Culinary jottings

Bechamel, which I select as the best type of a fundamental white sauce, should be made in this way : — Take the same ingredients that I have detailed for Espagnole, and commence by slicing up the onion, and shaking the rings in an ounce of melted butter at the bottom of the stew-pan ; do not let them take colour, but add your meat* * Veal, if procurable, instead of beef. — W. SAUCES— CONCLUDED. 99 and bones at once, and cover them with water, omitting the browning stage : go on now to make a clear consomme ; instead of burnt-sugar colouring, add a tea-spoonful of powdered sugar plain, and all the vegetables. If this be carefully prepared and skimmed, you will obtain a pellucid broth which should be strained, and kept ready for use presently. Take a sauce-pan, and melt a quarter of a pound of "cow-brand," or any good preserved butter in it ; fry gently in that for ten minutes a sliced carrot and a sliced onion ; before they take colour, add two ounces of flour, stir for five minutes, and add by degrees your clear broth, half a pint of cream, a small tinful of mushrooms chopped, salt, and pepper ; stir over the fire till boiling, and then permit the sauce to simmer slowly for an hour, taking off all fat that may rise. At the end of the hour, you can strain the Bechamel into a sauce-pan, and place it in the bain-marie. Before using, a gill of cream may be finally stirred into the sauce as you take it from the bain-marie. Veloute is exactly like this omitting the cream when you add the stock, and also the chopped mushrooms : it is therefore less expensive and not quite so rich. Allemande is veloute flavoured with chicken essence, and chopped mushrooms : it is thickened with yolks of eggs, and no cream is needed in its composition. With these for your bases, you can make the following rich white sauces : — oyster, lobster, supreme, venitienne, poivrade bla7iche, rich souhise, champignons blanches, puree de celeri, and other rich white -purees. In fact all sauces which, in their simple form, are made with sauce blanche, or sauce blonde, may be served in a superior manner by using veloute, or Bechamel as their groundwork. I have already described the making of chicken, or rather fowl essence : the same principles being observed, 4G45S2A you can obtain valuable flavouring gravies from all poultry bones, especially from those of a turkey. The giblets should never be thrown away, for they assist a gravy greatly. In like manner game bones are very valuable. Essences of mushrooms, of truffles, vegetables, and ham, are obtained by stewing them cut into small pieces in consomme. A dash of Madeira or sound Marsala is necessary with game essences, while chablis and sauterne give assistance to fish gravies which are used, of course, to improve sauces like creme d'ajichois, crcme de crevettes, and all fish sauces. Reduced vinegar, i.e. vinegar boiled until half or more of its quantity has evaporated, and wine similarly reduced, produce valuable flavoring agents. ■ Mirepoix is a strong broth made from meat and vegetables, flavoured with wine and sweet herbs, and strained, hut not thickened. It is used as a flavouring medium.