BURNT OR BROWNED BUTTER.
Melt in a frying-pan three ounces of fresh butter, and keep it stirred slowly over a gentle fire until it is of a dark brown colour; then pour to it a couple of tablespoonsful of good hot vinegar, and season it with black pepper and a little salt. In France this is a favourite sauce with boiled skate, which is served with plenty of crisped parsley, in addition, strewed over it. It is also often poured over poached eggs there: it is called beurre noir.
Butter, 3 oz.; vinegar, 2 tablespoonsful; pepper; salt.
CLARIFIED BUTTER.
Put the butter into a very clean and well-tinned saucepan or enamelled stewpan, and melt it gently over a clear fire; when it just begins to simmer, skim it thoroughly, draw it from the fire, and let it stand a few minutes that the buttermilk may sink to the bottom; then pour it clear of the sediment through a muslin strainer or a fine hair-sieve; put it into jars, and store them in a cool place. Butter thus prepared will answer for all the ordinary purposes of cookery, and remain good for a great length of time. In France, large quantities are melted down in autumn for winter use. The clarified butter ordered for the various receipts in this volume, is merely dissolved with a gentle degree of heat in a small saucepan, skimmed, and poured out for use, leaving the thick sediment behind.
VERY GOOD EGG SAUCE.
Boil four fresh eggs for quite fifteen minutes, then lay them into plenty of fresh water, and let them remain until they are perfectly cold. Break the shells by rolling them on a table, take them off, separate the whites from the yolks, and divide all of the latter into quarter-inch dice; mince two of the whites tolerably small, mix them lightly, and stir them into the third of a pint of rich melted butter or of white sauce: serve the whole as hot as possible.
Eggs, 4: boiled 15 minutes, left till cold. The yolks of all, whites of 2; third of pint of good melted butter or white sauce. Salt as needed.
SAUCE OF TURKEYS’ EGGS.
(Excellent.)