I Now pass to the consideration of a few standard high class sauces, which, with a little care and attention, will be found practicable in every well-conducted Madras kitchen. To aid you in this branch of the cook's art, you cannot possess a better guide than Jules Gouffe, whose admirably systematic method of discussing sauces has never been approached by any authority on culinary mysteries. Unfortunately, however for the inexperienced reader, Gouffe's work is rather the treatise of a Professor addressed to students who have already matriculated, than a vade mecum for beginners. So unless you are fairly au fait in practical kitchen work, you will hardly derive much easy aid from the Royal Cookery Book. You must have some knowledge of the ingredients which may possibly be spared, and of those which must, on no account, be omitted, for even in Gouffe's recipes there are sometimes things named which are not absolutely essential. You ought to know something of stock-making, and understand the value of game bones, poultry bones, fragments of ham, etc, and the sort of flavour these things produce, helped by certain vegetables. If, by experience, you have picked up a knowledge of equivalents so much the better. I can, in short, readily believe that those who have never bothered their heads about cookery, would find it almost impossible to direct a native cook from the pages of the great chef. In saying this I speak from experience. I first read Grouffe before I had taken to practical cooking work, and before I had actually made sauces, etc, ladle in hand, in an English kitchen. Since going through that ordeal, I have again come across the book, and I find that much that I had formerly to skip as too complicated, now seems easy enough.

I propose now to place before you in the simplest way I can Gouffe's fundamental sauces. Those who are acquainted with that author, will observe that in the first place I shall reduce the recipes to a much shorter compass, and in the next, that I shall omit everything that is not down-right necessary to produce a fair result.

Gouffe propounds the following sauces as the foundation of nearly all those of a high class that you are likely to encounter: -

1. Espagnole.

2. Veloute.

3. Allemande.

4. Bechamel.

5. Marinade.

6. Poivrade.

Of these veloute, allemande, and bechamel are so closely allied, that I shall confine myself to the last. Marinade and poivrade I have already alluded to. Espagnole is, of course, worthy of close attention. My fundamental sauces will then be reduced to two: - one brown, the other white, - which I think will be found ample for the Indian kitchen.

Veal stock plays an important part in Gouffe's recipes. Unfortunately for us we can never reckon on obtaining that delicate meat. Nevertheless, while freely admitting its value, I do not look upon veal as a sine qua non in sauce-making. A really carefully made chicken consomme, assisted by a ham or bacon bone, and on special occasions with a good fowl, provides you with an excellent equivalent.

With regard to Espagnole which, as many of you no doubt know, is a rich, thick, brown sauce, I would simplify Gouffe's receipt as follows:- Get ready a couple of sheep's trotters chopped in pieces, with a ham or bacon bone, or a few lean slices of either, any raw cutlet trimmings you may have, and two pounds of beef gravy meat cut into squares. Now cut up a couple of onions and throw them into a stew-pan with an ounce of butter, fry them a golden yellow then add a breakfast-cupful of broth, or water, and the pieces of meat previously prepared; shake the pan every now and then, and let the meat take colour; now, add water enough to cover the meat, etc., completely, reduce the fire, and let the contents of the pan come slowly to the boil, skimming carefully during that period; when the surface seems nicely clear of grease and scum, add a cupful of cold water and two carrots sliced, a turnip, a good piece of celery, a clove of garlic, half a dozen of pepper corns, a spoonful of dried sweet herbs tied up in a bag, a bunch of parsley, some burnt sugar colouring, and salt to taste. No spice. As soon as the vegetables have been cooked, remove the pan from the fire, pick out the vegetables, and place it so that it may simmer slowly for a couple of hours. Now, lift it up, and strain off your gravy : there should be quite a pint and a half of it. Next, take a sauce-pan and melt two ounces of butter at the bottom of it, stir in two ounces of flour and make a roux, when the colour satisfies you, add by degrees, stirring as you do so, the pint or so of strong gravy that you strained from the stew-pan. Let the contents of your sauce-pan come to the boil, stirring the whole time, then strain the sauce through your tin strainer into a clean sauce-pan, and set the vessel in the bain-marie to remain hot till wanted. Any fat that may rise during the thickening process should be skimmed off, but if the gravy be properly made, and skimmed before it is added to the roux, there will be very little to take off in the bain-marie stage. The bain-marie, remember, is a vessel containing boiling water, and kept over the fire, in which you immerse sauce-pans containing made-sauces to preserve them hot for use.

Espagnole sauce, therefore, is simply a good, rich, brown, meat gravy, thickened with flour. It only possesses the flavour derived from the vegetables, and from the ordinary meat that you have employed to make it. Using this sauce as your medium or basis, you can proceed to compose a number of rich preparations as follows :- Financiere, Perigueux, Bordelaise, Provencale, Genevoise, Matelote, Chateaubriand, Regence, Italienne, and Reforme, with others too numerous to mention. The specialites of the sauces, I have enumerated, consist in the distinct flavouring of the Espagnole, from which they are really made, with mushrooms, truffles, essence of game or of pigeons, poultry, fish, or ham (concerning which I shall speak later on), wine in judicious proportions, delicate vegetables, and so on. A careful perusal of the receipts given, hereafter in my menus, ought to guide you, when once you have achieved an undeniable foundation with your Espagnole.