravigote, can all be coloured green by adding the green juices squeezed from the herbs used, mixed with a little spinach colouring. Do not use the juice of parsley, for its taste is acrid and disagreeable. If the directions which have been given are carefully followed, there will be no difficulty in producing good Sauces, whether Melted Butter or Sauce Blonde, with the various Sauces of which they form the foundation, or the descendants of the two Sauces Meres , the brown Espagnole and the white Veloute, or the varieties of Mayonnaise. Even Hollandaise will not present insuperable difficulties, and Bread Sauce can be depended upon as a complete success. In other parts of the book I have given the appropriate Sauces with various dishes of fish, meat, game, and poultry!; a method which I hope may save trouble. One or two Sauces, often badly made, may he described here. Anchovy Sauce. — The usual method of making this Sauce is to stir anchovy essence into melted butter, a method which generally gives an unpleasant flavour of fish oil to the sauce. A far better, but much more troublesome, plan is to take two anchovies from the tin, drain them (see page 96), scald them, and wipe them free from every trace of oil. Take out their spines, mash them, and pass them through the sieve. Add the pulp of the anchovies to half a pint of good veloute sauce, heat it up in the bain-marie, and as you are about to serve it stir into it, off the fire, or beat up, with a little of the veloute in a cup, the yolk of one raw egg. Serve the Anchovy Sauce very hot in a boat. This quantity is enough for eight persons. Simple Mushroom Sauce. — Make a gill of broth with Mushroom peelings and half an ounce of glaze. Have ready a roux of an ounce of butter and an ounce of flour, pour upon this by degrees half a pint of broth, skim, add the gill of mushroom broth, boil up, and strain through a tin strainer into a hot sauce-boat. Of course more mushroom peelings can be used. Orange Sauce for a Duck, either wild or tame. — This sauce must be served cold, and the quantity is sufficient for one duck. Take a quarter of a pound of red currant jelly, a glass of burgundy or port, the juice of two Seville oranges and of one lemon, and the zest or peel of one orange grated, with one small lump of sugar. Melt the jelly, dissolve the flavoured sugar in it, add the wine and juice, season with salt and cayenne pepper, stir, and pass the sauce through a strainer. Sauces for Vegetables. — Melted Butter is liked with many vegetables, but, as I have said elsewhere, it should always be handed in a boat, and not poured over the vegetables. Maitre d’ Motel is another favourite Sauce, particularly with potatoes.