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Brown Sauce

From The household cook book (1902).

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A historical recipe

The household cook book, by Smiley, James B[ethuel], [from old catalog] ed (1902).

United States

Known as an American recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Ingredients 3 ingredients

  1. 1 tablespoon of chopped onion
  2. 1 tablespoon of butter
  3. 1 cup of hot stock

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Hot oil. Never put water on an oil fire: turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid or a damp tea towel. Pat food dry before it goes into hot oil, and lower it in gently, away from you.
  • Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
  • Hot sugar. Hot sugar sticks to skin and burns far hotter than boiling water: don't touch or taste it. Keep a bowl of cold water close, and keep children away while it cooks.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. Fry 1 tablespoon of chopped onion in 1 tablespoon of butter;
  2. let this brown, but not burn, and then add 1 heaping tablespoon of flour;
  3. stir thoroughly and then add (a little at a time) 1 cup of hot stock, stirring rapidly until it is smooth and thick.
  4. Season to taste with pepper and salt, let it simmer 5 minutes;
  5. remove the onion by straining the sauce.
  6. Leave out the onion if its flavor is not liked.
  7. Color with caramel.
  8. This will serve as the foundation for many sauces by using various flavoring materials.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Frying pan
  • Saucepan
  • Chef's knife
  • Cutting board
  • Wooden spoon
  • Sieve
Source not stated by archive.org
Credit

From The household cook book (1902), printed page 99, digitised by the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/householdcookboo00smil

What was changed: Read by machine from the book's scanned text into ingredients and method. The title's capitals were tidied; spelling and scanning errors are left as they are.