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One ounce of butter put in a thick saucepan to melt ; add one ounce of flour, let them bubble a minute, stirring all the time; pour to it half a pint of hot strained white 2 26 Practical Recipes, stock which has been well flavored with vegetables; stir it and let it boil till quite thick — five minutes perhaps — then add a gill of very thick cream. If the stock was seasoned add very little salt, or the butter may have been salt enough. The stock used must be quite free from color or sediment. This sauce, so simply made, makes many delicious dishes ; any white meat can be warmed over in it, or it can be used to mask boiled chickens or turkey. Pour it over them while hot ; and when cold it will lay over them like a white jelly, making a very elegant dish if properly and carefuly put on. The bird should be as completely and smoothly covered as a cake is with icing. BECHAMEL NO. 2, FOR FISH. Boil the bones and trimmings of fish (or else use a flounder for the purpose) in a quart of water in which you have a bouquet of sweet herbs, a bay leaf, a piece of carrot, half a dozen peppercorns, and a small teaspoonful of salt ; boil till there is only half a pint of stock ; strain through a cloth, and pour it on to a tablespoonf ul of butter and flour that have been cooked together, as for white sauce, stirring carefully ; when thick and smooth stir in a gill of cream ; use as a sauce for fish where directed. OYSTER SAUCE, WHITE. Open two dozen oysters, carefully preserve the liquor; stir one ounce of butter and one ounce of flour together over the fire until they bubble ; pour the strained oyster liquor into a half-pint measure and as much cream or milk as will fill it ; make this hot and put it to the butter and flour, stirring all the while ; when it boils Sauces. 227 put in the oysters, leave them only till they are firm and plump ; when the edges begin to curl they are done ; add half the juice of a small lemon, a quarter of a saltspoonful of pepper, and salt as may be required. This sauce is excellent with turkey. OYSTER SAUCE, BROWK. Make half a pint of brown sauce; add the liquor strained from two dozen oysters ; boil together till of the right thickness (the oyster liquor will have thinned it), then drop in the oysters, let them simmer till the edges curl; take the sauce from the fire instantly. It is English fashion to send this sauce to table with beefsteak. SOUBISE OR ONION SAUCE. Boil medium sized onions tender, chop them up quickly, put them into cold water while you make half a pint of white sauce, then put a half saltspoonful of white pepper in it; drain the onions, add them to the sauce, and if you have it, a little cream; let them cook together ten minutes and serve. If you have the white sauce ready when the onions are chopped, you need not throw them into cold water; it is only to prevent them getting dark in color. HOLLANDAISE SAUCE, (GOUFFil). Put in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, with a saltspoonful of salt, and half one of pepper (white), let it boil down to one dessert-spoonful. Take it from the fire, add two tablespoonfuls of cold water, and yolks of two eggs beaten; put on the fire again, stirring till it begins to thicken (take care it does not boil); take it 2 28 Practical Recipes.