This section is from the book "Common Sense In The Household. A Manual Of Practical Housewifery", by Marion Harland. Also available from Amazon: Common Sense in the Household.
These are no longer the appendages of the rich man's bill of fare only A general knowledge of made sauces, as well as the more expensive ones imported from abroad and sold here at high prices, is a part of every intelligent housekeeper's culinary education. Few are so ignorant as to serve a fish sauce with game, or vice versa. From the immense number of receipts which I have collected and examined, I have selected comparatively few but such as I consider " representative " articles. The ingenious housewife is at liberty, as I said before, elsewhere, to modify and improve upon them.
First, par excellence, as the most important, and because it is the groundwork of many others, I place
2 teaspoonfuls flour. 1 1/2 ounce butter.
1 teacupful hot water or milk. A little salt.
Put the flour and salt in a bowl, and add a little at a time of the water or milk, working it very smooth as you go on. Put into a tin cup or saucepan, and set in a vessel of boiling water. As it warms, stir, and when it has boiled a minute or more, add the butter by degrees, stirring all the time until it is entirely melted and incorporated with the flour and water. Boil one minute.
Mix with milk when you wish to use for puddings, with water for meats and fish.
1 1/2 teaspoonful of flour.
2 ounces butter.
1 teacupful (small) hot water.
Wet the flour to a thin smooth paste with cold water, and stir into the hot, which should be in the inner vessel. When it boils, add the butter by degrees, and stir until well mixed. Boil one minute.
3 ounces butter. Half-pint water (hot). A beaten egg. 1 heaping teaspoonful flour.
Wet the flour to a smooth paste with a little cold milk, and add to the hot water in the inner vessel, stirring until thick. Have ready the beaten egg in a cup. Take a teaspoonful of the mixture from the fire, and beat with this until light; then another, and still another. Set aside the cup when this is done, and stir the butter into the contents of the inner saucepan gradually, until thoroughly mixed, then add the beaten egg in the same way. There is no danger of clotting the egg, if it be treated as I have described.
3 hard-boiled eggs.
A good teacupful drawn butter.
A little salt.
Chop the yolks only of the eggs very fine, and beat into the hot drawn butter, salting to taste.
This is used for boiled fowls and boiled fish. For the former, you can add some minced parsley; for the latter, chopped pickles, capers, or nasturtium seed. For boiled beef, a small shallot minced fine.
Or,
Omit the boiled eggs, and beat up two raw ones very light, and put into the drawn butter instead, as directed in No. 3. For boiled beef or chicken, you may make the drawn butter of hot liquor taken from the pot in which the meat is cooking, having first carefully skimmed it.
 
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