Nut butter is an excellent substitute for meat essence in gravies, stocks, and sauces. It should be used in the proportion of one tablespoonful to one quart of water.
Heat a pint of thin cream; when boiling add a tablespoonful of flour, browned in the oven and rubbed to a smooth paste with a little cold milk; salt to taste; cook thoroughly for ten minutes; then add one cupful of hot, stewed, strained tomato. Beat thoroughly.
Melt one tablespoonful butter, add one tablespoonful of chopped onion, fry until delicate brown; then add one tablespoonful of flour; gradually pour in one cupful of clear soup stock and one half cupful of strained juice of tomato. Season to taste, and cook until it thickens. Nut or dairy butter may be used.
Put one half can of tomatoes, one cupful of water, two cloves, two allspice berries, two pepper corns, two sprigs of parsley, one teaspoonful of mixed herbs, over to boil in granite saucepan; fry one tablespoonful of chopped onion in one tablespoonful of butter till a delicate brown; then add tomato mixture and one heaping tablespoonful of corn starch that has been dissolved in cold water. Simmer ten minutes, add one half teaspoonful of salt, and one half saltspoonful of pepper, add a dash of cayenne, if liked. Strain.
To one pint of milk add one heaping tablespoonful of flour blended with one tablespoonful of melted butter; boil until it thickens, salt to taste, add one half cupful of cream. If too thick, thin with hot milk.
Flavor white sauce by adding grated cheese, and stir until the cheese is quite melted.
To four ounces of butter add the well beaten yolks of three eggs, a teaspoonful of flour, a dessertspoonful of lemon juice and salt to taste; put in double boiler and stir gently until it thickens; do not let it boil or it will curdle. This sauce is very nice with asparagus or cauliflower.
One half cupful of butter, rubbed well with two tablespoonfuls of flour; put into saucepan with about one pint of boiling water, stir constantly until well melted. Add one tablespoonful of chopped parsley.
Season a cupful of flour with pepper, nutmeg, and cloves. Mix it with water into a thin paste, and work in a piece of butter about the size of an egg. Put the paste into a pan over the fire, and boil it for a quarter of an hour, then take it off, and add some fresh butter in small portions at a time, continually stirring the contents, to prevent the butter from rising to the surface. Afterwards add lemon juice to flavor, and mix thoroughly. This sauce may be used with almost any vegetable. Another way of making butter sauce sometimes called oiled butter, which is generally liked, is to take as much fresh butter as will be wanted, and melt it, but do not let it brown. Skim it, pour it out, let it rest a minute, then drain it from the curd at the bottom, and serve.
Take one bay leaf, and a teaspoonful of chopped onion and simmer fifteen minutes in one pint of water. Brown two tablespoonfuls of flour. Put one heaping tablespoonful of butter in frying-pan, melt, browning slightly, add flour, then the strained water that is flavored with onion and bay leaf; let boil, if too thick add more hot water. Salt and pepper to taste.