by Julia Child
ENRICHMENTS FOR WHITE SAUCES
The three following enrichments complete the whole master system of white-sauce making. While a plain, well-seasoned béchamel or velouté may be served just as it is, the addition of butter, cream, or egg yolks transforms it into something infinitely more delicious.
Butter Enrichment
Fresh butter stirred into a sauce just before serving is the simplest of the enrichments. It smooths out the sauce, gives it a slight liaison, and imparts that certain French taste which seems to be present in no other type of cooking. For a cup of simple sauce, ½ to 1 tablespoon of butter is sufficient; as much as ½ cup may be beaten into a fine fish sauce. But if more than a tablespoon of butter is beaten into a cup of sauce, the sauce should then be served immediately. If it is reheated, or is kept hot, or if it is used for a gratinéed dish, the butter either liquefies and the sauce thins out just as though it had been diluted with milk, or the butter releases itself from suspension and floats on top of the sauce. However, if you slip up and heat a heavily buttered sauce, it will quickly reconstitute itself if you treat it like turned hollandaise.
To enrich 2 cups of béchamel or velouté
2 to 8 Tb butter (1 to 2 Tb is the usual amount)
A wire whip
Just before serving the sauce, and after all the final flavorings have been added, remove it from heat. Stir in the butter, a half-tablespoon at a time, beating until each piece of butter has been absorbed into the sauce before adding the next. Spoon the sauce over the hot food, or pour the sauce into a warmed bowl, and serve immediately.
Cream Enrichment—Cream Sauce
[Sauce Crème — Sauce Suprěme]
With the addition of cream, a béchamel becomes a sauce crème; and a velouté, a sauce suprême. As the cream thins out the sauce, the basic béchamel or velouté must be thick enough initially so the finished sauce will be of the correct consistency.
Cream sauces are used for vegetables, eggs, fish, poultry, hot hors d’oeuvres, and for dishes which are to be gratinéed.
For 2 cups
1½ cups of thick béchamel or velouté (3 Tb flour, 2½ Tb butter, and 1½ cups liquid)
½ cup whipping cream
Salt and white pepper
Lemon juice
Bring the sauce to the simmer. Beat in the cream by spoonfuls, simmering, until the sauce is the consistency you wish it to be. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and drops of lemon juice.
Optional: 1 to 2 Tb softened butter (no butter if sauce is to be used for a gratinéed dish)
Off heat, and just before serving, beat in the optional butter by half-tablespoons.
Egg Yolk and Cream Enrichment
[Sauce Parisienne — formerly Sauce Allemande]
Sauces enriched with egg yolks and cream are among the richest and most velvety in all the French repertoire. Sauce parisienne, or sauce allemande, is the generic term, but it invariably goes by another name according to its special flavorings or to the dish it accompanies. The simplest, sauce poulette, has a base of velouté flavored with meat or fish, onions and mushrooms. The famous sauce normande is a velouté based on white-wine fish stock and the cooking liquors of mussels, oysters, shrimps, écrevisses, and mushrooms. The shellfish sauces such as cardinal, Nantua, and Joinville are shellfish veloutés with special trimmings and a shellfish butter enrichment beaten in at the end. As all of these sauces are a basic velouté with a final enrichment of egg yolks, cream, and usually butter, if you can make one, you can make all.
Success in making the egg yolk liaison is but a realization that egg yolks will curdle and turn granular unless they are beaten with a bit of cold liquid first, before a hot liquid is gradually incorporated into them so that they are slowly heated. Once this preliminary step has been completed, the sauce may be brought to the boil; and because the egg yolks are supported by a flour-based sauce they may boil without danger of curdling.
The sauce parisienne described in the following recipe is used with eggs, fish, poultry, hot hors d’oeuvres, and dishes which are to be gratinéed. A heavily buttered sauce parisienne is used principally for fish poached in white wine, as described beginning on this page in the Fish chapter.
For about 2 cups
1½ cups thick béchamel or velouté (3 Tb flour, 2½ Tb butter, and 1½ cups liquid)
A heavy-bottomed, 8-cup enameled saucepan
Bring the sauce to the simmer in its saucepan.
2 egg yolks
½ cup whipping cream
An 8-cup mixing bowl
A wire whip
Blend the egg yolks and cream in the mixing bowl with a wire whip. A few drops at a time, beat in ½ cup of hot sauce. Slowly beat in the rest of the sauce in a thin stream. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
A wooden spatula or spoon
Set over moderately high heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, reaching all over the bottom of the pan until the sauce comes to the boil. Boil and stir for 1 minute.
Salt and white pepper
Lemon juice
More cream if necessary
Strain the sauce through a fine sieve to remove coagulated bits of egg white which always cling to the yolk. Rinse out the saucepan and return the sauce to it. Simmer over low heat to check seasoning, adding salt, pepper, and drops of lemon juice to taste. If sauce is too thick, beat in more cream by spoonfuls.
(*) If not used immediately, clean off sides of pan, and float a film of cream or stock over the surface. Sauce will thicken and look custardy as it cools, which is normal. It will smooth out when it is reheated. (Sauce may be frozen.)
Optional: 1 to 2 Tb softened butter (occasionally more is called for; use no butter if sauce is for a gratinéed dish)
Off heat, and just before serving, stir in the optional butter by bits.
SAUCES DERIVED FROM BÉCHAMEL
AND VELOUTÉ
Here are some of the principal sauces derived from sauce béchamel and sauce velouté, the recipes for which are here.
Sauce Mornay
[Cheese Sauce]
For: eggs, fish, poultry, veal, vegetables, pastas, and hot hors d’oeuvres
Note: If the sauce covers foods which are to be baked or gratinéed, use the minumum amount of cheese suggested, and omit the butter enrichment at the end of the recipe. Too much cheese can make the sauce stringy, and a butter enrichment will exude from the top of the sauce.
2 cups of medium béchamel or velouté
¼ to ½ cup of coarsely grated Swiss cheese, or a combination of coarsely grated Swiss and finely grated Parmesan
Bring the sauce to the boil. Remove from heat, and beat in the cheese until it has melted and blended with the sauce.
Salt and pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
Optional: pinch of cayenne pepper and 1 to 2 Tb softened butter
Season to taste with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and optional cayenne. Off heat and just before serving, stir in the optional butter a bit at a time.
Sauce Aurore
[Béchamel or Velouté with Tomato Flavoring]
For: eggs, fish, chicken, vegetables
2 cups béchamel or velouté, or the cream sauce
2 to 6 Tb cooked, fresh tomato purée, or tomato paste
Bring the sauce to the simmer. Stir in the tomato, a spoonful at a time, until you have achieved the color and flavor you wish. Correct seasoning.
1 to 2 Tb softened butter
Optional: 1 to 2 Tb minced fresh parsley, chervil, basil, or tarragon
Off heat and just before serving, stir in the butter, and the optional herbs.
Sauce Chivry
Sauce à L’Estragon
[Herbal White Wine Sauce and Tarragon Sauce]
For: eggs, fish, vegetables, or poached chicken
A small enameled saucepan
1 cup dry white wine or ⅔ cup dry white vermouth
4 Tb minced fresh chervil, tarragon, and parsley, or tarragon only; OR 2 Tb dried herbs
2 Tb min
ced shallots or green onions
Place all ingredients in the saucepan and boil slowly for 10 minutes, allowing the wine to reduce to about 3 tablespoons. This is now an herb essence.
2 cups béchamel or velouté, or the cream sauce
Strain the essence into the sauce, pressing the juice out of the herbs. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.
3 to 4 Tb minced fresh green herbs, or parsley, or tarragon 1 to 2 Tb softened butter
Off heat, and just before serving, stir in the fresh herbs and the enrichment butter.
Sauce au Cari
[Light Curry Sauce]
For: fish, veal, lamb, chicken, turkey, eggs, and vegetables
Here the béchamel or velouté sauce is made simultaneously with the curry flavorings.
For 2½ cups
½ cup finely minced white or yellow onions
4 Tb butter
An 8-cup enameled saucepan
Cook the onions and butter over low heat for 10 minutes without allowing the onions to color.
2 to 3 Tb curry powder
Stir in the curry powder and cook slowly for 2 minutes.
4 Tb flour
Add the flour and stir over low heat for 3 minutes more.
2 cups boiling milk, white stock, or fish stock
Off heat, blend in the boiling liquid. Return sauce to heat and simmer slowly for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4 to 6 Tb whipping cream Salt and pepper Lemon juice
Then stir in the cream by tablespoons, until sauce has thinned to consistency you wish. Check seasoning, and add lemon juice to taste.
1 to 2 Tb softened butter
Optional: 2 to 3 Tb minced parsley
Off heat, and just before serving, stir in the butter by bits, then the optional parsley.
Sauce Soubise
[Onion Sauce]
For: eggs, veal, chicken, turkey, lamb, vegetables, and foods which are to be gratinéed
Another version of this excellent sauce is in the Veal section.
For about 2½ cups
1 lb. or 4 cups of sliced yellow onions
¼ tsp salt
6 Tb butter
A 2½-quart, heavy-bottomed, enameled saucepan
Cook the onions slowly with salt and butter in a covered saucepan for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the onions are very tender but not browned.
4 Tb flour
Add the flour and stir over low heat for 3 minutes.
2 cups boiling milk, white stock, or fish stock
Off heat, blend in the boiling liquid. Then simmer the sauce slowly for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Force the sauce through a sieve or food mill, or purée it in the electric blender.
6 to 8 Tb whipping cream Salt and pepper Pinch of nutmeg
Bring again to the simmer, and thin out to desired consistency with spoonfuls of cream. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.
1 to 2 Tb softened butter (no butter if sauce is to be used for a gratinéed dish)
Off heat and just before serving, stir in the enrichment butter.
SAUCE BTARDE
SAUCE AU BEURRE
[Mock Hollandaise]
For: boiled fish, boiled chicken, boiled lamb, boiled potatoes, asparagus, cauliflower, celery, broccoli
This quickly made and useful sauce does not belong to the béchamel and velouté family because it is made with an uncooked roux, or beurre manié. A golden color is given it by the addition of an egg yolk, and when flavored with enough butter it suggests a hollandaise.
For 2 cups (medium thickness)
2 Tb melted or softened butter
3 Tb flour
An 8-cup, heavy-bottomed, enameled saucepan
A rubber scraper
Place the butter and flour in the saucepan and blend them into a smooth paste with a rubber scraper.
2 cups boiling white stock, or vegetable cooking water, or water and ¼ tsp salt
A wire whip
Pour on all the boiling liquid at once and blend vigorously with a wire whip.
1 egg yolk
2 Tb whipping cream
An 8-cup mixing bowl
Salt and white pepper
1 to 2 Tb lemon juice
Blend the egg yolk and cream with a wire whip, then, a few drops at a time, beat in ½ cup of sauce. Beat in the rest in a thin stream. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Bring to the boil over moderately high heat, beating, and boil 5 seconds. Remove from heat and season to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. (*) If not used immediately, film surface with a half-tablespoon of melted butter.
4 to 8 Tb softened butter
Off heat, and just before serving, beat in the butter, a tablespoon at a time.
VARIATIONS
Sauce aux Câpres
[Caper Sauce]
For: boiled fish or boiled leg of lamb
2 cups sauce bâtarde
2 to 3 Tb capers
Just before stirring in the enrichment butter, beat in the capers. Then, off heat, beat in the enrichment butter.
Sauce à la Moutarde
[Mustard Sauce]
For: broiled mackerel, herring, tuna, or swordfish
2 cups sauce bâtarde omitting final butter enrichment
2 Tb strong Dijon-type prepared mustard
4 to 8 Tb softened butter
Blend the mustard and butter together with a rubber scraper. Off heat, and just before serving, beat the mustard/butter by tablespoons into the hot sauce.
Sauce aux Anchois
[Anchovy Sauce]
For: boiled fish or boiled potatoes
2 Tb canned anchovies mashed into a purée or 1 Tb anchovy paste
2 cups sauce bâtarde
Just before buttering the sauce, beat in the anchovy mixture to taste. Then off heat, and before serving, beat in the enrichment butter.
BROWN SAUCES
Sauces Brunes
The classical French brown sauce starts out with a long-simmered brown meat stock that goes into the making of an equally long-simmered, lightly thickened sauce base called an espagnole. The espagnole is simmered and skimmed for several hours more with additional stock and flavorings until it finally develops into the traditional mother of the brown sauces, demi-glace. This may take several days to accomplish, and the result is splendid. But as we are concerned with less formal cooking, we shall discuss it no further.
A good brown sauce may have as its thickening agent a brown roux of flour and butter, or cornstarch, potato starch, rice starch, or arrowroot. A flour-thickened brown sauce must be simmered and skimmed for two hours at least if it is to develop its full flavor. Starch and arrowroot thickenings take but a few minutes; and when properly made they are very good indeed. Because they are far more useful in home cooking than the long simmered and more conventional sauce, we have used them in most of the main-course recipes throughout this book.
Following are three interchangeable methods for making a basic brown sauce. Any of them may rapidly be converted into one of the composed sauces.
A NOTE ON MEAT STOCKS FOR BROWN SAUCES
Recipes for making brown stocks are here. Canned beef bouillon may be substituted, as is, for stocks in the first two recipes for brown sauce. If it is to be used in the last recipe, for starch-thickened sauce, its canned flavor should first be disguised and enriched as follows (canned consommé tends to be sweet and is not recommended):
Canned beef bouillon
2 cups canned beef bouillon
3 Tb each: finely minced onions and carrots
1 Tb finely minced celery
½ cup red wine, dry white wine, or dry white vermouth
2 parsley sprigs
⅓ bay leaf
⅛ tsp thyme
Optional: 1 Tb tomato paste
Simmer the canned bouillon with the rest of the ingredients listed for 20 to 30 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve, and the bouillon is ready to be turned into a sauce.
BROWN SAUCE (1)
SAUCE BRUNE
&
nbsp; [Flour-based Brown Sauce]
This is the best of the group and the one most nearly approaching the traditional demi-glace. Its preliminaires are somewhat exacting, and it requires at least two hours of simmering; the longer it cooks the better it will be. It may be refrigerated for several days and freezes perfectly for several weeks.
A NOTE ON BROWN ROUX
Brown roux, which is the thickening for this type of sauce, is flour and fat cooked together until the flour has turned an even, nut-brown color. For an ordinary sauce, the flour is cooked in rendered fresh pork fat, or in cooking oil. But if the sauce is to accompany a delicate dish, such as foie gras, eggs, or vol-au-vent, the flour should be cooked in clarified butter—meaning the butter is melted and decanted, leaving its milky particles behind, as these burn and taste bitter.