Bechamel No. 1

One ounce of butter put in a thick saucepan to melt; add one ounce of flour, let them bubble a minute, stirring all the time; pour to it half a pint of hot strained white stock which has been well flavored with vegetables; stir it and let it boil till quite thick - five minutes perhaps - then add a gill of very thick cream. If the stock was seasoned add very little salt, or the butter may have been salt enough. The stock used must be quite free from color or sediment.

This sauce, so simply made, makes many delicious dishes; any white meat can be warmed over in it, or it can be used to mask boiled chickens or turkey. Pour it over them while hot; and when cold it will lay over them like a white jelly, making a very elegant dish if properly and carefuly put on. The bird should be as completely and smoothly covered as a cake is with icing.

Bechamel No. 2, For Fish

Boil the bones and trimmings of fish (or else use a flounder for the purpose) in a quart of water in which you have a bouquet of sweet herbs, a bay leaf, a piece of carrot, half a dozen peppercorns, and a small teaspoon-ful of salt; boil till there is only half a pint of stock; strain through a cloth, and pour it on to a tablespoonful of butter and flour that have been cooked together, as for white sauce, stirring carefully; when thick and smooth stir in a gill of cream; use as a sauce for fish where directed.