White Sauce

A historical recipe from The best vegetarian dishes I know, by Jeanne Jardine (1910).

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A historical recipe

The best vegetarian dishes I know, by Jeanne Jardine (1910). Project Gutenberg eBook #70164.

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

Ingredients 7 ingredients

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

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.
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.

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.