CHAPTER VI.

=Cold Sauces, Salads, etc.= SUPERIOR MINT-SAUCE. (_To serve with lamb._) THE mint for this sauce should be fresh and young, for when old it is tough and indigestible. Strip the leaves from the stems, wash them with great nicety, and drain them on a sieve, or dry them in a cloth; chop them very fine, put them into a sauce-tureen, and to three heaped tablespoonsful of the mint add two of pounded sugar; let them remain a short time well mixed together, then pour to them gradually six tablespoonsful of good vinegar. The sauce thus made is excellent, and far more wholesome than when a larger proportion of vinegar and a smaller one of sugar is used for it; but, after the first trial, the proportions can easily be adapted to the taste of the eaters. COMMON MINT-SAUCE. Two tablespoonsful of mint, one _large_ tablespoonful of pale brown sugar, well mixed together, and a quarter of a pint of vinegar, stirred until the sugar is entirely dissolved. STRAINED MINT SAUCE. Persons with whom the mint in substance disagrees can have the flavour of the herb without it, by mixing the ingredients of either of the preceding receipts, and straining the sauce after it has stood for two or three hours; the mint should be well pressed when this is done. The flavour will be the more readily extracted if the mint and sugar are well mixed, and left for a time before the vinegar is added. FINE HORSERADISH SAUCE. (_To serve with cold, roast, stewed, or boiled beef._) The root for this excellent sauce should be young and tender, and grated down on a very fine bright grater, quite to a pulp, after it has been washed, wiped, and scraped free from the outer skin. We have given the proportions for it in the preceding chapter, but repeat them here. Horseradish, 2 heaped tablespoonsful; salt, 1 moderate teaspoonful; rich cream, 4 tablespoonsful; good vinegar, 3 dessertspoonsful (of which one may be chili vinegar when the root is mild.) When the other ingredients are smoothly mingled, the vinegar must be stirred briskly to them in very small portions. A few drops of garlic or shalot vinegar can be added to them when it is liked. COLD MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL, OR STEWARD’S SAUCE. Work well together until they are perfectly blended, two or three ounces of good butter, some pepper, salt, minced parsley, and the strained juice of a sound lemon of moderate size. The sauce thus prepared is often put into broiled fish; and laid in the dish _under_ broiled kidneys, beef-steaks, and other meat. For 2 oz. butter, 1 _heaped_ teaspoonful young minced parsley; juice of 1 lemon; 1 small saltspoonful salt; seasoning of white pepper. _Obs._—The proportion of parsley may be doubled when a larger quantity is liked: a little fine cayenne would often be preferred to the pepper. COLD DUTCH OR AMERICAN SAUCE, FOR SALADS OF DRESSED VEGETABLES, SALT FISH, OR HARD EGGS. Put into a saucepan three ounces of good butter very smoothly blended with a quite small teaspoonful of flour, and add to them a large wineglassful of cold water, half as much sharp vinegar (or very fresh, strained, lemon-juice) a saltspoonful of salt, and half as much cayenne in fine powder. Keep these shaken briskly round, or stirred over a clear fire, until they form a smooth sauce and boil rapidly; then stir them very quickly to the beaten yolks of four fresh eggs, which will immediately give the sauce the consistence of custard; pour it hot over the salad, and place it on ice, or in a very cool larder until it is quite cold: if properly made, it will be very thick and smooth, and slightly _set_, as if it contained a small portion of isinglass. A dessertspoonful of parsley,—or of tarragon,—can be mingled with it at _pleasure_, or any flavour given to it with store-sauces which is liked. It converts flakes of salt-fish, sliced potatoes (new or old), and hard eggs, into excellent salads. ENGLISH SAUCE FOR SALAD, COLD MEAT, OR COLD FISH. The first essential for a smooth, well-made English salad dressing is to have the yolks of the eggs used for it sufficiently hard to be reduced easily to a perfect paste. They should be boiled at least fifteen minutes, and should have become _quite_ cold before they are taken from the shells; they should also be well covered with water when they are cooked, or some parts of them will be tough, and will spoil the appearance of the sauce by rendering it lumpy, unless they be worked through a sieve, a process which is always better avoided if possible. To a couple of yolks broken up and mashed to a paste with the back of a wooden spoon, add a small saltspoonful of salt, a large one of pounded sugar, a few grains of fine cayenne, and a teaspoonful of cold water; mix these well, and stir to them by degrees a quarter of a pint of sweet cream; throw in next, stirring the sauce briskly, a tablespoonful of strong chili vinegar, and add as much common or French vinegar as will acidulate the mixture agreeably. A tablespoonful of either will be sufficient for many tastes, but it is easy to increase the proportion when more is liked. Six tablespoonsful of olive oil, of the purest quality, may be substituted for the cream: it should be added in very small portions to the other ingredients, and stirred briskly as each is added until the sauce resembles custard. When this is used, the water should be omitted. The piquancy of this preparation—which is very delicate, made by the directions just given—may be heightened by the addition of a little eschalot vinegar, Harvey’s sauce, essence of anchovies, French mustard, or tarragon vinegar; or by bruising with the eggs a morsel of garlic, half the size of a hazel-nut: it should always, however, be rendered as appropriate as may be to the dish with which it is to be served. _Obs. 1._—As we have before had occasion to remark, garlic, when very sparingly and judiciously used, imparts a remarkably fine savour to a sauce or gravy, and neither a strong nor a coarse one, as it does when used in larger quantities. The veriest morsel (or, as the French call it, a mere _soupçon_) of the root, is sufficient to give this agreeable piquancy, but unless the proportion be extremely small, the effect will be quite different. The Italians dress their salads upon a round of delicately toasted bread, which is rubbed with garlic, saturated with oil, and sprinkled with cayenne, before it is laid into the bowl: they also eat the bread thus prepared, but with less of oil, and untoasted often, before their meals, as a digester. _Obs. 2._—French vinegar is so infinitely superior to English in strength, purity, and flavour, that we cannot forbear to recommend it in preference for the use of the table. We have for a long time past been supplied with some of most excellent quality (labelled _Vinaigre de Bordeaux_) imported by the Messrs. Kent & Sons, of Upton-on-Severn, who supply it largely, we believe, both to wholesale and retail venders in town and country. THE POET’S RECEIPT FOR SALAD.[60] Footnote 60: _Note._—This receipt, though long privately circulated amongst the friends and acquaintance of its distinguished and regretted author, now (with permission) appears for the first time in print. We could not venture to deviate by a word from the original, but we would suggest, that the mixture forms almost a substitute for salad, instead of a mere dressing. It is, however, an admirable compound for those to whom the slight flavouring of onion is not an objection. “Two large potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve Unwonted softness to the salad give; Of mordent mustard, add a single spoon, Distrust the condiment which bites so soon; But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault, To add a double quantity of salt; Three times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown, And once with vinegar, procured from town; True flavour needs it, and your poet begs The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs; Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl, And, scarce suspected, animate the whole; And lastly, in the flavoured compound toss A magic teaspoon of anchovy sauce: Then, though green turtle fail, though venison’s tough, And ham and turkey are not boiled enough, Serenely full, the epicure may say— Fate cannot harm me,—I have dined to-day.” Two well-boiled potatoes, passed through a sieve; a teaspoonful of mustard; two teaspoonsful of salt; one of essence of anchovy; about a quarter of a teaspoonful of very finely-chopped onions, well bruised into the mixture; three tablespoonsful of oil; one of vinegar; the yolks of two eggs, hard boiled. Stir up the salad immediately before dinner, and stir it up thoroughly. N.B.—As this salad is the result of great experience and reflection, it is hoped young salad makers will not attempt to make any improvements upon it. SAUCE MAYONNAISE. (_For salads, cold meat, poultry, fish, or vegetables._) This is a very fine sauce when all the ingredients used for it are good; but it will prove an uneatable compound to a delicate taste unless it be made with oil of the purest quality. Put into a large basin the yolks only of two very fresh eggs, carefully freed from specks, with a little salt and cayenne; stir these well together, then add about a teaspoonful of the purest salad oil, and work the mixture round with a wooden spoon until it appears like cream. Pour in by slow degrees nearly half a pint of oil, continuing at each interval to work the sauce as at first until it resumes the smoothness of cream, and not a particle of the oil remains visible; then add a couple of tablespoonsful of plain French or of tarragon vinegar, and one of cold water to whiten the sauce. A bit of clear veal jelly the size of an egg will improve it greatly. The reader who may have a prejudice against the unboiled eggs which enter into the composition of the Mayonnaise, will find that the most fastidious taste would not detect their being raw, if the sauce be well made; and persons who dislike oil may partake of it in this form, without being aware of its presence, provided always that it be perfectly fresh, and pure in flavour, for otherwise it will be easily perceptible. Yolks of fresh unboiled eggs, 2; salt, 1/2 saltspoonful, or rather more; cayenne; oil, full third of pint; French or tarragon vinegar, 2 tablespoonsful; cold water, 1 tablespoonful; meat jelly (if at hand), size of an egg. RED OR GREEN MAYONNAISE SAUCE. Colour may be given either to the preceding or to the following _Sauce Mayonnaise_ by mingling with it some hard lobster-coral reduced to powder by rubbing it through a very fine hair-sieve: the red hue of this is one of the most brilliant and beautiful that can be seen, but the sauce for which it is used can only be appropriately served with fish or fish-salads. Spinach-green will impart a fine tint to any preparation, but its flavour is objectionable: that of parsley-green is more agreeable. Directions for both of these are contained in the previous chapter. IMPERIAL MAYONNAISE. (_An elegant jellied sauce, or salad-dressing._) Put into a bowl half a pint of aspic, or of any very clear pale jellied stock (that made usually for good white soup will serve for the purpose excellently); add to it a couple of spoonsful of the purest olive-oil, one of sharp vinegar, and a little fine salt and cayenne. Break up the jelly quite small with the points of a whisk of osier-twigs, stir the ingredients well together, and then whisk them gently until they are converted into a smooth white sauce. This receipt was derived originally from an admirable French cook,[61] who stood _quite_ at the head of his profession; but as he was accustomed to purvey for the tables of kings and emperors, his directions require some curtailment and simplifying to adapt them to the resources of common English life. He directs the preparation to be mixed and worked—to use a technical expression—over _ice_, which cannot always be commanded, except in opulent establishments, and in large towns. It is not, however, essential to the success of this sauce, which will prove extremely good if made and kept in a cool larder; or, if the bowl in which it is mingled be placed in a pan of cold water, into which plenty of saltpetre and sal-ammoniac, roughly powdered, are thrown at the moment it is set into it. In this country a smaller proportion of oil, and a larger one of acid, are usually preferred to the common French salad-dressings, in which there is generally a very small portion of vinegar. To some tastes a spoonful or two of cream would improve the present Mayonnaise, which may be varied also with chili, tarragon, or other flavoured vinegar. It should be served heaped high in the centre of the salad, for which, if large, double the quantity directed _here_ should be prepared. Footnote 61: Monsieur Carême, to whose somewhat elaborate but admirable works, published thirty years or more since, all modern cooks appear to be specially indebted. REMOULADE. This differs little from an ordinary English salad-dressing. Pound very smoothly indeed the yolks of two or three hard-boiled eggs with a teaspoonful of mustard, half as much salt, and some cayenne, or white pepper. Mix gradually with them, working the whole well together, two or three tablespoonsful of oil and two of vinegar. Should the sauce be curdled, pour it by degrees to the yolk of a raw egg, stirring it well round as directed for the Mayonnaise. A spoonful of tarragon, cucumber, or eschalot-vinegar, may be added with very good effect; and to give it increased relish, a teaspoonful of cavice, or a little of Harvey’s sauce, and a dessertspoonful of chili vinegar may be thrown into it. This last is an excellent addition to all cold sauces, or salad-dressings. Hard yolks of 2 or of 3 eggs; mustard, 1 teaspoonful (more when liked); salt, 1/2 teaspoonful; pepper or cayenne; oil, 3 tablespoonsful; vinegar, 2. If curdled, yolk of 1 raw egg. Good additions: tarragon or eschalot, or cucumber-vinegar, 1 tablespoonful; chili vinegar, 1 dessertspoonful; cavice or Harvey’s sauce at pleasure. _Obs._—A dessertspoonful of eschalots, or a _morsel_ of garlic, very finely minced, are sometimes pounded with the yolks of eggs for this sauce. OXFORD BRAWN SAUCE. Mingle thoroughly a tablespoonful of brown sugar with a teaspoonful of made mustard, a third as much of salt, some pepper, from three to four tablespoonsful of very fine salad-oil, and two of strong vinegar; or apportion the same ingredients otherwise to the taste. FORCED EGGS FOR GARNISHING SALAD. Pound and press through the back of a hair-sieve the flesh of three very fine, or of four moderate-sized anchovies, freed from the bones and skin. Boil six fresh eggs for twelve minutes, and when they are perfectly cold, halve them lengthwise, take out the yolks, pound them to a paste with a third of their volume of fresh butter, then add the anchovies, a quarter of a teaspoonful of mace, and as much cayenne as will season the mixture well; beat these together thoroughly, and fill the whites of egg neatly with them. A _morsel_ of garlic, perfectly blended with the other ingredients, would to some tastes improve this preparation: a portion of anchovy-butter, or of potted ham, will supply the place of fish in it very advantageously. Eggs, 6; anchovies, 4; butter, size of 2 yolks; mace, 1/4 teaspoonful; cayenne, third as much. ANCHOVY BUTTER. (_Excellent._) Scrape the skin quite clear from a dozen fine mellow anchovies, free the flesh entirely from the bones, and pound it as smooth as possible in a mortar; rub it through the back of a hair-sieve with a wooden spoon; wipe out the mortar, and put back the anchovies with three quarters of a pound of very fresh butter, a small half-saltspoonful of cayenne, and more than twice as much of finely grated nutmeg, and freshly pounded mace; and beat them together until they are thoroughly blended. If to serve cold at table, mould the butter in small shapes, and turn it out. A little rose pink (which is sold at the chemists’) is sometimes used to give it a fine colour, but it must be sparingly used, or it will impart an unpleasant flavour, and we cannot much recommend its use: it should be well pounded, and very equally mixed with it. For kitchen use, press the butter down into jars or pattypans, and keep it in a cool place. Fine anchovies, 12; butter, 3/4 lb.; cayenne, small 1/2 saltspoonful; nutmeg and mace, each more than twice as much; rose pink (if used), 1/2 teaspoonful. This proportion differs from potted anchovies only in the larger proportion of butter mixed with the fish, and the milder seasoning of spice. It will assist to form an elegant dish if made into pats, and stamped with a tasteful impression, then placed alternately with pats of lobster-butter, and decorated with light foliage. It is generally eaten with much relish when carefully compounded, and makes excellent sandwiches. To convert it into a good fish sauce, mix two or three ounces of it with a teaspoonful of flour and a few spoonsful of cold water, or of pale veal stock, and keep them constantly stirred until they boil. The butter should not be moulded directly it is taken from the mortar, as it is then very soft from the beating. It should be placed until it is firm in a very cool place or over _ice_, when it can be done conveniently. LOBSTER BUTTER. Pound to the smoothest possible paste the coral of one or two fresh hen lobsters, mix with it about an equal proportion of fresh firm butter, and a moderate seasoning of mace and cayenne, with a little salt if needed. Let the whole be thoroughly blended, and set it aside in a cool larder, or place it over ice until it is sufficiently firm to be made into pats. Serve it garnished with curled parsley, or with any light foliage which will contrast well with its brilliant colour. The coral may be rubbed through a fine sieve before it is put into the mortar, and will then require but little pounding. An excellent preparation is produced by mingling equal proportions of lobster and of anchovy butter in the mortar, or one-third of the anchovy with two of lobster: to this some of the white flesh of the latter can be added to give another variety, after it has been prepared by the receipt for _boudirettes_, Chapter III. TRUFFLED BUTTER (AND TRUFFLES POTTED IN BUTTER.) (_For the breakfast or luncheon table._) Cut up a pound of sweet fresh butter, and dissolve it gently over a clear fire; take off the scum which will gather thickly upon it, and when it has simmered for three or four minutes, draw it from the fire, and let it stand until all the buttermilk has subsided; pour it softly from this upon six ounces of ready-pared sound French truffles, cut into small, but rather thick, slices, and laid into a delicately clean enamelled saucepan; add a full seasoning of freshly pounded mace and fine cayenne, a small saltspoonful of salt, and half a not large nutmeg. When the butter has become quite cold, proceed to heat the truffles slowly, shaking the saucepan often briskly round, and stew them as gently as possible for twenty minutes, or longer should they not then be very tender. If allowed to heat, and to boil quickly, they will become _hard_, and the preparation, as regards the _truffles_, will be a comparative failure. Lift them with a spoon into quite dry earthen or china pans, and pour the butter on them; or add to them sufficient of it only to cover them well and to exclude the air, and pot the remainder of the butter apart: it will be finely flavoured, and may be eaten by delicate persons to whom the truffle itself would be injurious. It may also be used in compounding savoury sauces, and for moistening small _croustades_ before they are fried or baked. The truffles themselves will remain good for months when thus prepared, if kept free from damp; and in flavour they will be found excellent. The parings taken from them will also impart a very agreeable savour to the butter, and will serve extremely well for it for immediate use. They will also be valuable as additions to gravies or to soups. We should observe, that the juice which will have exuded from the truffles in the stewing will cause the preparation to become mouldy, or otherwise injure it, if it be put into the pans either with them or with the butter. The truffles must be well drained from it when they are taken from the saucepan, and the butter must remain undisturbed for a few minutes, when it can be poured clear from the juice, which will have subsided to the bottom of the pan. We have given here the result of our first experiment, which we found on further trial to answer perfectly. ENGLISH SALADS. The herbs and vegetables for a salad cannot be too freshly gathered; they should be carefully cleared from insects and washed with scrupulous nicety; they are better when not prepared until near the time of sending them to table, and should not be sauced until the instant before they are served. Tender lettuces, of which the stems should be cut off, and the outer leaves be stripped away, mustard and cress, young radishes, and occasionally chives or small green onions (when the taste of a party is in favour of these last) are the usual ingredients of summer salads. (In early spring, as we have stated in another chapter, the young white leaves of the dandelion will supply a very wholesome and excellent salad, of which the slight bitterness is to many persons as agreeable as that of the endive.) Half-grown cucumbers sliced thin, and mixed with them, are a favourite addition with many persons. In England it is customary to cut the lettuces extremely fine; the French, who object to the _flavour of the knife_, which they fancy this mode imparts, break them small instead. Young celery alone, sliced and dressed with a rich salad mixture, is excellent: it is still in some families served thus always with roast pheasants. Beet-root, baked or boiled, blanched endive, small salad-herbs which are easily raised at any time of the year, celery, and hardy lettuces, with any ready-dressed vegetable, will supply salads through the winter. Cucumber vinegar is an agreeable addition to these. FRENCH SALAD. In winter this is made principally of beautifully-blanched endive, washed delicately clean and broken into small branches with the fingers, then taken from the water and shaken dry in a basket of peculiar form, appropriated to the purpose,[62] or in a fine cloth; then arranged in the salad bowl, and strewed with herbs (tarragon generally, when in season) minced small: the dressing is not added until just before the salad is eaten. In summer, young lettuces are substituted for the endive, and intermixed with a variety of herbs, some of which are not generally cultivated in England. Footnote 62: Salad-baskets are also to be found in many good English kitchens, but they are not in such general use here as on the continent. FRENCH SALAD DRESSING. Stir a saltspoonful of salt and half as much pepper into a large spoonful of oil, and when the salt is dissolved, mix with them four additional spoonsful of oil, and pour the whole over the salad; let it be _well_ turned, and then add a couple of spoonsful of tarragon vinegar; mix the whole thoroughly, and serve it without delay. The salad should not be dressed in this way until the instant before it is wanted for table: the proportions of salt and pepper can be increased at pleasure, and common or cucumber vinegar may be substituted for the tarragon, which, however, is more frequently used in France than any other. Salt, 1 spoonful: pepper, 1/2 as much; oil, 5 saladspoonsful; tarragon, or other vinegar, 2 spoonsful. DES CERNEAUX, OR WALNUT SALAD. This is a common summer salad in France, where the growth of walnuts is generally abundant, but is not much served in England; though the sweet flavour of the just-formed nut is very agreeable. Take the walnuts when a pin will pierce them _easily_, pare them down to the kernels, and toss them gently, just before they are served, in a French or English salad-dressing (the former would generally be preferred we think), and turn them into the salad-bowl for table. SUFFOLK SALAD. Fill a salad-bowl from half to three parts full with very tender lettuces shred small, minced lean of ham, and hard-boiled eggs, or their yolks only also minced, placed in alternate layers; dress the mixture with English salad sauce, but do not pour it into the bowl until the instant of serving. A portion of cold chicken (or veal), cut in thin slices about the size of a shilling, may be added when convenient; the ham and eggs also may be sliced instead of being minced, and the whole neatly arranged in a chain or otherwise round the inside of the bowl. YORKSHIRE PLOUGHMAN’S SALAD. Mix treacle and vinegar, in the proportion of one tablespoonful of the first to two of the latter; add a little black pepper, and eat the sauce with lettuces shred small (with an intermixture of young onions when they are liked). AN EXCELLENT SALAD OF YOUNG VEGETABLES. Pare off the coarse, fibrous parts from four or five artichoke bottoms, boiled quite tender, well drained, and freed carefully from the insides; cut them into quarters, and lay them into the salad-bowl; arrange over them some cold new potatoes and young carrots sliced moderately thin, strew minced tarragon, chervil, or any other herbs which may be better liked, thickly over the surface, and sauce the salad with an English or French dressing just before it is sent to table. Very young French beans cut into short lozenge-shaped lengths, or asparagus points, can be added to this dish at pleasure; or small tufts of cauliflower may be placed round it. When these additions are made, the herbs are better omitted: a little of the liquor of pickled Indian mangoes may be advantageously mixed with the sauce for this salad, or in lieu of it some chili vinegar or cayenne pepper. The Dutch or American sauce of the previous pages would also make an appropriate dressing for it. SORREL SALAD. (_To serve with Lamb-cutlets, Veal cutlets, or Roast Lamb_.) This, though a very agreeable and refreshing salad, is not to be recommended when there is the slightest tendency to disorder of the system; for the powerful acid of the uncooked sorrel might in that case produce serious consequences.[63] Footnote 63: It should be especially avoided when dysentery, or other diseases of a similar nature, are prevalent. We mention this, because if more general precaution were observed with regard to diet, great suffering would, in many instances, be avoided. Take from the stems some very young tender sorrel, wash it delicately clean, drain it well, and shake it dry in a salad-basket, or in a soft cloth held by the four corners; arrange it lightly in the bowl, and at the instant of serving, sauce it simply with the preceding French dressing of oil with a small portion of vinegar, or with a _Mayonnaise_ mixed with _chili_ instead of a milder vinegar. The sorrel may be divided with the fingers and mingled with an equal proportion of very tender lettuces; and, when it is not objected to,[64] mixed tarragon may be strewed thickly upon them. To some tastes a _small_ quantity of green onions or of eschalots would be more agreeable. Footnote 64: The peculiar flavour of this fine aromatic herb is less generally relished in England than in many other countries; but when it is not disliked it may be used with great advantage in our cookery: it is easily cultivated, and quite deserves a nook in every kitchen-garden. LOBSTER SALAD. First, prepare a sauce with the coral of a hen lobster, pounded and rubbed through a sieve, and very gradually mixed with a good _mayonnaise_, _remoulade_, or English salad-dressing of the present chapter. Next, half fill the bowl or more with small salad herbs, or with young lettuces finely shred, and arrange upon them spirally, or in a chain, alternate slices of the flesh of a large lobster, or of two middling-sized ones, and some hard-boiled eggs cut thin and evenly. Leave a space in the centre, pour in the sauce, heap lightly some small salad on the top, and send the dish immediately to table. The coral of a second lobster may be intermingled with the white flesh of the fish with very good effect; and the forced eggs of page 137 may be placed at intervals round the edge of the bowl as a decoration, and an excellent accompaniment as well. Another mode of making the salad is to lay the split bodies of the fish round the bowl, and the claws, freed carefully from the shells, arranged high in the centre on the herbs; the soft part of the bodies may be mixed with the sauce when it is liked; but the colour will not then be good. _Obs._—The addition of cucumber in ribbons (see Author’s Receipt,