SupReme sauce gives its name to several dishes dear to epicures - supreme de volaille, supreme de Toulouse, etc. It is made with a pint of thick white sauce, a pint of very strong chicken broth, four stalks of parsley, and six white pepper-corns, boiled down to half a pint. Stir sauce and broth together until thoroughly blended, then boil rapidly down till thick again, taking great care it does not burn. Add one gill of double cream, and half a saltspoonful of salt (if the stock was already seasoned). Boil up till thick enough to mash the bach of a spoon, strain, and the last thing add a small tea-spoonful of lemon juice.

When the white sauce has to be made expressly for the supreme, it is easier to use strong chicken broth in place of ordinary white stock ; then it is not necessary to add it after. The term "to mask the back of a spoon" is a common one to indicate the proper thickness for sauces, but to the untrained eye it may not be easy to decide just what "masking" means. Most sauces should be thin enough to run quite freely from the spoon, yet not so thin as to leave the color of the spoon visible through the coating of sauce it will retain if it be dipped into it; there should be a thin opaque coating or "mask" to the back of the spoon. Sauce of this thickness is produced by using one ounce (exact weight) of flour of fine quality to half a pint of liquid. Meat, fish, or vegetables over which sauce of this consistency has been poured will be quite masked, but the sauce will not be too thick to serve readily with a spoon. This consistency is worth some practice to attain, for it is the perfection of sauce-making.

White sauce, when intended for the foundation of others, it must be observed, is made twice as thick, to allow for the addition of cream, wine, or stock. The only advantage in a private family of making it thus thick is when, perhaps, two or three sauces are needed for a dinner; for example, a plain white sauce for a vegetable, caper, lobster, or cardinal for other purposes, and perhaps poulette, d' Uxelles, or other pale sauce for an entree; but when one sauce only is required, it is best to make that one from the beginning; that is to say, make white sauce with the additions that form it into Allemande, supreme, or whatever you require.

Ste. Menehould Sauce is in these days chiefly associated with "pigs' feet a la Ste. Menehould," but is good for several purposes. It is simply half a pint of white sauce into which a dozen bruised mushrooms, a gill of the mushroom liquor, a large teaspoon-ful of finely chopped chives, with the sixth of a saltspoonful of pepper and one of salt are allowed to simmer until the sauce is the same thickness as before the addition of the mushroom liquor; that is to say, thick enough to mask the spoon. Strain, return to the saucepan, and add a teaspoonful of finely chopped sage leaves, if for pigs' feet, or parsley for other purposes; boil once, add half a teaspoon-ful of lemon juice, and the sauce is ready.