This section is from the book "Apicius Redivivus; Or, The Cook's Oracle", by William Kitchiner. Also available from Amazon: The Cooks Oracle.
A few atoms of this exquisitely piquante and savoury quintessence of Ragout, imparts to whatever it touches the most delicious and highly finished double relish ever imagined, to awaken the palate with delight, refresh appetite, and instantly excite the good humour of (every man's master) the stomach.
Invented by the Editor: sold by the Publisher of this Work, and at Butler's herb shop, opposite Henrietta Street, Covent Garden; and by Ball, 81, New Bond Street, and may be tasted every day at Dolly's Chop House in Paternoster Row, which has for centuries re tained an undiminished reputation.
If you cannot get any parsley, you may easily communicate the exact flavour of it to your sauce, by tying up a quarter of a drachm of parsley seed in a piece of clean muslin, and boiling it for ten minutes in five tablespoonsful of water; use this water to melt your butter with.
Boil half a pint of green gooseberries for five minutes, drain them on a hair sieve, and put them into half a pint of melted butter. Some add grated ginger.
Boil the roes of mackarel, (soft roes are best,) bruise them with a spoon with the yolk of an eggy beat up with a very little nutmeg, pepper, and salt, and some fennel and parsley boiled and chopped very fine, mixed with almost half a pint of thin melted butter.
Mushroom catsup, walnut pickle, or soy, may be added at table by those who like them.
This agreeable accompaniment to roast poultry, or salt fish, is made by putting two eggs into boiling water, and boiling them for eight minutes, when they will be hard; first cut the whites, then the yolks, but neither very fine, put them into a sauce-boat, pour to them half a pint of melted butter, and stir together.
The melted butter for egg sauce must not be made quite so thick as plain melted butter.
Bruise a stick of cinnamon, (cassia will not do,) set it over the fire in a saucepan, with just as much water as will cover it, give it a boil, and then put in a couple of tablespoonsful of fine lump sugar, powdered, a quarter of a pint of white wine, and one bay leaf; boil all up together; strain it through a sieve, and send it up hot in a sauce-boat.
A glass of sherry, half a glass of brandy, and two teaspoonsful of pounded lump sugar, in a quarter of a pint of melted butter: grate nutmeg on the top.
Take off the meat of two or three anchovies, pound them in a mortar with a little bit of butter, rub them through a double hair sieve, with the back of a wooden spoon, and stir them into half a pint of melted butter; add the juice of half a lemon.
*** Two well beaten yolks of eggs are an improvement.
Foreigners are very fond of this, and make it as in the foregoing receipt, only substituting beef or veal gravy instead of melted butter, and a teaspoonful of vinegar instead of the lemon juice, frequently using some of their flavoured vinegars, tarragon, etc.
 
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