CHAPTER VII.

=Store Sauces.= [Illustration: Mushrooms, Eschalots, and Tomatas. ] OBSERVATIONS. A WELL selected stock of these will always prove a convenient resource in simple cookery for giving colour and flavour to soups, gravies, and made dishes; but unless the consumption be considerable, they should not be over-abundantly provided, as few of them are improved by age, and many are altogether spoiled by long keeping, especially if they be not perfectly secured from the air by sound corking, or if stored where there is the slightest degree of damp. To prevent loss, they should be examined at short intervals, and at the first appearance of mould or fermentation, such as will bear the process should be reboiled, and put, when again quite cold, into clean bottles; a precaution often especially needful for mushroom catsup when it has been made in a wet season, or when it has not been very carefully prepared. This, with essence of anchovies, walnut catsup, Harvey’s sauce, cavice, lemon-pickle, chili, cucumber, and eschalot vinegar, will be all that is commonly needed for family use; but there is at the present day an extensive choice of these stores on sale, some of which are excellent. CHETNEY SAUCE. (_Bengal Receipt_). [Illustration: Garlic. ] Stone four ounces of good raisins, and chop them small, with half a pound of crabs, sour apples, unripe bullaces,[66] or of any other hard acid fruit. Take four ounces of coarse brown sugar, two of powdered ginger, and the same quantity of salt and cayenne pepper; grind these ingredients separately in a mortar, as fine as possible; then pound the fruits well, and mix the spices with them, one by one; beat them together until they are perfectly blended, and add gradually as much vinegar as will make the sauce of the consistence of thick cream. Put it into bottles with an ounce of garlic, divided into cloves, and cork it tightly. Footnote 66: Hard acid fruit in a crude state is, we think, an ingredient not much to be recommended; and it is always better to deviate a little from “an approved receipt” than to endanger health by the use of ingredients of a questionable character. Gooseberries or tomatas, after being subjected to a moderate degree of heat, might be eaten with far less hazard. Stoned raisins, 4 oz.; crabs, or other acid fruit, 1/2 lb.; coarse sugar, 4 oz.; powdered ginger, 2 oz.; salt, 2 oz.; cayenne pepper, 2 oz.; garlic, 1 oz.; vinegar, enough to dilute it properly. _Obs._—This favourite oriental sauce is compounded in a great variety of ways; but some kind of acid fruit is essential to it. The mango is used in India; here gooseberries, while still hard and green, are sometimes used for it; and ripe red chilies and tomatas are mixed with the other ingredients. The sauce keeps better if it be exposed to a gentle degree of heat for a week or two, either by the side of the fire, or in a full southern aspect in the sun: the heat of a _very slow_ oven, in which it might be left for a night, would probably have a still better effect. In this case it must be put into a jar or bottles, and well secured from the air. Half a pound of gooseberries, or of these and tamarinds from the shell, and green apples mixed, and the same weight of salt, stoned raisins, brown sugar, powdered ginger, chilies, and garlic, with a pint and a half of vinegar, and the juice of three large lemons, will make another genuine Bengal chetney. FINE MUSHROOM CATSUP. One of the very best and most useful of store sauces is good _home-made_ mushroom catsup, which, if really well prepared, imparts an agreeable flavour to any soup or sauce with which it is mingled, and at the same time heightens the colour without imparting the “bitter sweetness” which the burnt sugar used as “browning” in clumsy cookery so often does. The catsup ought, in fact, to be rather the pure _essence of mushrooms_, made with so much salt and spice only as are required to preserve it for a year or longer, than the compound of mushroom-juice, anchovies, shalots, allspice, and other condiments of which it is commonly composed, especially for sale. _Directions to be observed in making and for keeping the catsup._—Let the mushrooms be collected when the weather is dry, for if gathered during, or immediately after rain, the catsup made with them will not keep well. Cut off the stalk-ends to which the earth adheres, before the mushrooms are broken up, and throw them aside, as they should never be used for the catsup. Reject also such of the flaps as are worm-eaten or decayed. Those which are too stale for use may be detected by the smell, which is very offensive. When the mushroom first opens, the underside is of a fine pale salmon colour; this changes soon to a sort of ashy-brown, which deepens almost to black as the mushroom passes from its maturity to a state of decay. As it yields a greater abundance of juice when it is fully ripe, it is usually taken in that state for these sauces; but catsup of fine and delicate flavour, though somewhat pale in colour, can be made even of mushroom-buttons if they be sliced up small and turned often in the liquid which will be speedily drawn from them by the application of salt; a rather smaller proportion of which should be mingled with them than is directed for the following receipt. Every thing used in preparing the catsup should be delicately clean and _very dry_. The bottles in which it is stored, after being dried in the usual way, should be laid into a cool oven for an hour or two before they are filled, to ensure their being free from the slightest degree of moisture, but they must be _quite cold_ before the catsup is poured into them. If the corks be sealed so as to exclude the air effectually, or if well-cleansed bits of bladder first dried, and then rendered flexible with a little spirit of any kind (spirits of wine is convenient for such purposes), be tied closely over them, and the bottles can be kept in a cool place free from damp, the catsup will remain good for a long time. MUSHROOM CATSUP. _Receipt_:—Break up small into a deep earthen pan, two gallons of large ripe mushroom-flaps, and strew amongst them three quarters of a pound of salt, reserving the larger portion of it for the top. Let them remain two days, and stir them gently with a wooden spoon often during the time; then turn them into a large stewpan or enamelled saucepan, heat them slowly, and simmer them for fifteen or twenty minutes. Strain the liquor closely from them without pressure; strain and measure it; put it into a very clean stewpan, and boil it quickly until it is reduced nearly half. For every quart allow half an ounce of black peppercorns and a drachm of mace; or, instead of the pepper, a quarter of a teaspoonful (ten grains) of _good_ cayenne; pour the catsup into a clean jug or jar, lay a folded cloth over it, and keep it in a cool place until the following day; pour it gently from the sediment, put into small bottles, cork them well, and rosin them down. A teaspoonful of salad oil may be poured into each bottle before it is corked, the better to exclude the air from the catsup. Mushrooms, 2 gallons; salt, 3/4 lb.; to macerate three or four days. To each quart of liquor, 1/2 oz. black pepper, or quarter of a teaspoonful of cayenne; and 1 drachm of mace: to be reduced nearly half. _Obs. 1._—Catsup made thus will not be too salt, nor will the flavour of the mushrooms be overpowered by that of the spices; of which a larger quantity, and a greater variety, can be used at will. We can, however, answer for the excellence of the present receipt from long experience of it. When the catsup is boiled down quite early in the day, it may be bottled the same night: it is necessary only, that it should _perfectly cold_ before this is done. _Obs. 2._—When the mushrooms are crushed, or mashed, as some authors direct, the liquor will necessarily be very thick; it is better to proceed as above, and then to boil the liquor which may afterwards be extracted from the mushrooms by pressure, with the sediment of the catsup, and sufficient cloves, pepper, allspice, and ginger, to flavour it highly: this _second_ catsup will be found very useful to mix with common thickened sauces, hashes, and stews. MUSHROOM CATSUP. (_Another Receipt._) Break a peck of large mushrooms into a deep earthenpan; strew three quarters of a pound of salt amongst them, and set them into a very cool oven for one night, with a fold of cloth or paper over them. The following day strain off the liquor, measure, and boil it for fifteen minutes; then, for each quart, add an ounce of black pepper, a quarter of an ounce of allspice, half an ounce of ginger, and two large blades of mace, and let it boil fast for twenty minutes longer. When thoroughly cold, put it into bottles, cork them well, and dip the necks into melted bottle-cement, or seal them so as to secure the catsup from the air. Mushrooms, 1 peck; salt, 3/4 lb. Liquor to boil, 15 minutes. To each quart, 1/2 oz. black pepper; 1/4 oz. allspice; 1/2 oz. ginger; 2 blades mace: 20 minutes. DOUBLE MUSHROOM CATSUP. On a gallon of fresh mushrooms strew three ounces of salt, and pour to them a quart of ready-made catsup (that which is a year old will do if it be perfectly good); keep these stirred occasionally for four days, then drain the liquor very dry from the mushrooms, and boil it for fifteen minutes with an ounce of whole black pepper, a drachm of mace, an ounce of ginger, and three or four grains only of cayenne. Mushrooms, 1 gallon; salt, 3 oz.; mushroom catsup, 1 quart; peppercorns, 1 oz.; mace, 1 drachm; ginger, 1 oz.; cayenne, 3 to 4 grains: 15 minutes. COMPOUND, OR COOK’S CATSUP. Take a pint and a half of mushroom catsup when it is first made, and ready boiled (the double is best for the purpose), simmer in it for five minutes an ounce of small eschalots nicely peeled; add to these half a pint of walnut catsup, and a wineglassful of cayenne vinegar, or of chili vinegar; give the whole one boil, pour it out, and when cold, bottle it with the eschalots in it. Mushroom catsup, 1-1/2 pint; eschalots, 1 oz.; walnut catsup or pickle, 1/2 pint; cayenne or chili vinegar, 1 wineglassful. WALNUT CATSUP. The vinegar in which walnuts have been pickled, when they have remained in it a year, will generally answer all the purposes for which this catsup is required, particularly if it be drained from them and boiled for a few minutes, with a little additional spice, and a few eschalots; but where the vinegar is objected to, it may be made either by boiling the expressed juice of young walnuts for an hour, with six ounces of fine anchovies, four ounces of eschalots, half an ounce of black pepper, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, and a drachm of mace, to every quart; or as follows:— Pound in a mortar a hundred young walnuts, strewing amongst them as they are done half a pound of salt; then pour to them a quart of strong vinegar, and let them stand until they have become quite black, keeping them stirred three or four times a day; next add a quart of strong old beer, and boil the whole together for ten minutes; strain it, and let it remain until the next day; then pour it off clear from the sediment, add to it half a pound of anchovies, one large head of garlic bruised, half an ounce of nutmegs bruised, the same quantity of cloves and black pepper, and two drachms of mace: boil these together for half an hour, and the following day bottle and cork the catsup well. It will keep for a dozen years. Many persons add to it, before it is boiled, a bottle of port wine; and others recommend a large bunch of sweet herbs to be put in with the spice. 1st Recipe. Expressed juice of walnuts, 1 quart; anchovies, 6 oz.; eschalots, 4 oz.; black pepper, 1/2 oz.; cloves, 1/4 oz.; mace, 1 drachm: 1 hour. 2nd. Walnuts, 100; salt, 1/2 lb.; vinegar, 1 quart; to stand till black. Strong beer, 1 quart; anchovies, 1/2 lb.; 1 head garlic; nutmegs, 1/2 oz.; cloves, 1/2 oz.; black pepper, 1/2 oz.; mace, 2 drachms: 1/2 hour. ANOTHER GOOD RECEIPT FOR WALNUT CATSUP. Beat a hundred green walnuts in a large marble mortar until they are thoroughly bruised and broken, and then put them into a stone jar, with half a pound of eschalots, cut in slices, one head of garlic, half a pound of salt, and two quarts of vinegar; let them stand for ten days, and stir them night and morning. Strain off the liquor, and boil it for half an hour with the addition of two ounces of anchovies, two of whole pepper, half an ounce of cloves, and two drachms of mace; skim it well, strain it off, and when it is quite cold pour it gently from the sediment (which may be reserved for flavouring common sauces) into small dry bottles, secure it from air by sound corking, and store it in a dry place. Walnuts, 100; eschalots, 1/2 lb.; garlic, 1 head, salt, 1/2 lb.; vinegar, 2 quarts: 10 days. Anchovies, 2 oz.; black pepper, 2 oz.; mace, 1/4 oz.; cloves, 1/2 oz.: 1/2 hour. LEMON PICKLE OR CATSUP. Either divide six small lemons into quarters, remove all the pips that are in sight, and strew three ounces of salt upon them, and keep them turned in it for a week, or, merely make deep incisions in them, and proceed as directed for pickled lemons. When they have stood in a warm place for eight days, put into a stone jar two ounces and a half of finely-scraped horseradish, and two ounces of eschalots, or one and a half of garlic; to these add the lemons with all their liquor, and pour on them a pint and a half of boiling vinegar in which half an ounce of bruised ginger, a quarter of an ounce of whole white pepper, and two blades of mace have been simmered for two or three minutes. The pickle will be fit for use in two or three months, but may stand four or five before it is strained off. Small lemons, 6; salt, 3 oz.: 8 days. Horseradish, 2-1/2 oz.; eschalots, 2 oz., or garlic 1-1/2 oz.; vinegar, 1-1/2 pint; ginger, 1/2 oz.; whole white pepper, 1/4 oz.; mace, 2 blades: 3 to 6 months. _Obs._—These highly-flavoured compounds are still much in favour with a certain class of housekeepers; but they belong exclusively to _English_ cookery: they are altogether opposed to the practice of the French _cuisine_, as well as to that of other foreign countries. PONTAC CATSUP FOR FISH. On one pint of ripe elderberries stripped from the stalks, pour three quarters of a pint of boiling vinegar, and let it stand in a cool oven all night; the next day strain off the liquid without pressure, and boil it for five minutes with a half-teaspoonful of salt, a small race of ginger, a blade of mace, forty corns of pepper, twelve cloves and four eschalots. Bottle it with the spice when it is quite cold. BOTTLED TOMATAS, OR TOMATA CATSUP. Cut half a peck of ripe tomatas into quarters; lay them on dishes and sprinkle over them half a pound of salt. The next day drain the juice from them through a hair-sieve into a stewpan, and boil it for half an hour with three dozens of small capsicums and half a pound of eschalots; then add the tomatas, which should be ready pulped through a strainer. Boil the whole for thirty minutes longer; have some clean wide-necked bottles, kept warm by the fire, fill them with the catsup while it is quite hot; cork, and dip the necks into melted bottle-resin or cement. Tomatas, 1/2 peck; salt, 1/2 lb.; capsicums, 3 doz.; eschalots, 1/2 lb.: 1/2 hour. After pulp is added, 1/2 hour. _Obs._—This receipt has been kindly contributed by a person who makes by it every year large quantities of the catsup, which is considered excellent: for sauce it must be mixed with gravy or melted butter. We have not ourselves been able to make trial of it. EPICUREAN SAUCE. Mix well, by shaking them in a bottle, a wineglassful of Indian soy, half a pint of chili vinegar, half a pint of walnut catsup, and a pint and a half of the best mushroom catsup. These proportions make an excellent sauce, either to mix with melted butter, and to serve with fish, or to add to different kinds of gravy; but they can be varied, or added to, at pleasure. Indian soy, 1 wineglassful; chili vinegar, 1/2 pint; walnut catsup, 1/2 pint; mushroom catsup, 1-1/2 pint. TARRAGON VINEGAR. Gather the tarragon just before it blossoms, which will be late in July, or early in August; strip it from the larger stalks, and put it into small stone jars or wide-necked bottles, and in doing this twist some of the branches so as to bruise the leaves and wring them asunder; then pour in sufficient distilled or very pale vinegar to cover the tarragon; let it infuse for two months, or more: it will take no harm even by standing all the winter. When it is poured off, strain it very clear, put it into small dry bottles, and cork them well. Sweet basil vinegar is made in exactly the same way, but it should not be left on the leaves more than three weeks. The jars or bottles should be filled to the neck with the tarragon before the vinegar is added: its flavour is strong and peculiar, but to many tastes very agreeable. It imparts quite a foreign character to the dishes for which it is used. GREEN MINT VINEGAR. Slightly chop, or bruise, freshly-gathered mint, and put it into bottles; fill them nearly to the necks, and add vinegar as for tarragon: in forty days, strain it off, and bottle it for use. The mint itself, ready minced for sauce, will keep well in vinegar, though the colour will not be very good. The young leaves stripped from the stems, should be used for this preparation. CUCUMBER VINEGAR. First wipe, and then, without paring, slice into a stone jar some young and quickly-grown cucumbers; pour on them as much boiling vinegar as will cover them well, with a teaspoonful of salt, and two-thirds as much of peppercorns to the pint and a half of vinegar: it may remain on them for a month, or even for two, if well defended from the air: it should then be strained, allowed to settle, and poured quite clear into small dry bottles, which should be well corked. A mild onion can be intermixed with the cucumbers, when its flavour is considered an improvement. CELERY VINEGAR. Throw into a pint and a half of ready boiling vinegar a few grains of cayenne, or half an ounce of peppercorns, a large saltspoonful of salt, and a pint of the white part of the roots and stems of some fine fresh celery sliced up thin: let it boil for two or three minutes, turn it into a stone jar, and secure it well from the air as soon as it is cold. It may be strained off and bottled in three or four weeks, but may remain as many months in the jar without injury. ESCHALOT, OR GARLIC VINEGAR. On from four to six ounces of eschalots or on two of garlic peeled and bruised, pour a quart of the best vinegar; stop the jar or bottle close, and in a fortnight or three weeks the vinegar may be strained off for use: a few drops will give a sufficient flavour to a sauce, or to a tureen of gravy. Eschalots, 4 to 6 oz.; or, garlic, 2 to 4 oz.; vinegar, 1 quart: 15 to 21 days. _Obs._—These roots may be used in smaller or in larger proportion, as a slighter or a stronger flavour of them is desired, and may remain longer in the vinegar without any detriment to it. ESCHALOT WINE. This is a far more useful preparation even than the preceding one, since it can be used to impart the flavour of the eschalot to dishes for which acid is not required. Peel and slice, or bruise, four ounces of eschalots, put them into a bottle, and add to them a pint of sherry; in a fortnight pour off the wine, and should it not be strongly flavoured with the eschalots, steep in it two ounces more, for another fortnight; a half-teaspoonful of cayenne may be added at first. The bottle should be shaken occasionally, while the eschalots are infusing, but should remain undisturbed for the last two or three days, that the wine may be clear when it is poured off to bottle for keeping. Sweet-basil wine is made by steeping the fresh leaves of the herb in wine, from ten to fifteen days. Eschalots, 4 oz.; sherry, 1 pint: 15 days, or more. HORSERADISH VINEGAR. On four ounces of young and freshly-scraped horseradish pour a quart of boiling vinegar, and cover it down closely: it will be ready for use in three or four days, but may remain for weeks, or months, before the vinegar is poured off. An ounce of minced eschalot may be substituted for one of the horseradish, if the flavour be liked. CAYENNE VINEGAR. Put from a quarter to half an ounce of the best cayenne pepper into a bottle, and pour on it a pint of pale vinegar. Cork it closely, and shake it well every two or three days. It may remain any length of time before it is poured off, but will very soon be ready for use. Good cayenne pepper, 1/4 to 1/2 oz.; vinegar, 1 pint: infuse from 2 weeks to 12 months. LEMON BRANDY. (_For flavouring sweet dishes._) Fill any sized wide-necked bottle lightly with the very thin rinds of fresh lemons, and cover them with good brandy; let them remain for a fortnight or three weeks only, then strain off the spirit and keep it well corked for use: a few apricot-kernels blanched and infused with the lemon-rind will give it an agreeable flavour. DRIED MUSHROOMS. Peel small, sound, freshly-gathered flaps, cut off the stems, and scrape out the fur entirely; then arrange the mushrooms singly on tins or dishes, and dry them as gradually as possible in a gentle oven. Put them, when they are done, into tin canisters, and store them where they will be secure from damp. French cooks give them a single boil in water, from which they then are well drained, and dried, as usual. When wanted for table, they should be put into cold gravy, slowly heated, and gently simmered, until they are tender. MUSHROOM POWDER. When the mushrooms have been prepared with great nicety, and dried, as in the foregoing receipt, pound them to a very fine powder; sift it, and put it immediately into small and _perfectly dry_ bottles; cork and seal them without delay, for if the powder be long exposed to the air, so as to imbibe any humidity, or if it be not well secured from it in the bottles, it will be likely to become putrid: much of that which is purchased, even at the best Italian warehouses, is found to be so, and, as it is sold at a very high price, it is a great economy, as well as a surer plan, to have it carefully prepared at home. It is an exceedingly useful store, and an excellent addition to many dishes and sauces. To insure its being good, the mushrooms should be gathered in dry weather, and if any addition of spices be made to the powder (some persons mix with it a seasoning of mace and cayenne), they should be put into the oven for a while before they are used: but even these precautions will not be sufficient, unless the powder be stored in a very dry place after it is bottled. A teaspoonful of it, with a quarter of a pint of strong veal gravy, as much cream, and a small dessertspoonful of flour, will make a good _béchamel_ or white sauce. EXCELLENT POTATO FLOUR, OR ARROW-ROOT. (_Fecule de Pommes de terre._) Grate into a large vessel full of cold water, six pounds of sound mealy potatoes, and stir them well together. In six hours pour off the water, and add fresh, stirring the mixture well; repeat this process every three or four hours during the day, change the water at night, and the next morning pour it off; put two or three quarts more to the potatoes, and turn them directly into a hair-sieve, set over a pan to receive the flour, which may then be washed through the sieve, by pouring water to it. Let it settle in the pan, drain off the water, spread the potato-sediment on dishes, dry it in a slow oven, sift it, and put it into bottles or jars, and cork or cover them closely. The flour thus made will be beautifully white, and perfectly flavourless. It will remain good for years. _Obs._—This admirable farina, or _starch_ of potatoes, is now much more widely known and vended in England than it was some years since. It can at present be procured at most foreign warehouses and general grocers’; but we would recommend its being _home-made_ by the directions given above, which we have had closely followed for many years with the best possible success. TO MAKE FLOUR OF RICE. Take any quantity of whole rice, wash it thoroughly, changing the water several times; drain and press it in a cloth, then spread it on a dish, and dry it perfectly; beat it in a mortar to a smooth powder, and sift it through a fine sieve. When used to thicken soup or sauces, mix it with a small quantity of cold water or of broth, and pour it to them while they are boiling. This flour, when newly made, is of much purer flavour than any usually prepared for sale. POWDER OF SAVOURY HERBS. All herbs which are to be dried for storing should be gathered in fine weather; cleared from dirt and decayed leaves; and dried quickly, but without scorching, in a Dutch oven before the fire, or in any other that is not too much heated. The leaves should then be stripped from the stalks, pounded, sifted, and closely corked in separate bottles; or several kinds may be mixed and pounded together for the convenience of seasoning in an instant gravies, soups, forcemeats, and made dishes: appropriate spices, celery-seed, and dried lemon-peel, all in fine powder, can be added to the herbs. TARTAR MUSTARD. Rub four ounces of the best Durham mustard very smooth with a full teaspoonful of salt, and wet it by degrees with strong horseradish vinegar, a dessertspoonful of cayenne, or of chili vinegar, and one or two of tarragon vinegar when its flavour is not disliked. A quarter of a pint of vinegar poured boiling upon an ounce of scraped horseradish, and left for one night, closely covered, will be ready to use for this mustard, but it will be better for standing two or three days. Durham mustard, 4 oz.; salt, large teaspoonful; cayenne, or chili vinegar, 1 dessertspoonful; horseradish vinegar, third of pint. _Obs._—This is an exceedingly pungent compound, but has many approvers. ANOTHER TARTAR MUSTARD. Mix the salt and mustard smoothly, with equal parts of horseradish vinegar, and of chili vinegar. Mustard made by these receipts will keep long, if put into jars or bottles and closely corked. Cucumber, eschalot, or any other of the flavoured vinegars for which we have given receipts, may in turn be used for it, and mushroom, gherkin, or India pickle-liquor, likewise. ------------------------------------------------------------------------