N.B. Two table-spoonfuls of No. 439, instead of the milk, will make as good mushroom sauce as need be, and is a superlative accompaniment to either fish, flesh, or fowl.
_Obs._ This is the best way of preparing melted butter; milk mixes with the butter much more easily and more intimately than water alone can be made to do. This is of proper thickness to be mixed at table with flavouring essences, anchovy, mushroom, or cavice, &c. If made merely to pour over vegetables, add a little more milk to it.
N.B. If the butter oils, put a spoonful of cold water to it, and stir it with a spoon; if it is very much oiled, it must be poured backwards and forwards from the stew-pan to the sauce-boat till it is right again.
MEM. Melted butter made to be mixed with flavouring essences, catchups, &c. should be of the thickness of light batter, that it may adhere to the fish, &c.
Clarified butter is best for this purpose; but if you have none ready, put some fresh butter into a stew-pan over a slow, clear fire; when it is melted, add fine flour sufficient to make it the thickness of paste; stir it well together with a wooden spoon for fifteen or twenty minutes, till it is quite smooth, and the colour of a guinea: this must be done very gradually and patiently; if you put it over too fierce a fire to hurry it, it will become bitter and empyreumatic: pour it into an earthen pan, and keep it for use. It will keep good a fortnight in summer, and longer in winter.
A large spoonful will generally be enough to thicken a quart of gravy.
_Obs._ This, in the French kitchen, is called _roux_. Be particularly attentive in making it; if it gets any burnt smell or taste, it will spoil every thing it is put into, see _Obs._ to No. 322. When cold, it should be thick enough to cut out with a knife, like a solid paste.
It is a very essential article in the kitchen, and is the basis of consistency in most made-dishes, soups, sauces, and ragoûts; if the gravies, &c. are too thin, add this thickening, more or less, according to the consistence you would wish them to have.
MEM. In making thickening, the less butter, and the more flour you use, the better; they must be thoroughly worked together, and the broth, or soup, &c. you put them to, added by degrees: take especial care to incorporate them well together, or your sauces, &c. will taste floury, and have a disgusting, greasy appearance: therefore, after you have thickened your sauce, add to it some broth, or warm water, in the proportion of two table-spoonfuls to a pint, and set it by the side of the fire, to raise any fat, &c. that is not thoroughly incorporated with the gravy, which you must carefully remove as it comes to the top. This is called cleansing, or finishing the sauce.
