Butter Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 cups clear strained broth or water
• 1/2 pound of butter or more
• 2 heaping tablespoons flour
• Salt, if not enough in the butter

Method

1. 1

   Melt half the butter with the flour in a saucepan.

2. 2

   Gradually add boiling broth or water while stirring until thick and smooth.

3. 3

   Remove from heat and stir in the remaining butter without boiling again.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cooking for profit (1886) by Jessup Whitehead, page 171. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

butter sauce (2 lbs, gross and sauce, 18 cents.) Roast beef (2 ribs, 4 lbs 50 cents.) Boiled ham (knuckle with 2 lbs, net, 30 cents.) Corn (2 cans, seasonings, 31 cents.) Green peas (from garden, equal 2 cans, 30 cents.) Potatoes (7 cents.) Baltimore butter pie (No. 577 increased — 3 large, deep, 40 cents.) ^ Raisins, nuts, cheese, pickles, condi-, ments (average cost i cent each person 37 COOKING FOR PROFIT. all counted together, 25 cents.) Bread, butter (16 cents.. Milk, coffee, tea (30 cents.); Total, $2 77; 25 persons jovern-t^nts a plate. 571— Boiled Trout. When we have but a small' amount ^ of fish we boil it, because we fipd that "it goes further" that way than if baked or broiled; whether the reason be that it shrinks less or that there are fewer orders for it. Boiled fish ought not to be con- sidered inferior, for in no other way is the peculiar flavor of a fine fish so well preserved. It is always safe when the preferences of the people to be served are unknown, to boil a trout or salmon in water that is well salted and without other seasonings. At some other time you can try the addition of an onion stuck with four cloves, and half a cup of vinegar to the water, and perhaps a bayleaf and some parsley, besides the salt. Use a bri2;ht pan if yoia add vinegar, or the fish will be dark. As our summer boarders all come to the table at the same minute and want to be served instantly, we pre- pare the fish for dishing up by cutting it m portions half way through before boil- ing, being careful to sever the bone at each cut, which is easily done with the point of a large knife. Then the fish must not boil too long, nor too fast ; have the water boiling in a deep boiler, pan, or something roomy enough, drop in the fish and simmer not longer than half an hour. Drain off most of the water. Serve on small plates with the sauce at the side of the piece offish. 572— Takang Unwarrantable Liberties Whoever serves fish or meat to a num- ber of guests at a public house of whose tastes and preferences he can know noth- ing, takes unwarrantable liberties with their food if he covers it with a sauce be- tore sending it in. The sauce should be placed under or at the side of the cut. The salmon or the trout may be fine, firm, flaky, pink-fleshed, good to look at, and appetizing, but the_ sauce may be a dull paste, perhaps tasting of butter of a poor quality ; or, if of the very best quality when first made it may have become thick and stringy with waiting, or, it n^^y be a caper sauce, which the person ^does not like, or eggs, or tomato, or anchovy which many detest — why should the fish or meat be deluged with these peculiar flavors whether the recipient wishes it or not ? There is an answer — it is because that it is the custom of French cooks and so the directions read. I'.ut it never was in- tended for general application. One day I happened to be at the Lookover-the- Mountain House (by-the-Sea) when a large number of prominent townspeople were taking dinner there for some com- plimentary purpose concerning the ex- cellence of the table,'and the cook served the fish with wine sauce. The fish was of the finest ; probably it w^as well cooked; I but whether it was the wrong wine or no ] wine at all, but a substitute, the sauce ' was sweet ; it could hardly have been sweeter if it had been molasses ; it had the Parisienne potatoes in it saturated and dingy, and each portion of fish served was buried out of sight under a large spoonful of the mess. There are plenty of reasons why sauces may be bad in spite of skill and good intentions, but they are of small consequence in the houses where they are but poured at the side and not over the cut of meat or fish, because then a free choice is left to either take or leave, and the cook's sauce is placed upon its own merits. 573— Butter Sauce— Rest. 2 cups clear strained broth or water. ^^ poupd butter or more. 2 heaping tablespoons flour. Salt, if not enough in the butter

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