This, again, is also sometimes mixed with well-made tomato puree in the proportion of two parts onion to one part tomato, and is an excellent accompaniment to either beef or mutton.

Of Sauce Supreme we have already spoken, so the only remark about it need be that as it is one of the choicest in the whole list of French sauces, it should never be attempted unless the cook is prepared to use the most delicate stock, the freshest butter, and, the richest of cream, and to give her closest attention to its manufacture.

The same remarks as have been made with reference to veloute and bechamel apply quite as forcibly to brown and espagnole sauces. For the first the roux brun must be slowly and carefully prepared; the flour used for it being free from all mustiness or staleness, and above all, be perfectly dry; whilst the butter used, if the very best fresh cannot be afforded, should be good and well washed salt butter; whilst the stock must be strong, delicately seasoned, and well flavoured with vegetables. In all cases, it is better to give this vegetable flavouring by means of the stock; but many delicate sauces are absolutely ruined by the crude tastes of raw vegetables added at the last, after the sauce is practically made, to give the requisite characteristic. Where wine is required, though vintage wines need not be employed, good sound liquor, however light, is indispensable, and is, moreover, easily procured by those who care to look for it. Corked, soured, or stale wine is absolute destruction; sour, coarse stock is distinctly unwholesome; whilst roux made of inferior flour and bad butter can never be anything but disagreeable, and if stale from overkeeping is pretty sure to be indigestible.

Roughly speaking, brown sauce is simply melted butter made with well-flavoured brown stock, but espagnole is somewhat differently prepared: Fry together a carrot, turnip, two or three green onions, a tomato or two, and some mushrooms if handy, all sliced or roughly chopped, a bunch of herbs, and a good slice of lean smoked ham, in butter or clarified dripping till nicely coloured (a very tiny pinch of caster sugar sprinkled over all this is declared by many chefs to improve both the appearance and the flavour of the subsequent sauce); then moisten it either with rich brown stock, or good brown sauce (in the former case when boiled up it must be blended with a spoonful or two of the brown roux) and boil it up sharply till reduced a fourth part; now tammy or sieve it, adding a little sherry or Madeira, lemon juice, and seasoning to taste, let it just boil up and as you pour it into the scalded-out sauce boat, add a small piece of butter, which should dissolve on its way to the dinig-room.

It is evident that the flavour imparted by these two sauces must differ considerably, and on the cook's capacity for realising this difference will depend the success of her sauce. When extravagance took the place of gourmetterie, espagnole came to be used as the only foundation sauce, till Gouffe, realising the unsuitability of the highly spiced espagnole, quietly-ignored its history and set up the brown sauce given above under the name of espagnole. One more hint before giving particular sauces; this is with regard to Sauces de Reduction (literally reduced sauces), i.e., sauces whose consistency is due to their boiling-in whilst making. Perhaps the using of the word "thickening" in place of the French roux has strengthened the fallacy that the substance of a sauce depends on the greater or less quantity of roux used for it. To a certain extent this is of course true, but no sauce is really properly made which owes its substance simply to its thickening; a sauce never obtains its full flavour till the qualities of its ingredients are condensed by this boiling-in process.

Prom the plain brown sauce we derive Sauce au Beurre d'Anchois. Boil together a pint of good brown sauce, a bunch of herbs, and a gill of strong brown stock, and let it reduce till the sauce clings to, and slightly coats, the spoon with which you stir it; then skim well, sieve if necessary, and leave it in the bain-marie till wanted. When to be served stir into it at the last moment an ounce or more of anchovy butter, and serve at once.

Sauce Bretonne is made exactly like the Sauce Sou-bise previously given, only using good brown sauce instead of the veloute there mentioned. This sauce is also called Sauce Claremont.