Page:The English housekeeper, 6th.djvu/223

Rh of meat or poultry. Moisten with broth or water, and add a carrot, 3 onions, parsley, thyme, 2 bay leaves, and chopped mushrooms, if convenient. Let the meat heat through, without burning, and prick it, to let the juices flow. When the knuckle is sufficiently cooked for the table, take it out, let the stew-pan stand by the fire a few minutes, skim the fat off the sauce, strain, and boil it again till reduced to the quantity you require; thicken it with white roux (it can be thinned afterwards), boil it again, and skim if needful; keep stirring, lifting it often in a spoon and letting it fall, to make it smooth and fine. Sweet thick cream is a nice substitute for white roux, in this sauce.—Or: put 2 lbs. of lean gristly veal, and ¼ lb. lean bacon or ham, in little bits, into a stew-pan, in which some butter has been melted, let the gravy flow, but do not brown the meat. Mix 2 table-spoonsful of potatoe or rice flour smooth, with a little water, put it into a stew-pan, with a quart or 3 pints of veal broth, water, or milk; also an onion, a bunch of parsley and lemon thyme, a bay leaf, a piece of lemon peel and a tea-spoonful of white peppercorns; stew it very slowly an hour and three quarters, then stand a few minutes to settle, strain it, add a tea-cupful of cream, boil it up, and strain again.—A nice sauce for boiled fowls is made of thin veal broth and milk, seasoned as above, and thickened with the yolk of an egg stirred in, just before you serve it.—Mushrooms may be put in this sauce.—Another very good sauce for boiled fowls, veal, rabbits, and fricassees, is as follows: to ½ pint of the liquor in which either of these have been boiled, an onion sliced, a small bunch of parsley, lemon thyme and basil, a little pounded mace, nutmeg, and a few white peppercorns. Strain, boil it again, with a piece of butter rolled in flour, and at the last a little cream. If for boiled fowls, put the peel of a lemon in this, and add the juice just at the last.

Slice a large onion, flour, and fry it in butter; put it into a saucepan with a breakfast-cupful of good fresh beer, the same of water, a few peppercorns, salt, grated lemon peel, 2 cloves, and a table-spoonful of catsup. Simmer