Bechamel Sauce

Ingredients

• a pint of rich clear stock
• a pint of boiling cream
• two or three bay-leaves

Method

1. 1

   Boil the stock until reduced to a glaze.

2. 2

   Add boiling cream and bay leaves.

3. 3

   Mix well and serve as a sauce.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c (1880), page 80. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

bechamel sauce. Of course, from the nature of the ingredients them- selves, financiere ragout cannot be called a very cheap dish, and is generally re- served for great occasions, consequently the cook should be very careful that the sauce, whether brown or white, is worthy of the ingredients to which it is added. To make good sauce for finan- cier e ragout the cook should get some good stock similar to that given under the heading of Extract of Meat, but this stock should be improved by being re- duced in quantity. Two quarts of good stock should be allowed to boil away till it is reduced to about a pint. Very often financiere ragout sold in bottles does not contain any sweetbread, but consists simply of the cocks’ combs, truffles, and mushrooms preserved in brine. When this is the case the sweet- breads should be added afterwards. Should the contents be too salt they should be soaked for two or three hours in fresh water. When the ragout is pre- served in jelly, the jelly should be added to the sauce. In adding small scal- lops of sweetbread to the financiere ragout the cook must first parboil the sweetbread and throw it into cold water. The sweetbread must then be very care- fully trimmed, and every particle of skin removed. It will also be found sometimes more economical to add small scallops of the white meat of a fowl or a turkey, as well as some quenelles of forcemeat. Financiere ragout is some- times served by itself, in which case an equal quantity of sweetbread can be added to it. It is also often used to garnish, other dishes. For instance, fillet of rabbit larded is sometimes sur- rounded by financiere (i la Toulouse, salmi of partridge is garnished with finan- ciere ragout. One of the most popular forms in which financiere is served, as well as financiere a la Toulouse, is that of a vol-au-vent. The vol-au-vcnt is simply a very large pate made of rich light puff-paste. I will not here enter 52 CROSSE AND into a description of how to make puff- paste, but I would strongly recommend housekeepers who live in the neighbour- hood of a good pastrycook, especially if ,the pastrycook is a French one, to always instruct the cook to order the vol-au-vent case as well as pate cases ready made. They will be found to be far cheaper and far better than it is pos- sible to make them at home. It is in filling the pate cases that the pastry- cook invariably fails, not in making the pastry. I have already explained how to make rich brown gravy to be added to financiere ragout. I wull now endea- vour to give directions how to make a bechamel sauce to be added to the ragout a. la Toulouse. Many cooks re- commend instead of bechamel sauce another sauce known as Sauce Supreme. Bechamel sauce is simply a good clear stock mixed with an equal quantity of boiling cream. Sauce supreme is made as follow's : — Take say a pint of rich clear stock and a pint of boiling cream. Instead of adding the stock as it is, it must be allow'ed to boil away on the Are till it is almost reduced to a glaze. The boiling cream is then added. Of course, sauce supreme is richer than ordinary bechamel. Whenever boiling cream is used the cook should always boil two or three bay-leaves

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.