Put 2 ounces of the butter in a stew pan; when it melts, add the flour. Stir for 1 minute or more, but do not brown. Then add by degrees the boiling water, stirring until smooth; pass it through a sieve; then add the rest of the butter, cut in pieces. When the butter is melted, serve immediately. This makes about one pint of sauce. You may add as a great improvement a little lemon juice or a few drops of vinegar.
N. B.—If the sauce is to have other ingredients added it is best to have it very thick to begin with.
42. Cream Sauce (To accompany Nos. 3 and 18).
1 tablespoon of flour,
1 very large tablespoon of butter,
2 gills of new milk,
½ teaspoon of salt,
Pepper to taste.
Put ¾ of the butter in a sauce pan over the fire. As soon as it melts, add the flour; stir till blended. Be careful not to let it brown. Add the boiling milk, by degrees, to the flour and butter, stirring without ceasing. Boil 3 minutes. Remove from the fire; add salt, white pepper, and the rest of the butter; stir until the butter melts, and serve immediately. If it has to be kept, set it over a kettle of boiling water; leave the spoon in it; and every now and again stir it down or the top will form a scum. Do not let it boil after the last butter is added. Cream may be used instead of new milk.
FOOTNOTES:
[E] Chief Cook at the Court of Denmark.
[F] Blanching anything is placing it on the fire in cold water until it boils, and after straining it off plunging it into cold water for the purpose of rendering it white.