Espagnole
Gravy & chocolate gravy
Hollandaise
Mayonnaise
Mirepoix
Mother
Pesto
Roux
Salsa
Soy
Tartar
Tomato
Veloute
Vinaigrette
Vodka
Have questions? Ask!
|
Bechamel Espagnole Gravy & chocolate gravy Hollandaise Mayonnaise Mirepoix Mother Pesto Roux Salsa Soy Tartar Tomato Veloute Vinaigrette Vodka |
Have questions? Ask! |
ABOUT SAUCE
Food historians tell us sauces were "invented" for many reasons. The three primary reasons
are:
1. Cooking medium
2. Meat tenderizer
3. Flavor enhancer
Sauce ingredients, compostion, and preparation methods vary according to culture, cuisine and time period. The history of modern French sauces begins with Francois La Varenne. The French concept of "Mother Sauces" is an 18th century invention. Classification ensued. Careme is credited for this.
RECOMMENDED READING:
The Saucier's Apprentice/Raymond Sokolov
---introduction traces the history of sauce through time; special emphasis on French sauces
Sauces : Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making / James Peterson, 2nd edition
(1998)
--Chapter 1 features the history of sauces from ancient times to the 20th century (15 pages)
A History of Cooks and Cooking, Michael Symons
--Chapter 6: 'On the Physical and Political Consequences of Sauces' (10 pages)
plus numerous references to sauce throughout this book. Also check the index for stock, stew &
soup.
Larousse Gastronomique, any recent edition
---Recipes & history notes
Le Guide Cuilinarie, Escoffier
---Recipes and notes
The Sauce Bible: Guide to the Saucier's Craft, David Paul Larousse
---Recipes & notes
Bechamel
According to the food historians, the art of reducing cream sauces (aka cream reductions) is
generally attributed to 18th century France. Antonin Careme, in particular. The most notable of
these sauces is bechamel. The story behind the *invention* of bechamel is still a subject for
debate.
"Louis de Bechamel, the Marquis de Nointel (1630-1703), was a fascinating mix of connoissuer,
bon vivant, and shrewd political operator...As for the sauce that is his namesake, the concensus is
even clearer that it was not invented by him, but named after him by an unknown court chef who
honored the Lord Steward by applying his name to a thick veloute, to which liberal amounts of
fresh cream were added. This sauce had been known for some time before, probably under
another name...Careme's recipe for bechamel sauce, the veloute finished with cream, included a
final liaison of cream and egg yolks. Somewhere between Careme's departure (1833) and
Escoffier's Guide Culinare, bechamel evolved into the milk-thickened white sauce it is still known
as in contemporary practice. That Escoffier's bechamel included diced lean veal is probably a
throwback to the earlier veloute finished with cream.
As with the criteria regarding the use of other flourless sauces, the same applies here. Heavy
cream reduced by about one half, along with the aromatics and garnish appropriate to a specific
sauce, represents the purist's approach..."
"Bechamel...the name of a sauce which plays a large part in European cuisines; not only in France,
although that is where the name originated. The question of its origins has been discussed by
Sokolov (he wrote a book called The Saucier's Apprentice--ask your librarian to help you
find a
copy)..."Gastronomic literature is filled with tedious pages and trifling disputes...We can only
point
to the appearance of sauce called bechamel during the reign of Louis XIV. And, as so often, this
original sauce bor only a slight resemblance to the modern sauce. While we think of behcamel as
an all-purpose white sauce made of scalded milk, roux, and flavourings, Careme made it by
enriching veloute with cream."...Sokolov also dismisses as intrinsically unimportant the debates
which have taken place in modern times about whether a bechamel must be made with veal or
need not be."
"A bechamel...in the seventeenth century was a very complicated sauce which contained a number
of vegetables and wines as well as old hens and old partridges, and after being strained several
times was finished with reduced cream and cooked in the oven. Not so very long ago, a bechamel
was cooked in the oven with ham, chopped onions coloured in butter and a bouquet garni. It was
turned out and strained through a hair sieve, double cream was added and the sauce was stirred
and reduced again..."
More on bechamel.
Espagnole
Espagnole is basically a brown roux. Roux (the combination of fat and flour to create a thickening
agent) is ancient. It is interesting to note that La Varenne's Le Cuisnier Francois [1651]
does not contain a recipe for sauce Espagnole. It does, however, offer brief instructions regarding
sauce Robert, a well documented variation. Culinary evidence confirms during the 18th and 19th
centuries several recipes for Espagnole were published. They ranged from original & complicated
to convenient & simple. At some point, tomatoes were introduced. The difficulty with tracing the
history of Espagnole has nothing do with the lack of documentation. It's a fascinating sleuthing
job sorting out the plethora of names by which this sauce assumes alias. To complicate matters?
Lenten Espagnole does not (of course!) employ meat base.
"Espagnole. The name given in classical French cuisine to the mother sauce' from which are
derived many of the sauces described under brown sauces. The name has nothing to do with
Spain, any more than the counterpart allemande...has anything to do with Germany. It is generally
believed that the terms were chosen because in French eyes Germans are blond and Spaniards are
brown. Some authorities prefer to regard demiglace...as the parent of the group of brown sauces,
and would say that espagnole is the penultimate stage in producing demi-glace. However, what is
certain is that for people outside France as well as inside the term expagnole is widely understood
to mean the basic brown sauce, and indeed one which can be used on its own although it normally
has added flavourings and a new name. The arduous procedure for making an espagnole on
traditionally approved lines is now rarely followed."
ESPAGNOLE SAUCE THROUGH TIME
[1747]
[1828]
[1869]
Butter a stewpan, and put in it 3 sliced onions; upon these place 6 lbs of boned fillet of veal,
and 2 lbs of gravy-beef; moisten with 1 pint of General Stock, or Grand Bouillon, and set it
boiling on a brisk fire; when the Stock is reduced one half, glaze the meat of a bright-brown and
even colour, by simmering gently, and turning it frequently.
This process requires particular attention; for, if the glaze be over cooked, and of a
dark-brown colour, the sauce will have an acrid taste, which no amount of sugar added to it
would
rectify.
When the meat is well glazed, take the stewpan off the fire; cover it, and let it stand five
minutes before adding any more broth,--this will facilitate the dissolving of the glaze; then pour in
6 quarts of General Stock; boil; skim; and add:
1 faggot, 2 carrots, 1/2 oz. Of salt, 1/4 oz. Of mignonnette pepper, 1/4 oz. Of sugar;
Boil, and simmer; and, when the meat is done, take it out, and strain the Stock through a broth
napkin.
Make a roux in a stewpan, with 14 oz. of clarified butter, and 14 oz. of flour; when this is
cooked, moistened with the Stock; stir over the fire with a wooden spoon till boiling, and simmer
for two hours on the stove corner, with the stewpan only three parts closed; skim, and take off the
fat twice during that time; and the end of the two hours, skim, and free the sauce from fat once
more; strain it through a tammy cloth; and put by for use.
Observation.--I do not advise adding a hen or any game to this sauce, as is so often
fone,--butcher's meat alone should constitute the basis of Espagnole, which, being intended to add
to
other preparations, any special flavouring given to it, either by poultry or game, would often be
prejudicial."
[1884]
[1903]
Ingredients:
Preparation:
NOTES:
[1941]
Hollandaise
Food historians generally agree that Hollandaise sauce was a French invention, most likely dating
to the mid-18th century. Why the reference to Holland? This country (or more broadly the
Netherlands) was famous for its fine butter and good eggs.
"Hollandaise. One of the most prominent suaces in the group of those which are thickened by the
use of egg yolk. The fact that such a sauce will curdle if heated beyond a certain point is largely
responsible for their reputation of being difficult. McGee (book: Curious Cook)...has
investigated both the history and the chemistry of the sauce. He reports that one of the earliest
versions which he found, " sauce a la hollandoise", in the 1758 edition of Marin's Dons de
Comus,
calls only for butter, flour, bouillon, and herbs; no yolks at all'...Sauces which are derived from, or
can be regarded as variations of, hollandaise include: sauce aux capres, maltaise, mousseline,
moutarde (Dijon mustard)."
"Although Hollandaise was a French creation its name was not totally inaccurate. The Dutch
cities of Leyden and Delft exported so much of their renown butter (the sauce's principal
ingredient) in the seventeenth century, that they were forced to import cheaper butter from
England and Ireland."
We find several recipes for Sauce Hollandaise (also sometimes referenced as Dutch Sauce') in
popular 19th century American Cookbooks. If you are interested in an
old recipe
you can view
the 1884 version printed in the Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln
It is interesting to note that the classic Dutch cookbook De Verstandige Kock (The
Sensible Cook), circa 1683,
contains
several recipes for sauce meant for fish featuring butter, spices, verjus/lemon juice or wine. Few
of these list eggs as an ingredient:
To stew small Bundles of Young Eels with Herbs.
Mayonnaise
How many theories are there on the origin of mayonnaise? At least four! The fifth is generally overlooked. Some early recipes
indicate mayonnaise sauces accompanied jellied fish, in the traditional of aspic.
"Mayonnaise, a famous sauce which is, essentially, an emulsion of olive oil and vinegar (or lemon juice) stablized with egg yolk and seasoned to taste...As a French word
mayonnaise, meaning the sauce, first appeared in print in 1808. However, an interesting curiousity is its appearance in the phrase 'mayonnaise de poulet' in a German
cookbook of 1804."
"The derivation of the word mayonnaise has always been a matter of some controversy. Among suggestions put forward in the past are that it is an alteration of
bayonnaise, as if the sauce originated in the town of Bayonne, in southwestern France; that it was derived from the French verb manier, 'stir' (this was the chef Careme's
theory); and that it could be traced back to Old French moyeu, 'egg yolk'. But the explanation that it origianlaly meant literaly 'of mahon' and that the sauce was so
named to commemorate the taking of Port Mahon, capital of the island of Minorca, by the duc de Richelieu in 1756 (presumably Richelieu's chef, or perhaps even the duke
himself, created the sauce). English borrowed the word from French in the 1840s..."
"The Eighteenth Century...Members of the royal court invented new dishes, or tather they appropriated the glory for their discovery from helpless chefs...The greatest of these
noble discoveries, if in fact occurred, was the world premiere of mayonnaise, said to have taken place at the table of the Duc de
Richelieu, second cousin of the cardinal, after the capture of Port Mahon in 1759. This is the most disputed of all sauce
origins. Some people are persuaded that mahonnaise was indeed transformed into mayonnaise. Others find a more appealing etymology
in the old-fashioned word for egg yolk: moyeu. Careme insisted on yet a third alternative: "Some people," he wrote, "say
mayonnaise, others mahonnaise, still others bayonnaise. It makes no difference that vulgar cooks should use these words, but I urge
that these three terms never be uttered in our great kitchens (where the purists are to be found) and that we should always
denominate this sauce with the epithet, magnonaise." Careme was convinced that his etymology made the most sense:
magnonaise came from the verb "manier," to handle or work, which, he argued, was exactly what one did to produce a good
mayonnaise...If I may further add to the confusion, it seems to me improbably that no one has yet proposed a fourth solution to the
problem. Since most sauces are named after places (bearnaise, venitienne, italienne, africaine), it is logical that mayonnaise
refer to one also. Unfortunately, there is no town of Mayonne; however, there is a city in France, at the western edge of
Normandy, called Mayenne. Who is to day that mayonnaise did not begin as mayennaise?"
A sampler of historic mayonnaise recipes
[1869]
"Green Mayonnaise Sauce
[1907]
Mirepoix
The definition of Mirepoix is a study in culinary evolution. Notes here:
"Mirepoix: A culinary preparation created in the 18th century by the cook of the Duc de
Levis-Mirepoix, a French field marshal and ambassador of Louis XV. It consists of a mixture of
diced
vegetables (carrot, onion, celery); raw ham or lean bacon is added when the preparation is with
meat. A mirepoix is used to enhance the flavour of meat, game and fish, in the preparation of
sauces (notably espagnole sauce) and as a garnish for such dishes as frog's legs, artichokes and
macaroni. When a mirepoix is used in braised or pot-roasted dishes, it should be simmered gently
in a covered pan until all the vegetables are very tender and can impart their flavour to the dish.
Mirepoix without meat is mainly used in the preparation of shellfish, for braised vegetable dishes
and in certain white sauces."
"A mirepoix is a mixture of finely chopped vegetables, typically onion, carrot, and celery, fried in
butter and used for flavouring stews and other meat dishes, as a base for sauces, and as a garnish.
It was reputedly devised in the eighteenth century by the cook to the Duc de Levis-Mirepoix, a
French field marshal."
"Mireopoix, Charles-Pierre-Gaston Francois de Levis, Duke of (1699-1757). Mirepoix was an
incompetent and mediocre individual', writes Pierre Larousse at the end of the 19th century, who
owed his vast fortune to the affection Louis XV felt toward his wife'. This same author informs
us that the unfortunate Mirepoix had one claim to fame: he gave his name to a sauce made of all
kinds of meat and a variety of seasonings'...But what exactly, in the 18th century, constituted a
dish a la Mirepoix? The answer is hard to supply since it is not until the 19th century that the term
is encountered regularly in French culinary texts. Beauvilliers, for instance, in 1814, gives a short
recipe for a Sauce a la Mirepoix which is buttery, wine-laced stock garnished with an aromatic
mixture of carrots, onions, and a bouquet garni. Careme, in the 1830s, gives a similar recipe
calling it simply Mire-poix and, but the mid-19th century, Gouffe refers to a Mirepoix as a term
in use for such a long time that I do not hesitate to use it here'. His mirepoix is listed among
essences' and, indeed, is a meaty concoction (laced with two bottles of Madeira!) Which, like all
other essences, was used to enrich many a classic sauce. By the end of the 19th century, the
mirepoix had taken on its modern meaning and Favre in his Dictionnaire universel de
cuisine (c. 1895, reprinted 1978) uses the term to describe a mixture of ham, carrots, onions,
and herbs used as an aromatic condiment when making sauces or braising meat."
Compare these recipes:
[1903] Escoffier
"321. Matignon
[1996] CIA
"White Mirepoix
Mother
Careme is credited for the first classification of French sauces. The "mother sauces" are those
from which all
others are derived. Careme's original scheme contained four sauces: veloute, bechamel, espagnol
and allemande. Today we generally accept five mother sauces: espagnole, tomato and bechamel, veloute, and hollandaise (similar to allemande).
Escoffier is generally credited for elevating tomato sauce to this lofty position.
"It was Careme who began to classify sauces. The hot sauces, which are by far the more
numerous, are subdivided into brown sauces and white sauces....and they too, have innumerable
derivatives. Cold sauces are usually based on mayonnaise or vinaigrette, and they also have many
variations."
"In addition to stocks, the repertoire of Fench haute cuisine contains a multitude of sauces, in
which different ingredients are added to stocks and cooked in a number of ways. They all tend,
however, to be variations on the them of several basic, or "mother" sauces: espagnole, veloute,
bechamel, tomato, and hollandaise."
"French sauces are the height of culinary technique...They are also part of a structure so orderly and Cartesian that it could only
be French...French sauces are not just a group of randomly assembled essences and emulsions. They come in families, each one
which descends from one basic sauce known appropriately as sauce mere or mother sauce. Once you have made the mother
sauce (which is rarely served by itself), you can make all the small or compound sauces (the ones that are served) in a
matter of minutes by adding the appropriate special ingredients that make up the particualr sauce...The sauce system is like a group
of family trees that evolved over centuries and reached their fullest elaboration in the late nineteenth century. The system was
codified by Escoffier after World War I, and it is still the basis for what is called haute cuisine or classic
cuisine in France today. Not it is a fact that younger chefs in France have radically "simplified" their menus and no longer
cook precisely in the manner of Escoffier...as far as sauces are concerned, they have eliminated or virtually emliminated flour
as a thickening agent for the mother sauces. Instead, they reduce their stocks further and use other liaisons: cream, butter,
hollandaise and egg yolks, as well as arrowroot. This amounts to a fundamental change in direction. Its proponents assert that
flour muddied the taste of teh (now) old-fashioned espagnoles and veloutes. They go on to say the streamlined nature of
modern life demands lighter sauces that do not overwhelm the basic elements of the dish which the sauce accompanies. These
arguments are persuasive up to a point. Flour-bound sauces do tend to be more present as a complex taste and a texture than do
sauces based on pure reductions of veal stock. On the other hand, in my opinion it is a slander on the past and an error to dismiss
150 years of professional saucemaking as a muddy, glutinous botch."
Food historians generally trace the origin of the concept of pesto to ancient condiments made by
grinding spices with mortar and pestle and combining them with oil. The word 'pesto' literally
means 'pounded'. These types of foods were known in the Persia and ancient Rome. The key to
understanding pesto is basil, the primary ingredient. Pounded basil products were
noted in Italy in Medieval times. Today, pesto is a popular accompaniment to many dishes
served in restaurants and at home.
About basil
Basil, A Modern Herbal, M. Grieve, 1931:
About pesto
"Genoa is closely associated with its basil and pesto. Pesto is said to be of Persian origin, and
although the pounding of coriander and garlic into a pesto is quite old in the Middle East, I
believe the origins of Genoese-style pesto may be Roman, as they were known to have made
pounded condiments. Although we can't be sure of the first use of pesto, we do know that Genoa
was associated with basil the star ingredient of this pesto, as early as the mid-fifteenth century,
from the story of the humanist ambassador and lawyer Francesco Marchese, who won his fame
on the basis of a remark he made to the Duke of Milan upon presenting him a tub of basil; if
treated well, basil gave off a very nice scent, if dealt with harshly, it produced serpents and
scorpions."
"In Genoa, the birthplace of basil, and all along the Ligurian coast, the air is redolent of
basil...The most famous Genovese sauce, pesto, is made of basil which has been worked to form
a durable, portable sauce, perfectly suited to long, hazardous voyages of discovery. It had been
suggested that during the crusades, the Genovese contingent could be easily identified even as far
afield as Jerusalem, by the characteristic aroma of pesto that surrounded them...Originally,
[making pesto] was a slow, laborious procedure since the basil, garlic and nuts had to be pounded
by hand with a pestle and mortar-hence the name pesto'."
"Pesto. 'Pounded'. Any food mashed with mortar and pestle, but more specifically a verdant
green sauce made with mashed fresh basil leaves, olive oil, pine nuts or walnuts, and pecorino
cheese. Forms of pesto date back to the ancient Romans' moretum, which was made from crushed
garlic, parsley, olive oil, vinegar, and ewe's milk. The first mention of the word pesto dates to a
Florentine cookbook of 1848, but the condiment has become most closely associated with
Liguria and, specifically, with Genoa, where trenette al pesto, with green beans and potatoes, is a
classic dish. From the Late Latin 'pestare'."
Pesto entered mainstream American culinary conscious during the 1930s:
[1935]
[1944]
[1946] ,br>
"Pasta al Pesto (pesto means "pounded," and refers to the mode of preparation) is the distinctive contribution of the Northern
Italians to the culinary art. Into a mortar placed generous quantiteis of fresh basil--the dry will not do--and a few cloves of
garlic. Pound vigorously with a pestle, adding small quantities of olive oil from time to time, until garlic and basi merge
into a fine paste. Complete the process as described for pasta al burro, adding this paste and butter to the pasta. Pestle and
mortar are stock kitchen equipment in many Italian homes; if they are not avialable, the ingredients may be minced on a cutting
board with a heavy, straight-edges knife. If a knife is used, the mincing must be continued until garlic and basil are
thoroughly fused. This seasonal dish--it can be prepared only when fresh basil is available--is an extraordinary pleasant
experience both for the nostrils and the palate. Its only disadvantage is that it may unduly whet the appetite. I once knew
a man in Florence who wagered that he could eat two pounds of pasta al pesto--six ounces in a generous portion for the average
man --after a normal dinner. The prize was a barrel of Chianti. He won the wager and lived to drink the wine!"
[1952]
[1955]
[1957]
"Pasta al Pesto...In the late 70s/early'80s, when fresh basil could be had at most farmer's markets,
pesto became the pasta sauce of choice."
"Roux. The various kinds of roux are used as thickening agents for basic sauces, and their
preparation,
which appears to be of little importance, should actually be carried out with a great deal of care
and
attention.' So begins August Escoffier's article on Roux in his monumental Guide culinaire;
almost an
entire page is devoted to roux brun, though only short paragraphs deal with the preparation of
roux blond
and blanc. Etymologically, and historically, all this makes perfect sense. Roux in French literally
means
reddish' (or orange') hence the first roux were made by cooking flour and butter together until a
reddish tint
was obtained then using this to thicken a souce or broth. Its widespread use in French cooking
seems to
date from the mid-17th century. At that time, La Varenne (1651) described the preparation of a
liaison de
farine (flour thickener) made by cooking flour in lard an, by the end of the century, cooks are
referring to
this mixture either as farine frit or roux. By the mid-18th century cookbooks authors are advising
that roux
de farine'...be cooked until the butter and flour are a nice yellow' and recommend that the
resulting paste
be stored for later use...The roux had its critics...and some French gastronomes began
complaining about
the over-use of roux in sauces as the 19th century approached. Careme came to its defence in the
1830s
calling those who dared criticize the use of roux ignorant men'...A roux, writes Careme, is an
indespensible
to cooks as ink to writers but, he warns, just as a poor scribbler cannot produce a masterpiece
simply by
dipping his pen into that black liquid, a sauce is not necessarily impoved if the roux has not been
simmered
with sufficient care. In recent years the roux has once again come under heavy criticism and, with
the
advent of nouvelle cuisine in the early 1970s, many chefs abandoned its use...But, despite its
chequered
history, the roux remains one of the cornerstones of French cuisine..."
La Varenne's original recipe:
NOTE: Escoffier's Guide Culinare has recently been reissued in English. Your librarian
can help you
find a copy or obtain the pages you need: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern
Cookery,
translated by H. L. Cracknell and R. J. Kaufman [John Wiley:New York] 1997. In this edition, his
notes and
recipes for roux appear on pages 6-7.
ABOUT CAJUN ROUX
"Roux has a particular fascination for Louisiana cooks, who contend it is the ingredient that
distinguishes
their finest preparations. Creole roux are made with butter or bacon fat and are cooked far longer
than most
French roux and achieve a deep honey color (althought there is also a white roux, which is pale in
color
because it is cooked quickly and not allowed to brown.) Cajun roux are made with vegetable oil
or lard and
cooked to a caramel color, although Cajuns also use lighter roux."
"The Creoles, like their French ancestors, hold that the three mother sauces, or "Sauces Meres,"
are Brown
Sauce, or "Sauce Espagnole"; the White Sauce, or "Sauce Allemande," and the "Glace," or
"Glaze." These
are the foundation of all sauces, and upon their successful making depends upon the taste and
piquancy of
the numberless variety of fancy sauces that give to even the most commonplace dish an elegance
all its
own. The Creoles are famous for their spendid sauces, and the perfect making of a good sauce is
considered an indispensable part of culinary art and domestic economy. The first thing to learn in
making
sauces of every kind is how to make a good "Roux," or the foundtion mixture of flour and butter,
or flour and
lard. We have the Brown Roux and the White Roux. In making a brown Roux, this unfailing rule
must be the
guide: Never, under any consideration, use burnt or over-browned flour."
Here is the recipe from this book (circa 1901):
In making a roux for cooking gravies or smothering meats, the proportions are one
tablespoonful of lard
and two of flour, butter always making a richer gravy than lard, and sometimes being too rich for
delicate
stomachs. It is a great fad among many in our day to use nothing but butter in cooking. The
Creoles hold
that butter should be used its proper place, and lard in its own. The lard is not only less expensive,
but is far
preferable to an inferior quality of butter, and in many cases preferable to the best butter,
according to the
dish in course of preparation. Properly made, the taste of lard can never be detected, and it is
feared that
butter is used by many to cover up, by its taste, the deficiencies of having made the roux
improperly. If there
is the slightest indication of burnt odor or over-browning, throw the roux away and wash the
utensil before
proceeding to make another. Remember that even a slighly burnt sauce will spoil the most savory
dish."
"White roux.
Soy
"Soy sauce. The universal condiment of China and Japan, is also widely used throughout SE Asia.
It is the main
condiment of Indonesia, where soya beans are grown extensively...Altough soya beans have been
grown in China for at
least 3500 years, the sauce is a slightly more recent invention. It was develolped during the Zhou
dynasty (1134-246
BC) , and probably evolved in conjunction with the fermented fish sauces, many of which
involved both fish and rice.
The moulds Aspergillus oryzae and A, soyae are the principal agents in producing soy sauce, and
the enzymes which
they provide are similar to those which ferment fish sauce. These organisms are common and
could accidentally have got
to work on soya beans, with results which would have been recognized as a fishless fish sauce'.
Early soy sauce was a
solid paste known as sho or mesho. This developed into two products, liquid shoyu and solid
miso. In China the liquid
sauce is used more than the paste, while in Japan both are of equal importance. The European
name soy' (similar in all
lnaguages) originates with the 17th-century Dutch traders who brough the sauce back to Europe,
where it became
popular despite its high price."
Recommended reading (both contain extensive bibliographies for further reading):
Yes, tartar(e) sauce was named for the Tatar peoples of Mongolia. No, it is not a traditional
Tartar recipe. The word 'tatar' refers to the Turkic-speaking people [Tatars] who settled in Mongolia sometime
during the 5th Century AD. In the food world, 'tatar' takes on the French spelling 'tartare' and
is most often associated with tartar(e) sauce and steak tartare.
Meat/fowl/fish sauces made with eggs, oil, vinegar and spices date back to Medieval times, a
tradition carried over from Ancient Roman cookery. These recipes were not called "tartar sauce"
but are unmistakably similar to the sauce we know today. They were still popular in Elizabethan
and later times:
The first step in dating modern tartar sauce is dating the origin of this recipe's major component:
mayonnaise. There are many variations on the recipe for tartar sauce; the simplest being a mix of mayonnaise
and chopped pickles. Elaborate recipes give instructions for making one's own mayonnaise and
include chopped onions, scallions and a mix of spicy herbs.
Compare these recipes:
[1879] "Morcan's Tartar Sauce--To Mix Mustard
[1884] Tartar
Sauce & Sauce
Tartare
[1890?] "Tartar sauce
Why is this recipe called tartar sauce? And when was it first referred to a such? This is hard to
say. According to Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning
Stevens (p. 156) "Beef Tartare--finely minced lean raw beef--became fashionable in France in the
nineteenth century. It was named for the Tartars (Originally "Tatars") or Mongols who had
terrorized eastern Europe in the days of Gengis Kahn....Beef Tartare was usually served as it is
now, with a bevy of garnishes, including a piquant sauce with a mayonnaise base that came to be
called sauce Tartare or Tartar Sauce. Today, at least in the United States, it is more often served
with fish."
Tomato
Tomatoes are a "new world" food. The first tomato sauces were made by ancient South
Americans. These spicy sauces/salsas also employed chilies, peppers, and other finely diced
vegetables. About salsa.
Tomatoes were introduced to Europe from the New World by explorers in the 16th century.
They were not immediately embraced because they were considered poisonous. Tomatoes were
grown as "botanical curiosities," not as food. Tomatoes grew easily in the Spain and Italy and
were widely used in Southern European dishes by the 17th century. Tomatoes slowly spread
throughout Northern Europe, and back to the American colonies. American recipes including
were known in the 18th century. Italian-style pasta dishes (Spaghetti and meatballs ) slathered with
tomato sauce gained popularity in the 20th century. Tomato gravy is also 20th century.
"The first description of the tomato in the Mediterranean was in 1544, by the Italian botanist
Pierandrea Mattioli. He was desribing the yellow-fruited varity, and it has been suggested that the
Italian word for tomato, pomodoro (apple of gold), derived from this variety...Another theory of
the origin of pomme d'amour is that it is a corruption of pomme des mours, "apple of the Moors,"
in recognition that two important members of the Solanaceae family, the egglant and the tomato,
were favorite Arab vegetables. At first the tomato was used only as an ornamental plant in
Mediterranean gardens because growers recognized it as a member of the nightshade family, then
only known as comprising only poisonous members such as mandrake."
"The tomato, initially regarded as an ornamental fruit and later adopted as a food, was an exotic curiousity that first
appears in the writings of P.A. Mattioli and Jose de Acosta, travelers and naturalists. Apart from these sources, allusions
to its consumption are very rare. Costanzo Felici tell us...that the usual "gluttons and pople greedy for new things" did not
realize they could eat the tomato as they would eat mushrooms or eggplants, fried in oil and flavored with salt and pepper.
Although we must not exclude the possibility that tomatoes were consumed at an earlier date by the common people, it is only at the
end of the seventeenth century that we observe their inclusion in elite cuisine, thanks to the Neapolitan recipe collection
of Antonio Latini. Iberian influences may be detected in their adoption for culinary purposes, since various recipes that
call for tomatoes are designated as "in the Spanish style." Among these is a recipe for "tomato sauce," which is flavored with
onions and wild thyme "or piperna" and subsequently adjusted to taste by adding salt, oil, and vinegar. With a few
modifications, this preparation was to enjoy a remarkable future in Italian cuisine and in the industry of preserved foods. The
custom oberved in ancient and medieval times, as well as during the Renaissance, of serving sauces as accompaniments to
"boiled foods or other dishes"--as Latini expresses it in this instance--facilitated the acceptance of the tomato by
integrating it into an established gastronomic tradition. For the same reason, it gained widespread currence in
Italian cooking in the eighteenth and nineteenth cneturies. Panunto in Tuscany, Vincenzo Corrado in Naples, and Francesco
Leonardi in Rome all include it in their recipe books."
"In 1544 an Italian hebalist, Pietro Andrae Matthioli, published a reference to mala aurea, or "golden apples," which he described
as "flattened like the melrose [sort of apple] and segmented, green at first and when ripe of a golden color." This was the
first known European reference to the tomato. It suggests that the tomatoes conveyed initially into Europe were
yellow in color. Matthioli classified them with the mandrake plant. In turn, mandrake was classified along with the nightshades,
many of which were toxic."
"Despite the current enthusiasm for tomatoes in Italy, Spain and the rest of southern Europe, they
were not well received upon arrival from the New World in the sixteenth century. Looking and
smelling much like their poisonous relatives in the Solanaceae family it is not surprising that few
people tried to eat them. They were usually grown as ornamental flowers, and only described
botanically in Mattioli's Commentaries on Dioscordes in 1544. Although wealthy diners
would not eat tomatoes, it does appear that their poorer neighbors had begun to eat them out of
necessity. Good evidence of this can be found in 1650 in Melchior Sebizius' On the Faculty of
Foods in which he writes that they are so cold and moist that they must be cooked with pepper,
salt and oil, but "our cookes abosolutely reject them, even though they grow easily and copiously
in gardens." The first published cookbook recipes indcluding tomatoes appeared in Naples at the
very end of the seventeenth century in Antonio Latini's Lo Scalo all a Moderna."
Latini's 1692 recipe would have produced something quite similar modern
salsa:
"As one would expect from its climatic requirements, [the tomato] successfully adapted to
Mediterranean
conditions although its welcome was not immediate or unanimous. The first printed recipe for
spaghetti with
tomato sauce was published in an Neapolitan cookobok in 1837, although we do not know how
long the
dish had been eaten before that. It must have been late in the nineteenth century before "as easy as
spaghetti with tomato sauce" became the Italian equivalent for our "easy as pie." And then it was
hardly
welcomed all over Italy...In fact the myth of tomato-soaked Italian cuisine is a product of
American
perception of Italo-American food, which was not at all a realistic assessment of Italian foods as it
is or ever
was."
Ragu, Sugo & Tomato Gravy
"Q. Is there a difference between sauces and gravies?
About Ragu:
"Ragu...Meat sauce, usually referring to the long-simmered Bolognese classic, ragu alla bolognese, made with vegetables, tomatoes, heavy cream, and beef."
"Bolognese pasta is almost always served with a ragu (the word is a corruption of the French ragout, or stew). This is a thick sauce made from such ingredients as
onions, carrots, finely chopped pork and beef, celery, butter and tomatoes."
"Ragu can be the dense concentrated meaty sauce made in Bologna to accompany the egg tagliatelle of the region, or a dish of a slow-cooked beef or pork from
Naples, whose thick dark cooking juices season ridge short pasta, the meat making a delicious second course. This Neapolitan recipe used to be made by the
portinai, or doormen, who sat watchfully observing both the comings and goings of tenants and the murmurings of the barely simmering pot. Both recipes have
nothing in common with that Anglo-Saxon abomination Spag Bol, spaghetti bolognese, a recipe loved the world over but quite unknown in Italy." About Sugo:
""Juice." Both fruit juice and the juices that seep from meats being cooked. Italians may use the terms sugo (plural, sughi) and salsa interchangeably, but some cooks
distinguish between the two--without agreeing on what those distinctions are. In his cookbook La Scienca in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (1891), Pellegrino
Artusi insisted that a sugo di omodoro (tomato sauce) is "simple, i.e., made from tomatoes that are simply cooked and run through a food mill. At the most, you
may add a small rib of celery and a few leaves of parsely and basil to tomato sugo, if you must." Salses, he contended, as accompaniments like greens auce...to
other dishes. Yet sugo di carne, a suace made with meat juices (if with beef alone, it is called sugo di manzo), was well known among wealthy families of the 19th
century, and sugo finto (fake sauce) is a common term used by poor people for a pasta sauce made to taste like a sugo di carne by using the same ingredients, but
without the meat. And meat sauces are also termed salse. To further complicate matters the words ragu, and in Tuscany, tocco, are often used for a meat sauce...It
would appear...that the two terms sugo and salsa are often interchangeable, with sugo reserved for a pasta sauce while salsa may be used to describe sauces that
may or may not accompany pasta."
"Sugo di Umido de Maiale (Campania) Rich Pork Stew Sauce. This rich sauce is typical of Naples and is used to sauce various lasagne, macaroni dishes, and
timapny...The finished sauce will contain a substantial amount of fat, traditionally a prized source of caloires for the poorer population."
Artusi's 1891 recipe translated here:
So why call it gravy?
"There are many different opinons on what to call Italian red tomato sauce. When Italians make a meatless tomato sauce, we
call it sauce or marinara sauce. When we make tomato sauce with pork, beef, sausage, and meatballs, or with any meat,
we call it gravy. Our mothers and millions of other Italians called in gravy and it was probably because there was meat
in it."
"Stories of Italian grandmothers simmering their tomato sauces for hours are familiar but probably untrue. Tomatoes that are cooked
for too long lose their sweetness, and the resulting sauce tastes old and tired. Most likely those beloved nonne were actually
cooking a ragu or sugo, that is, a meat sauce, which may or may not have included tomatoes. Meat sauces generally call for beef,
veal, pork, or a combination...The term sugo is used for a sauce, a gravy, pan juices..."
"I grew up in the Italian section of South Philadelphia, and there were set dishes in that neighborhood--four blocks in every direction families cooked the same things. On
Monday there was soup, pasta on Tuesday, veal or beef on Wednesday, pasta on Thursday, fish on Friday, pot luck on Saturday and an elaborate feast on Sunday.
Everybody made tomato gravy once a week." (Like what would seem to be a majority of first, second or third generation Italians in America, Mr. Paone speaks of tomato
sauce as gravy.)"
The earliest reference we find for "tomato gravy" in an American cookbook is
this one from 1905. It also contains beef.
Food companies introduced the term to mainstream America:
"Generals and colonels became mess sergeants--but only very temporarily--yesterday at Governors Island. They were particiapting in the first semi-public demonstration
of new combat rations that are pre-cooked and dehydrated. The officers took turns adding either hot or cold water to produce such G.I. delicacies-of-the-future as chili con
carne with apple sauce, beef loaf with tomato gravy, instant mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, hot tea, coffee and lumpy cocoa."
ABOUT TOMATOES
RECOMMENDED READING
Veloute
Veloute is considered by some to be the most practical of all "mother sauces." Ordinary veloute is
a based on
basic white stock. Chicken and fish veloute inspired their own cadre of flavorful descendents.
"A veloute is a basic white sauce made from veal, chicken, or fish stock and a flour-and-butter
roux. In
French the word means literally " velvety," and it seems to have been introduced into English in
the
early
nineteenth century. It should not be confused with the fairly similar bechemel sauce, which is
made with milk
or cream rather than stock."
"Veloute...is the term used for a basic French sauce which is made with stock...First of all roux is
made with
butter and flour; then plenty of stick is blended in and flavouring added. After prolonged
simmering, the
sauce will have acquired its velevety texture. A liaison of egg yolk and/or a little cream can be
added at the
end to enrich it and make it even more velvety. Veloute, with the addition of various other
ingredients,
acquires new names..."
Vodka sauce
Several traditional Italian sauces incorporate native wines. Vodka??? Intriguing, but decidedly
un-Italian. A survey of newspaper/magazine articles places the genesis of vodka sauce in the
1980s.
Nuevo Cucina.
"Pasta with vodka-enhanced sauce was another trendy food in the mid-Eighties. Although cooks
later devised such dishes as pasta with vodka, sour cream, and two caviars, the first and probably
best was a simple dish of penne (a thick, tubular pasta), vodka, tomatoes, and cream. According
to Barbara Kafka in Food for Friends (1984), it was fashionable in Italy before Joanna's
Restaurant in New York put it on the menu and made it a fad in the United States."
The first references we find to vodka sauce in American newspapers were printed in 1983:
"Pasta with sweet red pepper sauce, pasta with salmon, pasta with sage sauce, pasta with vodka
sauce--and this is just the beginning..."
"The wives of two American Diplomats who met in Rome five years ago have written a cookbook
with recipes that include pasta with vodka sauce and rice with strawberries. Moth are examples of
nuova cucina, Italian for new cuisine. What the authors have not included among the more than
250 recipes in "pasta and Rice Italian Style" (Scribner's, $16.95) is pasta with flavors such as chili
peppers and carrots. Tomatoes and spinach are used in Italy to color some pasta, but not to flavor
it, Efrem Funghi Calingaert and Jacquelyn Days Serwer said in an interview during a trip to New
York. They said the fad for unusual flavored pastas in the United States has not caught on in Italy.
"Italians like to experiment with the sauces, not the pasta," Mrs. Calingaert said."
By the late 1980s, vodka sauce is all the rage:
"With farm markets and produce stands in full bloom, I am always experimenting with new
recipes to take advantage of the seasonal bounty. The recipe given here is a variation on pasta
prinavera, a dish that has countless incarnations, although the classic version calls for a wide
assortment of vegetables and a cream-based sauce. The major twist is adding a daish of flavored
vodka to the sauce. You do not really taste the alcohol, most of which evaporates in cooking, but
a kind of peppery flavor does come throught. Many herb-flavored vodkas are available, and it can
be fun experimenting with them."
Chocolate gravy
Chocolate gravy is a specialty of the American south and Appalachian regions. This flour-thickened sauce is served with biscuits for breakfast. There are (at least) two theories regarding
the origin of this recipe:
"Spanish Louisiana had a trading network in to the Tennessee valley. This trade may have
introduced Mexican-style breakfast chocolate to the Appalachians, where it is called "chocolate
gravy." (Another possibility is that the very old population of mixed-race Appalachian
Melungeons has preserved the dish from the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish colonies
on the East Coast.)"
"Chocolate gravy in the Appalachians? Yes, say Mark Sohn of Pikefill, Kentucky, who says this
recipe has been handed down over the years by mountain families in his region of eastern
Kentucky and West Virginia...It's a milk-and-flour-based sauce that should be cooked thick
enough to stick well on open biscuits."
"Chocolate Gravy. This gravy, once served by isolated Highlander families as a treat for children, is now a treat for adults.
Why? Because while adults have hond memories of chocolate gravy, children don't know it. They don't see it advertised on TV, and they
can't buy it...When I first heard about this sauce, the name did not appeal to me. Later when I tasted its
smooth chocolately sweetness, when I lifted it with butter and biscuit to my mouth, when I first smelled the chocolate and saw it
shine, then its flavor filled my chocolate-craving taste buds and it entered my long-term memory. I will never forget that
moment. As badly as an itinerant preacher seeks converts, I want you to taste this gravy! Our elderly mountain cooks make chocolate
gravy with canned "cream," a product that manufactureres call evaporated milk. To this "cream," they add enough water so the
gravy will flow and spread, but not so much that it runs over the plate...Chocolate gravy is a milk and flour-based sauce, a white
sauce or a bechamel. It is low in fat--spoon for spoon, it has fewer calories than butter, cream cheese, chocolate sauce,
marmalade, or strawberry jelly--and it is low-cost and easy to prepare. It is thick, full, smooth, and chocolatey. And when the
gravy is cold, it cane be used as a cake filling--it softens as it warms."
---Mountain Country Cooking, Mark F. Sohn [St. Martins Press:New York] 1996 (p. 10-11)
ABOUT CHOCOLATE SAUCE & PUDDINGS IN AMERICA
SO WHERE DOES CHOCOLATE GRAVY FIT IN?
SELECTED CREAMY CHOCOLATE RECIPES
[1879]
[1912]
[1934]
[1996]
[1998]
About culinary research & about copyright.
---The Sauce Bible: Guide to the Saucier's Craft, David Paul Larousse [John Wiley:New
York] 1992 (p. 143)
[NOTE: this book contains a brief history of sauces (p. 3-12). Ask your librarian to help you find
a copy]
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
65)
---Gastronomy of France, Raymond Oliver [World Publishing Company:London] 1967 (p.
218, 220)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
283)
[1651]
"Loin of Pork with a sauce Robert.
Lard it with great lard, then roast it, and baste it with verjuice and vinegar, and a bundle of sage.
After the fat is fallen, take for to fry an onion with, which being fried, you shall put under the loin
with the sauce wherewith you have basted it. All being a little stoved together, lest it may harden,
serve. This sauce is called sauce Robert."
---The French Cook, Francois Pierre La Varenne [1651] Englished by I.D.G. 1653,
Introduced by Philip and Mary Hyman [Southover Press:East Sussex] 2001 (p. 55)
"To Dress Eel with Brown Sauce.
Skin and clean a large Eel very well, cut it in Pieces, put it into a Sauce-pan or Stew-pan, put to it
a quarter of a Pint of Water, a Bundle of Sweet Hergs, an Onion, some whope Pepper, a Blade of
Mace, and a little Salt. Cover it close, and when it begins to simmer, put in a Gill of Red Wine a
Spoonful of Mushroom-pickle, a Piece of Butter as big as a Wallnut rolled in Flour, cover it close
and let it stew till it is enough, which you will know by the Eel being very tender. Take up your
Eel, lay it in a Dish, strain your Sauce, give it a boil quick, and pour it over your Fish. You mist
make Sauce according to the Largeness of your Eel, or more less. Garnish with Lemon."
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy, Hannah Glasse, Facsimile of the First Edition
[Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 92)
No. 75--Salmi Sauce a l'Espagnole.
Cut four shalots, and a carrot into large dice, some parsley roots, a few bits of ham, a clove, two
or three leaves of mace, the quarter of a bay-leaf, a little thyme, and get a small bit of butter, with
a few mushrooms. Put the whole into a stew-pan over a gentle fire; let fry til you percieve the
stew-pan is coloured all round. The moisten with half a pint of Madiera wine, and a very small
lump of sugar. Let it reduced to one-half. Put in six spoonsful of Espagnole and the trimmings of
our partridges. Let them stew for an hour on the corner of the stove. Skim the fat off, taste
whether your sauce be seasoned enough; strain it over the members, make it hot without boiling;
dish the salmi, and reduced the sauce, which strain through a tammy. Then cover the salmi with
the sauce."
--The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, facsimile reprint 1828 book [Arco
Publishing:New York]1978 (p. 35-6)
"Espagnole Sauce.
The quantities in this recipe are calculated to make 4 quarts of Espagnole Sauce, which will
certainly not be too much when treating of high-class cooking operations. It must be bourne in
mind that Espagnole will keep perfectly good for three or four days; so that, in large
establishments, even double the quantity I indicate may safely be prepared.
---Royal Cookery Book , Jules Gouffe, translated and adapted for English by Alphonse
Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son & Marston:London] 1869 (p. 263-4)
[NOTE: recipe for Epagnole Sauce Maigre (without meat) follows.]
"Espagnole Sauce.--Boil one quart of strong consomme or rich, highly seasoned brown
stock, till reduced to one pint. Then use it as given under the rule for brown sauce, and flavor
with wine."
---Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln [1884], facismile reprint
[Dover:Mineola NY] 1996 (p. 193)
"Sauce Espagnole.
To make 5 litres (8 3/4 pt or 1 3/8 U.S. gal)
625 (1 lb 6 oz) brown Roux--using: 285 g (10 oz) clarified butter and 340 g (12 oz) sifted
flour
12 litres (2 5/8 gal or 3 1/4 U.S. gal) brown stock
150 f (5 oz) roughly diced salt belly of pork
250 g (9 oz) roughly diced carrots
150 g. (5 oz) roughly diced onions
2 sprigs thyme
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) tomate puree or 2 kg (4 1.2 lb) fresh tomatoes
2 dl (7 fl oz or 7/8 U.S. cup) white sauce.
1. Place 8 litres (1 3/4 gal or 2/ 1/4 U.S. gal) of the stock in a heavy pan and bring to the boil; add
the Roux, previously softened in the oven. Mix well with a wooden spoon or whisk and bring to
the boil mixing continuously. Draw the pan to the side of the stove and allow to simmer slowly
and evenly.
2. Meanwhile, place the salt pork in a pan and fry to extract the fat, add the vegetables and
flavourings and fry until light brown in colour. Carefully drain off the fat and put the ingredients
into the sauce; deglaze the pan with the wine, reduce it by half and also add to the sauce. Allow to
simmer gently for 1 hour skimming frequently.
3. Pass the sauce through a conical strainer into another pan, pressing lightly. Add another 2 litres
( 3 1/2 pt or 9 U.S. cups) stock, bring to the boil and allow to simmer gently for a further 2 hours.
Pass the sauce through a fine strainer and stir occasionally until completely cold.
4. The next day, add the remainder of the stock and the tomato puree.; bring the sauce to the boil
stirring continuously with a wooden spatula or whisk, then allow to simmer gently and evenly for
1 hour skimming carefully.
Pass through a fine strainer or tammy cloth and stir occasionally until the suace is completely
cold.
1. The time required for the preparation and refining of this sauce cannot be indicated exactly as it
depends to a large extent on the quality of the stock used in its making. The refining of this sauce
will be quicker if the stock is of very good quality inwhich case an excellent Espagnole can be
prepared in five hours.
2. Before adding tomato puree to this sauce it is advisable to spread the required quantity on a
tray and to cook it in the oven until it turns a light brown colour. This will destroy most of the
excess acidity found in tomato purees, and when prepared in this way, the puree assists in
clarifying the sauce and at the same time dives it a smoother taste and a more agreeable
colour."
---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Auguste Escoffier, [1903] The
frist translation into English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann of Le Guide Culinaire in its
entirely, [John Wiley:New York] 1979 (p. 7)
"Brown sauce.
This sauce is the base of all brown sauces for meat and poultry.
1 cup butter or good fat
2/3 cup flour
6 cups boiling brown gravy or water
1 cup Tomato Sauce
2 or 3 tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
10 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon thyme
3 sprigs parsley
3 stalks celery
2 chopped onions and 2 chopped carrots, browned in butter
1 clove of garlic, crushed
Chicken, veal or beef bones
1 glass dry sherry or Madiera
Melt the butter in a saucepan and brown carrots and onions in it. Mix in the flour and let cook
until golden brown. Add the boiling brown gravy or water and mix well with a wire whip. Add the
Tomato Sauce, tomatoes, salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme, parsley, celery and garlic. In order
to give the sauce a rich brown color, roast some chicken, veal or beef bones in the oven. The add
the bones to the sauce and let boil slowly over low heat for 2 or 3 hours. Skim from time to time.
Strain the sauce and correct the seasoning. When ready to serve, strain again through a fine
strainer and add a glass of dry sherry or Madiera. This sauce will keep for weeks in a refrigerator.
N.B. Whenever any good meat of poultry gravy is left over, set it aside as it will be very useful in
making all kinds of Brown Sauce."
---Cooking a la Ritz, Louis Diat [J.B. Lippincott Company:Philadelphia] 1941 (p. 87-8)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
383)
---The Horizon Cookbook and Illustrated History of Eating and Drinking Through the
Ages,
William Harlan Hale [American Heritage Publishing Co.:New York] 1968 (p. 625)
[1683]
"To Make a Sauce for a Boiled Sturgeon.
Take youg Onion cooked in Butter, Chervil, Parsley, Pepper, and Wine vinegar, let it cook
together. It is a good sauce." (P. 70)
Split the Eel open and wash clean. Take Sorrrel, Chervil, and Parsley, soem Rice, a little Mace,
tied close [and] boiled in water, some Salt in it. When the Eel floats thentake it out and place on
an earthenware collander and a sauce of Butter and Vinegar with an Egg is poured over it. Is
good." (P. 69)
---The Sensible Cook: Dutch Foodways in the Old and New World, Translated and Edited
by Peter G. Rose [Syracuse Univeristy Press:Syracuse NY] 1989
Original Dutch version [1669 edition] here.
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2007 (p. 488)
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 208)
---The Saucier's Apprentice, Raymond Sokolov [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1976 (p. 6-7)
[1828]
"NO. 60.--Mayonnaise.
Take three spoonsful of Allemande, six of aspic, and two of oil. Add a little tarragon vinegar that has not boiled, some pepper
and salt, and chopped ravigotte, or some chopped parsley only. Set the whole over some ice, and when the mayonnaise begins to
freeze, then put in the members of fowl, or fillets of soles, &c. The mayonnaise must be put into ice: but the members must not
be put into the sauce till it begins to freeze. Dish up the meat or fish, cover it with the sauce before it be quite frozen,
and garnish the dish with whatever you think proper, as beet-root, jelly, naturtiums, &c."
---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, facsimile Englished edition of book originally published in French, 1828
[Arco Publishing:New York] 1978 (p. 20)
"White Mayonnaise Sauce
Put, in a small basin: the yolk of 1 egg, well freed from white; 1 pinch of salt; and a small pinch of pepper; stir with a
wooden spoon, and pour in, by drops at first, then by teaspoonfuls, about 4 oz. of oil,--being careful to mix the oil well before
adding any more; at every eighth teapsoonful of oil, add 1 teaspoonful of vinegar, till all the oil is used; taste the seasoning;
and serve. Mayonnaise should, as a rule, be of rather high seasoning."
Prepare a white mayonnaise, as just indicated; Cop 3 tablespoonfuls of ravigote, i.e. a mixture of chervil, tarragon, cress,
and burnet;--if tarragon is scarce, chervil alone, with a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar added to the sauce, will do as well.
Mix the herbs, in the sauce; and serve."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marson:London] 1869
"Sauce Mayonnaise
Many composed cold sauces are derived from Mayonnaise and it is therefore classified as a basic sauce in the same way as Espagnole and
Veloute. Its preparation is very simple provided note is take of the principles outlined int eh following recipe:
Ingredients
6 egg yolks (these must be unblemished)
1 litre (1 3/4pt or 4 1/2 U.S. cups) oil
10 g (1/3 oz) fine salt
pinch of ground white pepper
1 1/2 tbls vinegar (or its equivalent in lemon juice if the cause is required to be very white
Method
1. Whisk the yolks of egg in a basin with the salt, pepper and a little of the vinegar or a few drops of lemon juice.
2. Add and whisk in the oil, drop by drop to begin with, then faster in a thread as the sauce begins to thicken.
---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, A. Escoffier, originally published in 1907, translated by H.L. Cracknell and R. J. Kaufmann [John Wiley & Sons:New YOrk] 1997 (p. 30)
[NOTE: Escoffier also includes recipes for: Sauce Mayonnaise Collee (Jellied Mayonnaise), Sauce Mayonnaise Fouette a la
Russe (Whipped Mayonnaise, Russian Style), and Various Mayonnaise Sauces (generally including creamy parts of large shellfish).
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York]
2001 (p. 751)
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p.
215)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
509)
[1869] Gouffe
"Mirepoix, or Essence of Meat and Vegetables.
Observation.--Mirepoix is such a common term in cookery that I cannot help using it, although I
have thought it well to indicate its composition in the title itself. It is an extract of meat and
vegetables;--the word mirepoix alone would certainly not make this fact as clear as desirable. To
make mirepoix: Cut 2 lbs of fillet of veal, 1 lb. Of fat bacon, and 2 lbs. Of raw ham, half lean, half
fat, in 1 1/2 inch pieces, and put these into a stewpan with: 4 sliced carrots, 4 middle-sized onions,
4 bay leaves, 1 sprig of thyme, 4 shallots; Fry till the meat is of a light brown colour, and pour in 2
bottles of Madeira, and 5 quarts of General Stock; add 1/2 oz. Of mignonnette pepper; boil; then
simmer gently for two hours; strain through a broth napkin; and put by fvor use, --without taking
off the fat."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated from the French and adapted for
English use by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marston:London] 1869 (p. 269)
"322. Mirepoix
The ingredients are the same as those for Matignon with the following differences: the vegetables
are cut into large or small Bruinoise according to how the Mirepoix is to be used and the raw ham
is replaced by lean salt belly of pork cut in dice and blanched. Lightly brown all the ingredients in
a little butter.
Cut 125 g (4 1/2 oz) red of carrot, 125 g (. 1/2 ox) onion, 50 g (2 oz) celery and 100 g (3 1/2 oz)
raw ham all into thin Paysanne; add 1 bayleaf and a sprig of thyme. Stew together in a little butter
and deglaze with a little white wine."
---Escoffier: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Escoffier [1903], the
first translation into English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann of Le Guide Culinaire
in its entirety [John Wiley:New York] 1979 (p. 50)
"Mirepoix
Yield: 1 pound (450 grams)
Onions, chopped, 8 ounces (225 grams)
Carrots, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)
Celery, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)
1. Cut the vegetables into an appropriate size based on the cooking time of the dish.
2. Add mirepoix to the recipe as directed.
Yield: 1 pound (450 grams)
Onions, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)
Leeks, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)
Celery, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)
Parsnips, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)
Mushroom trimmings (optional), 2 to 3 ounces (60 to 85 grams)
1. Cut the vegetables into an appropriate size, based on the cooking time of the dish.
2. Add mirepoix to the recipe as directed."
---The Professional Chef, Culinary Institute of America, 6th edition, 1996 (p. 420)
---Larousse Gastonomique, Completely revised and updated edition [Clarkson Potter:New
York] 2001 (p. 1042)
--- Haute Cusine: How the French Invented the Culinary Profession, Amy B. Trubek
[University of Pennsylvania Press:Philadelphia PA] 2000 (p. 18)
---The Saucier's Apprentice, Raymond Sokolov, [Alfred A
Knopf:New York] 1976 (p. xiv-xv)
[NOTE: Mr. Sokolov's book serves an excellent course in the contributions La Varenne, Massaliot, Careme,
Ude and others. If you are a culinary student this book is in your school's library. If not? Your
public librarian can help you find a copy. Use this book to trace connection between demi glace
(Espagnole in its most refined stage) and sauce Robert, Duxelles, Poivrade, Piquante, Chasseur,
Perigoudine, etc.
Pesto
"Basil., aromatic plant. Basil was already being eaten by slugs in ancient Greek gardens, but why
it was grown there is uncertain. In the modern Near East basil is grown for its aroma by not
traditionally used in food. In the ancient world it was controversial whether basil should be taken
as fod, though according to Galen some ate it as a salad, dressed with olive oil and garum. Its
medicial qualities are recorded from the Hippocratic Regimen onwards. The basil of the
Mediterranean is Ocimum americanum. The ancient name was okimon in Greek, ocimum in
Latin; the now-familiar name basilikon appears first in early medieval texts, and the two are
equated in Byzantine sources such as the manuscripts of Simeon Seth's dietary manual, but some
scholars, including Laufer, have doubted that the ancient okimon is realy basil."
---Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 48)
---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [William Morris:New York] 1999 (p. 351)
---The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces, Diane Seed [Ten Speed Press:Berkeley CA] 1987 (p.
9-10)
---Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p.
190)
[1893]
"Salsa Verde (Green sauce)
To prepare green sauce, squeeze the brin out of some capers and then, using a mezzaluna, finely chop them together wtih an anchovy,
a little onion, and very little garlic. Mash the mixture with a knife blade and make it into a fine paste which you will place in
a gravy dish. Add a fair amount of parsley chopped with a few basil leaves. Blend everything in fine olive oil and lemon juice.
This sauce goes well with boiled chicken, cold fish, hard-boiled or poached eggs. if you have no capers, brine-cured pepper may
be used instead."
---Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, Pellegrino Artusi, Translated by Murtha Baca and Stephoen Sartalli
[Marsilio Publshers:New York] 1997 (p. 117-118)
"In Liguria you must try the minestrone col pesto, a soup in which oil, cheese, garlic and basil are used."
---"Italy Richly Endowed with Foods Renowned," Darrell Preston Aub, The Washington Post, September 8, 1935 (p. F1)
"Italian Spaghetti Paste. Those who are fond of spaghetti may be interested in learning of an Italian paste which, though not new, is relatively little
known. Called Pesto Genovese, it is dark green in color and is made of finely chopped parsley, anise, basil, garlic, cheese, olive
oil and seasoning. it needs only to be added to oil or margarine to make a delicious sauce. The kind we have in mind is
Poggiolo brand. The paste, which is especially popular with Italians, has a pungent anise flavor, in which a trace of basil is
also apparent. For this reason, a linking for anise is a prerequisite to its use. Although the directions on the tin call for
two tablespoons of the paste to be mixed with oil as desired, those with conservative tastes will find one tablespoon sufficient
for each serving of spaghetti. Mix it with one tablespoon of oil, or with one and a half tablespoons of fortified margarine.
The sauce should then be heated, added to the spaghetti and sprinkled generously with an Italian-type grated cheese. One six-ounce tin
of the paste will serve twelve persons. If all of the package is not used at once, the remainder may be kept in a glass jar in the
refrigerator. Pesto Genovese, which is often referred to simply as green paste, may be found at most Italian grocery stores, and,
specifically at Manganato's, 488 Ninth Avenue, where it sells for 28 cents."
---"News of Food," Jane Holt, New York Times, October 24, 1944 (p. 20)
---"Spaghetti: The fine points of preparing it in the native manner," Sunset, January 1946 (p. 30-31)
"Pesto Sauce, Genoise Style.
1 large bunch fresh sweet basil
Parsely, about a s much as basil
4 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
4 tablsepoon Romona cheese.
1. Chop to a paste basil, parsley and garlic, using a chopping bowl or mortar and pestle. Do not prepare this sauce too far ahead
of serving time or the green color will be lost.
2. Add salt and pepper. Add oil about drop by drop, beating and rubbing continuously until mixture is of sauce consistency. Stir in
cheese. Serve by mixing about one-half the sauce with cooked fine spaghetti or noodles and use the remaining sauce as garnish
on top. The sauce also may be added to minestrone soup, a spoonful to each serving. Yield: four servings."
---"News of Food," New York Times, May 10, 1952 (p. 24)
"Basil--once called the herb of kings--is becoming more common in American cookery. The sweet, fragrant plant is well known to
European epicureans, who use it for flavoring soups, meats and sauces...Lucky Americans returning from an Italian vacation will
speak fondly of having eaten a fresh-basil spaghetti sauce called "pesto." This delicacy may be prepared as follows:
Chop very fine one large buch fresh sweet basil with an equal amount of parsley and four cloves of garlic. Better still, mash all
all together in a mortar with a pestle. Add olive oil drop by drop until mixture is of sauce consistency. Season to taste. Stir in four
tablespoons grated Romano cheese. Mix about one-half the suace with cooked fine spaghetti or noodles and use remaining portion as
garnish."
---"Basil Brings Soupor Meat a Novel Tang," New York Times, August 24, 1955 (p. 30)
---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean
Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 214)
Roux
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
674)
"Thickening of flowre
Melt some lard, take out the mammocks; put your flowre into your melted lard, seeth it well, but
have a care
it stick not to the pan, mix some onion with it proportionably. When it is enough, put all with
good broth,
mushrums and a drop of vinegar. Then after it hath boiled with its seasoning, pass all through the
strainer
and put it in a pot. When you will use it, you shall set it upon warm embers for to thicken or allay
your
sauces."
---The French Cook, Francois Pierre La Varenne, Englished by I.D.G. 1653, Introduced
by Philip and
Mary Hyman [Southover Press:East Sussex] 2001 (p. 105)
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lehbhar-Friedman:New
York] 1999
(p. 276)
---The Picayune Creole Cook Book, facsimile 1901 2nd edition [Dover Publications:New
York] 1971
(p. 158)
"Brown roux.
1 Tablespoonful Butter. 1 Tablespoonful Flour.
In making the roux, which is the foundation of fancy sauce, melt the tablespoonful of butter
slowly, and add
gradually the flour, sprinking it in and stirring constantly, till every portion is a nice, delicate
brown. Never
make it too brown, because it must continue browning as the other ingredients are added in the
order given
in every recipe in this book. It is a great mistake to pile all ingredients, one after another,
pell-mell, into a
dish, in the course of preparation. The secret of good cooking lies in following implicity the
gradual
introduction of the component parts in the order specified.
---(p. 159)
1 tablespoonful Butter. 1 Tablespoonful Flour.
The White Roux is made exactly like the Brown Roux, only that the butter and flour are put
simultaneously
into the saucepan, and not allowed to brown. It is then moistened with a little broth or boiling
water, and
allowed to boil a few minutes, till thick. The White Roux is the foundation of all white sauces, or
those
containing milk and cream. It is also used in nearly all purees. In the Sauce Veloute it should be
colored."
---(p. 159)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
740)
Food of China, E. N. Anderson
Cambridge World History of Food, Kiple & Ornelas
Tartar sauce
"Sauce for hens or Pullets to prepare them to roast...Then for the sauce take the yolks of six hard
eggs minced small, put to them white-wine, or wine vinegar, butter, and the gravy the of the hen,
juyce of orange, pepper, salt, and if you please add thereto mustard."
--- Accomplist Cook, Robert May [1685] (p. 149)
[1845] "Tartar Sauce.
Add to the preceding remoulade, or to any other sauce of the same nature, a teaspoonful or more
of made mustard, one of finely-minced shalots, one of parsley or tarragon, and one of capers or of
pickled gherkins, with a rather high seasoning of cayenne, and some salt if needed. The
tartar-mustard of the previous chapter, or good French mustard, is to be preferred to English for
this
sauce, which is usually made very pungent, and for which any ingredients can be used to the taste
wich will serve to render it so. Tarragon vinegar, minced tarragon and eschoalots, and plenty of
oil, are used for it in France, in conjunction with the yolks of one or two eggs, and chopped
capers, or gherkins, to which olives are sometimes added."
---Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton, originally printed in 1845, with an
introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1993 (p. 137)
Yolk of one raw egg, sweet-oil added very slowly, until the quantity is made that is desired; thin
with a little vinegar. Take two small cucumber pickles, two full teaspoonfuls of capers, three small
sprigs parsley, and one small shaleot or leek. Chop all fine, and stir into the sauce about an hour
before serving. If very thick, add a tablespoonful cold water. This quantity will serve eight
persons--is good with trout, veal cutlets, and oysters."
---Housekeeping in Old Virginia, Marion Cabell Tyree [1879] (p. 303)
Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln [1884]
Place a round-bottomed basin in a deep sauta-pan containing some pounded ice, put two raw
yelks [yolks] of eggs into the basin with a little pepper and salt, and with a wooden spoon
proceed, with the back part of the bowl, to work the yelk of eggs, dropping in, at intervals, very
small quantities of salad-oil, and a little tarragon-vinegar, until a sufficient quantity of sauce is
produced; bearing in mind, that the relative quantity of oil to be used in proportion to the vinegar
is as five to one. When the sauce is finished, add some chopped tarragon and chervil, and half a
shalot. In making this sauce, should it decompose through inattention, it may instantly be restored
to its proper consistency by mixing in it a good spoonful of cold white sauce."
---Francatelli's Modern Cook, C. E. Francatelli, 26th London Edition [1890?] (recipe 96,
p. 55)
---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [William Morrow:New York] 1999 (p.
213)
---Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History, Alberto Capatti & Massimo Montanari [Columbia University Press:New York] 1999 (p. 42-3)
---The Tomato in America: Early History, Culture, and Cookery, Andrew F. Smith [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1994 (p. 12)
---Food in Early Modern Europe, Ken Albala [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2003 (p.
32)
"Spanish Tomato Sauce.
"Not until...1790, with the publication of the Neapolitan chef Francesco Leonardi's L'Apicio
Moderno (The Modern Apicius) does the spaghetti and tomato sauce of today begin to
emerge."
Take a half dozen tomatoes that are mature and put them over th e coals and turn them until they
are
charred, then carefully peel off the skin. Cut them up finely with a knife, and add onions finely cut
up, at
your discretion, finely chopped peppers, a small quantitiy of thyme or pepperwort. Mix everything
together
and add a bit of salt, oil and vinegar. It will be a very tasty sauce for boiled meats or
whatever."
---Food in Early Modern Europe, Ken Albala [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2003 (p.
138)
---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [William Morrow:New York] 1999 (p.
32)
---America's First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe [University of Texas Press:Austin] 1994 (p.
48)
Technically, pure tomato sauce can't be a gravy. Why? Because gravies (by traditional culinary definition) are meat-based:
"gravy A sauce made from meat juices, usually combined with a liquid such as chicken or beef broth, wine or milk and thickened with flour, cornstarch or
some other thickening agent. A gravy may also be the simple juices left in the pan after meat, poultry or fish has been cooked."
"sauce n. In the most basic terms, a sauce is a thickened, flavored liquid designed to accompany food in order to enhance and bring out its flavor.
---Food Lover's Companion
A. That is indeed an interesting question in semantics. But let it first be said that the word "sauce" has a lot more class than does
the word "gravy." Where hot, savory sauces are concerned--those that accompany meat or poultry, for example--the words are
generally interchangeable. Gravies, for the most part, have been thickened, generally with flour. But that is not invariably
true. I have known many first, second and third generation families of Italian origin who invariable referred to their
tomato sauces as tomato gravies, although they were unthickened with any any form of starch."
---"Q&A," New York Times, January 18, 1978 (p. C6)
Although ragu variations are enjoyed in many regions of Italy, our research indicates the orignal recipe belongs to Bologna. Notes here:
---The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p. 211)
---The Cooking of Italy, Waverley Root [Time-Life Books:New York] revised 1972 (p. 86)
---Oxford Companion to Italian Food, Gillian Riley, with a forward by Mario Batali [Oxford Univeristy Press:New York] 2007 (p. 433)
---The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p. 249-250)
---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [William Morrow:New York] 1995 (p. 280)
"6. Sugo Di Pomodoro [Tomato Sauce]
Later, I shall speak about another kind of tomato sauce that we call "salsa," as opposed to "sugo." Sugo must be simple and therefore compoased only of cooked,
pureed tomatoes. At the most you can add a few chunks of celery or some parsley or basil leaves, when you think thse flavors will suit your needs."
Editor's NB: "As Artusi points out, there is an important difference between "sugo di pomodoro" (which is described here) and "salsa di pomodoro" (which will be
described in recipe 125). Unfortunately, English does not allow for this distinction and both dishes are therefore called tomato sauce. To avoid confusion, whenever
the 'sugo" (rather than the "salsa") appars in a recipe the text will include a parenthetical reference to this recipe."
---Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, Pellegrino Artusi, orginally published in Italian, 1891, translated by Murtha Baca and Stephen
Sartarelli [Marsilio Publishers:New York] 1997 (p. 35)
[NOTE: Artusi's book also contains recipes for (4) Sugo di Carne (Brown Stock) and (5) Sugo di Carne Che I Francesi Chiamano Salsa Spagnuola (The Meat sauce The French Call Spanish Sauce)
According to
I Grandi Dizionari Sansoni (1979), the Italian word sugo has two definitions: (1) sauce (salsa) and (2) gravy (sauce with
meat). Indeed, Italian cookbooks confirm meat-based tomato sauces are sometimes referred to as "gravy."
---Cooked to Perfection, Andrew Corella and Phyllis Petito Corella [iUniverse] 2002 ISBN 0-595-26122-1 (p. 23)
---Italian Slow and Savory: A Cookbook, Joyce Esersky Goldstein [Chronicle Books:San Francisco] 2004 (p. 48)
---"When His Painting Goes Badly, He Turns to the Art of Cooking," Craig Claiborne, New York Times, March 18, 1971 (p. 34)
"15-Minute Meat Loaf...When Hunt's home economist developed this recipe she said, "Busy homemakers and career girls will appreciate this one!" And you will! Because,
besides being a "quickie"--just fifteen minutes cooking item--it is truly delicious with its savoury tomato gravy!"
---"Quick Stunts with Hunts Tomato Sauce," New York Times, May 22, 1955 (p. 265)
---"New Dehydrated G.I. Rations Prove Satisfactory (to Officers)," John C. Devlin, New York Times, November 9, 1962 (p. 37)
Cambridge World History of Food, Kiple & Ornelas
The Tomato in America, Andrew F. Smith
America's First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 357)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
842)
---Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovegren [MacMillan:New
York] 1995 (p. 401)
---"Diner's Choice," Bryan Miller, New York Times, October 7, 1983 (p. C18)
---"Two American Diplomat's Wives Tackle Italy's Nuova Cucina'," Jean Lesem, United
Press International, November 29, 1983
---"Flavored Vodka Toasts This Pasta Primavera With a Twist," Pierre Franey, St. Petersburg
Times, July 7, 1988 (p. 15D)
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford
University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 699)
---Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern
Appalachian Cooking, Joseph E. Dabney [Cumberland House:Nashville] 1998 (p. 210)
Mid-19th American century cookbooks contain recipes for hot chocolate drinks (shaved from
unsweetened block chocolate), cocoa and chocolate puddings. Late 19th century American
cookbooks also contain recipes for chocolate cakes, frostings, candy, and fudge. This coincides
with the mass-marketing of chocolate to the American people (the Hershey company was founded
around this time). Creamy chocolate products (puddings, especially) were promoted in the late
19th century by food companies and domestic scientists as healthful foods for their milk content.
Typical early thickeners included corn starch, arrowroot, and gelatine.
The taste for breakfast chocolate is hundreds of years old. Modern recipes for chocolate gravy
may have evolved from popular 19th century combinations of cocoa and pudding. Many of the
articles we find (1980-present) referencing chocolate gravy attribute it to "grandmother's recipe"
without noting dates or author's ages. None of the standard American cook books we have
suggest combining chocolate with biscuits. Presumably this combination can be found in
community cookbooks published by churches, women's clubs etc. Up "North," chocolate chip
pancakes are consumed with gusto. Same basic idea; different presentation.
[1863]
If you have an old family recipe for chocolate gravy we'd love to hear from you!
"Cocoa.
Put in a tea or coffee cup, one or two tablespoonfuls of ground cocoa, pour boiling water or
boiling milk on it while stirring with a spoon, and sweeten it to your liking. A few drops of
essence of vanilla may be added, according to taste."
---What to Eat and How to Cook It, Pierre Blot [D. Appleton and Company:New York]
1863 (p. 17)
"Cocoa.
To one pint milk and one pint cold water add three tablespoonfuls grated
cocoa. Boil fifteen or twenty minutes, milling or whipping as directed in foregoing recipe.
Sweeten to taste, at the table. Some persons like a piece of orange-peel boiled with it."
---Housekeeping in Old Virginia, Marion Cabell Tyree [John P. Morton and
Company:Louisville] 1879 (p. 6)
"Chocolate sauce.
1 cup milk
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon butter
2 ounces Lowney's Premium Chocolate or 1/4 cup Lowney's Cocoa.
Cook all ingredients in double boiler, stirring constantly until the spoon in coated. Serve hot or
cold."
---Lowney's Cook Book Illustrated, revised edition, Maria Willett Howard [Walter M.
Lowney Co.:Boston] 1912 (p. 207)
"Cocoa Fudge Sauce.
1/4 cupful Hershey's Cocoa...3/4 cupful granulated sugar...1/2 teaspoonful salt...1 tablespoonful
cornstarch...1/2 cupful light corn syrup...1/2 cupful milk...2 tablespoonfuls butter...2 teaspoonfuls
vanilla.
Combine dry ingredients in saucepan. Add corn syrup and milk, and blend thoroughly. Bring to a
boil, boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Cool, without stiring, until pan
feels warm to hand. Serve. Yield: 1 1/2 cupfuls sauce."
---Hershey's 1934 Cookbook, revised and expanded with chocolate recipes brought up to
date for use in today's kitchen, Hershey Chocolate Company [Hershey PA] 1971 (p. 38)
[NOTE: this would produce something similar to the the recipes for chocolate gravy found on the
Internet. Cornstarch would produce the same thickening properties as flour. This book does not
offer written serving suggestions but it does have a picture showing this sauce on plain (pound?)
cake.]
Steps In a medium saucepan, combine the dry ingredients: sugar, four, and cocoa. Mix fully. Mix until the lumps of flour
and cocoa are gone. Gradually mix in the milk. Bring the mixture to a boil, simmer 1 minute, and stir in the vanilla. Remove from
the heat."
---Mountain Country Cooking (p. 11)
Kentucky Chocolate Gravy
1 cup European-style cocoa
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
In a saucepan, combine the dry ingredients: cocoa, flour, and sugar. Stir until well mixed and flour
and cocoa lumps disappear. Pour in the milk gradually. Turn the heat up to bring mixture to
boiling, simmer 1 minutes, and stir in the vanilla. Remove from the heat. The yield is 6
servings."
---Smokehouse Ham...(p. 210)
About these notes: Food history can be a complicated topic. These notes are not meant
to be a
comprehensive treatment of the subject, but a summary of salient points supported with culinary
evidence. If you
need more information we suggest you start by asking your librarian to help you find the books
and articles cited in these notes. Article databases are good for locating current recipes, consumer
trends, and new products.
Have questions? Ask!
Research conducted by Lynne
Olver, editor The Food
Timeline. About this site.