Sauces are a necessary addition to cooked foods, especially in cold weather. The proper utensils used for sauce making are wooden spoons and flat, round bottomed saucepans.
Good fresh butter, oil and dry flour are necessary to make nutritious sauces. Flour for thickening should boil at least ten minutes. If the flour is to be cooked with fat before the liquid is added, only a few minutes of boiling is necessary, for the reason that fat, when boiled, reaches a higher temperature than water or milk. Mixed flour is preferable to pure wheat flour. Sauces prepared from soup stock, vegetables or fruits and gelatines are a better addition to meats than brown gravies, which are prepared from the small amount of juice which is extracted from the meat by roasting. Sauces prepared in the latter way are too rich as a food if eaten in combination with meat; they are a perfect meal by themselves if eaten in combination with whole wheat bread and greens.
Melt three tablespoonsful of butter, or half butter and half oil, mix with two tablespoonsful of flour over the fire, and boil for a few seconds. Then add gradually a pint of boiling water or soup stock or hot whey, while stirring it. Boil a few minutes. Flavor with salt, onion, chopped parsley, celery, nutmeg, bay leaves, anchovy-paste, lemon, chopped salted meat or whatever flavor is desired. Serve with meat or fish.
Prepare like the foregoing. Use milk in place of water, or soup stock.
Prepare as number one, using strained tomato juice instead of water. Serve with meat, fish, or grains.
Prepare as number one, add capers and lemon before serving.
Prepare as number one, adding dried currants and grated horse radish at the last minute. This is excellent with boiled beef or fish.
Prepare as number one, adding two to four teaspoonsful of prepared mustard a minute before serving. Serve with hot or cold boiled beef, or with hard boiled eggs.
Prepare as number one, add the desired amount of dried mushrooms, which have been soaked in water for several hours, and boil for ten minutes. Serve with poultry, game or rice.
Prepare as number one; remove from the fire, add a few tablespoonsful of hot cream, or the yolk of one or several eggs, which have been diluted and stirred with a little cold water. Flavor with mace, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, lemon, or vanilla. Serve with macaroni, boiled fish, plum pudding, French toast, chipped beef, salted meat or boiled onions.
Thicken some water or soup stock with flour. Cook ten minutes, and add hot cream and flavoring.
Prepare with hot water as directed for butter sauce. Stir smooth a tablespoonful of almond butter or paste with two tablespoonsful of cold water, remove the sauce from the fire, add the almond butter and stir thoroughly. Serve with baked apples, rice, or bread.
Prepare as butter sauce. Soak some olives in warm water, remove the stones and add to the sauce, boiling all a few minutes. Serve with duck, game, fish or meat.
Soak the currants in boiling water, and let stand thirty minutes. Prepare a plain butter sauce from butter, flour, and hot water, and when done mix the currants with it. It can be prepared with soup stock or fish-water, and served with boiled white fish or boiled beef.
Cut some bacon into pieces about the size of lump sugar. Fry until brown. Pour the fat into a stone jar and put the bacon on a plate. Mix a tablespoonful of the bacon fat and one of butter with a tablespoonful of flour, and add hot water, whey, or soup stock. Flavor with chopped parsley or strained tomato juice and add the bacon.
Soups and sauces prepared with flour and water may be improved by an addition of left-over meat gravies or with crisp bacon and flavored with finely cut onions.
Wash half a handful of young fresh mint, pick the leaves from the stalks, and chop them very fine. Make a plain butter sauce with soup stock, and add vinegar and sugar to suit the taste. Then remove from the fire, mix with the chopped mint, and serve with lamb or mutton.
Wash a lemon, remove the peel and steep in three cups of water for fifteen minutes. Add the juice of one or two lemons and the necessary amount of sugar. Dissolve three teaspoonsful of cornstarch with a little cold water and stir into the lemon juice. Boil ten minutes. Remove from the fire and mix with a tablespoonful of butter while warm. The lemon rind can be grated and added to the sauce instead of boiling the rind. This is good for steamed puddings. The yolk of an egg may be added.
Remove the stones and steep the cherries in water with a stick of cinnamon. Add a little sugar and thicken with cornstarch or arrowroot. Strain or leave the cherries in it.
Soak the cherries and prepare as the foregoing. Strain, if desired.
Mix a teaspoonful of flour with two tablespoonsful of sugar, a little cinnamon, and ten ounces of wine. Then beat up four eggs, mix with the wine and beat over a hot fire with an egg beater until it foams. (It must not boil.) Then pour into a large dish and beat until nearly cold. Serve with steamed puddings.
Prepare like white wine sauce. Add a little more sugar, and a teaspoonful of brandy, if desired.
They can be prepared from oil, butter, eggs, cream or nut butter. Dressings prepared from nut butter are especially good during the summer months. They can be prepared by making a plain butter sauce with flour and water, and adding nut butter before serving, or by diluting nut butter with water to the desired consistency. They may be flavored with orange or lemon juice. If a sweet flavor is desired, boil a little water with sugar, then add the juice of lemon or oranges and mix with nut butter. Serve hot or cold.
Mix three tablespoonsful of olive oil with one of vinegar, or with the juice of one lemon and one grated onion. To this may be added sugar, pepper, salt, parsley or mustard, if desired. The proportion of oil and vinegar may be changed according to the taste. For fruit salads, lemon should always be used instead of vinegar. For raw vegetables, the dressing should not be poured over the salad until ready to serve.
Put into a high narrow bowl the yolk of an egg and one whole egg, a tablespoonful of flour, one of olive oil, one of vinegar, and a little mustard; beat with an egg-beater about five minutes, or until it becomes thick, adding slowly one cup of cottonseed or olive oil while beating it. Flavor with lemon juice, onion and salt, to suit the taste. Keep on ice.
Stir one or several yolks of eggs and mustard with a fork on a soup plate for several minutes. Slowly add some olive oil, and if it becomes too thick, add lemon juice, then salt, sugar and onion, if desired. Keep on ice.
Make dressing number two. Add salt and sugar to suit the taste, and one cup of thick cream. Keep on ice.
Take the yolks of three hard boiled eggs and one raw yolk. Stir as smooth as butter, with one teaspoonful of mustard, one of sugar, one of grated onion, a little salt and pepper, the juice of a lemon or some good vinegar, then add slowly one-half or one cupful of olive oil. If the dressing is too thick add some cold veal jelly until it has the right consistency. Keep on ice.
Grate one medium sized cold boiled potato, stir one or two hard boiled eggs through a strainer and mix with the potato. Add the yolk of one or more eggs, stir well, then slowly add some olive oil, mix with lemon juice or vinegar, and flavor.
Cream one-fourth of a pound of butter, add the yolk of one raw egg, and the finely grated yolks of two hard boiled eggs. Mix well, and add finely chopped parsley, onion, a little mace and some lemon juice. Serve with cold meat or fish, or spread on bread.
Prepare butter and eggs as directed in number six, adding finely chopped boiled ham, sardellen, anchovies or well soaked salt herring. Eat with cold meat, or spread on bread.
Mix two tablespoonsful of flour with five yolks of eggs, then add a half cup of butter or a cup of cream, a little salt and pepper, (sugar if desired), three to four tablespoonsful of vinegar and one to two cups of soup stock. Pour into a double boiler and stir over a hot fire until thick, then remove and stir until cool. Finely chopped parsley, capers, pickles, or olives may be added. If lemon is desired, use half the amount of vinegar while boiling, and add the lemon juice after it has been removed from the fire.
Boil a small veal bone in three or four pints of water, adding salt, several onions, whole pepper and some spiced herbs. When, nearly done, add three to six tablespoonsful of good vinegar, strain and add the yolks of several eggs. Stir until cool, and place on ice. Serve with cold fish or meat. If the sweet-sour taste is liked, a little sugar may be added to the broth while boiling. Ripe olives are also a good addition.
Add the juice of one lemon, orange, or grapefruit, to one-half cup of maple or table syrup. Mix well and serve with pancakes. This is more nourishing and wholesome than pure sweets. Do not prepare more than enough for one meal at a time.
Let a half cup of syrup and a small tablespoonful of vinegar come to a boil. Add one finely chopped onion. Remove from the fire and cool, adding the desired amount of oil, and mixing well. This is good for lettuce and watercress. Serve with pancakes, meats, fish, or baked rolled oats, or with rye or wheat. If lemons or oranges are used in place of vinegar, do not allow the latter to boil. Prepare fresh for each meal. Do not use vinegar or onions with fancy fruits.