Three or four large tomatoes, 1¹⁄₂ ozs. sliced onion, 1¹⁄₂ ozs. butter, 1¹⁄₂ pints thick brown sauce, seasoning, Chili vinegar, carmine.
Method.—Cut the tomatoes into slices and fry them gently with the onion in one ounce of the butter; season with salt, freshly-ground black pepper, nutmeg, and a dust of castor sugar, and as soon as the tomatoes are quite soft, add the brown sauce, a few drops of Chili vinegar, and sufficient carmine to make it a clear red; then pass it through a sieve and re-heat it when required, stirring in the remaining half ounce of butter after taking the saucepan from the stove; this will add richness to the sauce, but it should not be re-heated after the butter is put in, or it will become oily instead of blending with the sauce.
WHITE SAUCE
One onion, a few pieces of celery, 2 or 3 thin strips lemon-peel, 2 or 3 pieces parsley, small blade of mace, salt, pepper, ³⁄₄ pint milk, ¹⁄₄ pint Plasmon stock, 2¹⁄₂ ozs. butter, 2 ozs. flour.
Method.—Cut the onion in slices and put it into a saucepan with the celery and one ounce of butter, and let it simmer gently for ten minutes, taking great care that the butter does not become discoloured, then add the milk, Plasmon, lemon-peel, parsley, mace, salt, and pepper, and let the stock simmer gently (it must not boil) until the vegetables are soft, when it should be strained into a basin. Melt the remainder of the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour. As soon as the latter is well mixed, pour in the flavoured milk, by degrees, stirring quickly all the time with a wooden spoon, so that no lumps may form; then place the pan on a slightly hotter part of the stove, so that the sauce may boil and thicken satisfactorily. If carefully prepared, it will be perfectly smooth, otherwise it should be passed through a gravy strainer; if an additional half ounce of butter can be spared, it will improve the sauce to have it stirred in the last thing before it is served.
WHITE STOCK
One onion, 1 carrot, 1 small turnip, a few pieces of celery, a thick slice of parsnip, 2 artichokes, a little bunch of parsley, a little piece of lemon-thyme, 1 clove, a little piece of mace, salt, pepper, ¹⁄₂ pint milk, ³⁄₄ pint water or Plasmon stock, 1 oz. of crumbs from a milk loaf.
Method.—Slice the vegetables and put them into a saucepan with the water, bread, herbs, and seasoning; let the water or stock reach boiling point, and then simmer for half an hour; at the end of the time add the milk and simmer again for twenty minutes, when the stock should be strained and put aside until it is required.
LETCHWORTH
THE TEMPLE PRESS
PRINTERS