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ABOUT SAUCE

Food historians tell us sauces were "invented" for many reasons. The three primary reasons are:1. Cooking medium2. Meat tenderizer3. Flavor enhancer

Sauce ingredients, compostion, and preparation methods vary according to culture, cuisine and time period. The history of modern French sauces begins with Francois La Varenne. The French concept of "Mother Sauces" is an 18th century invention. Classification ensued. Careme is credited for this.

RECOMMENDED READING:The Saucier's Apprentice/Raymond Sokolov---introduction traces the history of sauce through time; special emphasis on French saucesSauces : Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making / James Peterson, 2nd edition (1998)--Chapter 1 features the history of sauces from ancient times to the 20th century (15 pages)A History of Cooks and Cooking, Michael Symons--Chapter 6: 'On the Physical and Political Consequences of Sauces' (10 pages)plus numerous references to sauce throughout this book. Also check the index for stock, stew & soup.Larousse Gastronomique, any recent edition---Recipes & history notesLe Guide Cuilinarie, Escoffier---Recipes and notesThe Sauce Bible: Guide to the Saucier's Craft, David Paul Larousse---Recipes & notes

Allemande

Our survey of historic cookbooks confirms Sauce Allemande [Allemand is French for "German."] was known by different names in different times: Tournee, German, Almayne, Parisienne, and Blonde. Essentially, it is a classic egg enriched creamy white sauce, flavored with mushrooms and sometimes lemon. Earliest iterations were basic roux concoctions, routinely accompanying fowl. As time progressed Allemande morphed into a veloute-based more complicated presentation. The Allemande moniker was renamed Parisienne in the early 20th century. This reflected shifting political events eventually resulting in WWI. This is nothing new. Think: German toast (aka French Toast) & Freedom Fries (aka French fries). Closely related sauces are Roux, Veloute & Hollandaise.

Almayne--Allemande"...Sauce Allemande, or Sauce of Almayne. In old English and in old French cookery there is always a broth of Almayne, but it gives one no idea of what is now understood by the Almayne sauce, which is nothing else than Velvet-down thickened with yolks of eggs, say four to a pint, smoothed with a pat of the freshest butter, and flavoured with lemon-juice; sometimes also, but not always, with essence of mushrooms. How this sauce got its name is not quite clear; but it is plain that, not only have the Hollander and the German long been more or less confounded together as Dutchmen (Deutsch), but also that the sauce Allemande or sauce of Almayne is one of the same character as the well-known Dutch sauce or sauce Hollandaise, and is probably an attempt to improve upon it. Now, Dutch sauce has a reputation among epicures of being at once the best and the most useful of all the sauces, while at the same time it has all the simplicity for which Minheer is renowned. It is nothing but butter and eggs, with a litttle water. Suddenly, now doubt, it entered into some Frenchman's brain to improve upon this simplicity, and refine upon the Dutch. He dismissed the water, adn put Velvet-down instead of it, and, finding the result too rich, he reduced the quantity of buttter. Make a note of thsi therefore: that Dutch and Almayne suace are but different forms of the same idea. In Dutch or Holland sauce there is good water; in German or Almayne sauce there is the finest Velvet-down. Note another point: the Poulette sauce is another form of the same idea. If the Almayne may be described as an attempt to improve upon Holland sauce, the Poulette may be described as mock Almayne. In true Holland sauce there is no flour. But mock Almayne, known as Poulette, attempts by means of flour to simulate the effects of the Velvet-down introduced into true Almayne."---Kettner's Book of the Table, E.S. Dallas, facsimile 1877 edition [Centaur Press:London 1968 (p. 23-24) [NOTE: Hollland sauce=Hollandaise. Velvet-down=Veloute.]

"Allemande, a la. German style. From the French word for German. The name is much used in culinary works--as Sauce Allemande...It goes back to the days when it was spelled 'Almayne', a term that included Holland as well as many German States."---The Master Dictionary of Food & Cookery, Henry Smith [Philosophical Library:New York] 1951 (p. 5)

Allemande--Parisienne"Sauce Allemande (German Sauce). Escoffier included this egg-bound veloute among the mother sauces, because it is the basis of many other sauces. If we were to follow him in this decision, it would imply that we would then make up large quantities fo allemande in advance and freeze it...I am also departing form Escoffier's counsel in another matter. He tried to supress the name of the sauce because of hostile feeling to Germany. Since the sauce was German in

name only, he proposed renaming it sauce parisienne or sauce blonde. This culinary ripost to the armies of Bismark and Kaiser Wilhelm II did less even than the Maginot Line to keep the Teutonic menace at bay...Allemande...is thickened with egg yolks, but because it has already been thickened with flour at the veloute stage, it can be boiled after the yolks are added. They will not scramble; the flour keeps this from happening. It is essential, however, that all ingredients be cold when you start, since gradual heating of the yolks is also crucial."---The Saucier's Apprentice, Raymond Sokolov [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1976 (p. 194-195) [NOTE: recipe included.] TRACING CULINARY EVOLUTION THROUGH RECIPES

[1828]"No. 19.--Sauce tournee.

"No. 20.--Sauce a l'Allemande.This is merely a sauce tournee as above reduced, into which is introduced a thickening well seasoned. This sauce is always used for the following sauces or ragouts, viz. blanquette of all descriptions, a-la-toulouse, loin of veal, a-la-bechamel, white financiere royale, &c. &c."---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, facsimile 1828 Englished edition [Arco Publishing:New York] 1978 (p. 10)

[1845]"Sauce Tournee, or Pale Thickened GravySauce tournee is nothing more than a rich pale gravy made with veal or poultyr...and thickined with a delicate white roux. The French give it a flavouring of mushrooms and green onions, by boiling some of each in it for about half an hour before the sauce is served: it must then be strained, previously to being dished. Either first dissolve an ounce ob butter, and then dredge gradually to it three-quarters of an ounce of flour, and proceed as for the preceding receipt [White Roux, or French Thickening]; or blend the flour and butter perfectly with a knife before they are thrown into the stewpan, and keep them stirred without ceasing over a clear and gentle fire until they have simmered for some minutes, then place the stewpan high over the fire, and shake it constantly until the roux has lost the raw taste of the flour; next, stir very gradually to it a pint of the gravy, which should be boiling. Set it by the side of the stove for a few minutes skim it thorougly, and serve it without delay. Butter, 1 oz; flour, 3/4 oz,; strong pale gravy, seasoned with mushrooms and green onions, 1 pint.

Obs. 3.--With the addition of three or four yolks of very fresh eggs, mixed with a seasoning of mace, cayenne, and lemon-juice, this becomes German sauce, now much used for fricassess, and other dishes; and minced parsley (boiled) and chili vinegar, each in sufficient quantity to flavour it agreeably, convert it to a good fish sauce."---Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton, fascimile 1845 edition with an introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1993 (p. 106-107)

[1869]"Allemande SaucePrepare: 1/2 pint of Essence of Chicken1 gill of Essence of Mushrooms1 quart of Veloute Sauce

Reduce these over the fire, till the sauce is of sufficient consistence to coat the spoon; thicken with 4 yolks of egg and 1/2 oz. of butter; strain through a tammy cloth, into a bain-marie-pan; put a tablespoonful of Chicken Consomme on the top of the sauce, to prevent a skin forming on the surface."---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marston:London] 1869 (p. 265)

[1873]"Allemand Sauce.---Dictionary of Cuisine, Alexandre Dumas, edited, abridged and translated by Louis Colman [Sime & Schuster:New York] 1958 (p. 216) [1907]"Sauce Allemande (also known as Sauce Parisienne)To make 1 litre ( 1 3/4 pt or 4 1/2 U.S. cups)Ingredients:1 litre (1 3/4 pt or 4 1/2 U.S. cups) Ordinary Veloute5 dl (18 lf oz or 2 1/4 U.S. cups) Ordinary White Stock2 dl (7 lf oz or 7/8 U.S. cup) mushroom cooking liquor5 egg yolkspinch of grated nutmegsqueeze of lemon juicepinch of coarsley ground pepper100 g ( 3/ 1/2 oz.) butterPreparation: Place the stock, mushroom liquor, yolks of egg, lemon juice, pepper and nutmeg in a heavy shallow pan, mix well together with a whisk and add the Veloute. Bring to a boil and reduce by one-third stirring constantly with a metal spatula; reduce untl the sauce reaches the point where it coats the spatula. Pass through a fine strainer or tammy cloth and coat the surface of the sauce with butter to prevent a skin forming. Keep in a Bain-marie until required then add 100 g ( 3 1/2 oz) butter before using...Notes...(2) This sauce is also known as Sauce Parisienne a name which is more logical and proper than Sauce Allemande. This was pointd out in an article in 'l'Art Culinaire' in 1883 by Mons. Tevenat, a well-known chef. The name 'Parisienne' has been adopted by several chefs but not widely as could be wished."---Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, A Escoffier, [first published in 1907] translated by H.L. Cracknell & R.J. Kaufamnn [John Wiley & Sons:New York] 1979 (p. 8-9) [1927]"Sauce Allemande or "Parisienne"A classic sauce, this is now alos known a s 'parisienne.' It is used in a number of whimsical culinary creations as wsell as remaining a cornerstone for classic dishes such as vol-au-vent, puff pastries, etc. In the home kitchen, it is used for anhy dishes requiring a basic white sauce (for white foods, such as fowl or veal). To sum up, this is a veloute, or white sauce, with a liaison of egg yolk added. We must stress, once again, the importance of boiling the sauce rapidly after adding the egg yolks. Many people, unaware of this essential point, do not understand the risks. A sauce that is taken off the heat too soon will separate, thin down, and not have the right consistency to coat the food it is supposed to cover."---La Bonne Cuisine, Madame E. Saint-Ange, translated and with an introduction by Paul Aratow [Ten Speed Press:Berkeley CA] 2005 (p. 52) [NOTE: recipe follows. Ingredients are veloute, musroom cooking juice, egg yolks, white pepper, ground nutmeg, butter.]

[1952]"Allemande, Sauce. One of the classic French sauces, also known as Sauce Blonde or Sauce Parisienne. To make a Sauce Allemande, one requires: 2 cups of Sauce Veloute2 egg-yolksFresh butter or thick creamA little nutmeg.Reduce the Veloute upon a slow fire until it is but half the original quantity. Pour into a double-boiler, or, failing this, in a small saucepan which must be set in another larger pan containing hot water. Beat two egg-yolks and add to sauce, stirring gently during addition. Next, add cream or butter sufficeint to enrigh and imnprove the flavour of the sauce; also a light dusting of nutmeg, some essence of mushrooms, or lemon juice to taste. Cook in or over gently boiling water, stirring frequently until the sauce is thick and very creamy."---A Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy, Andre L. Simon [Harcourt, Brace and Company:New York] 1952 (p. 9)

"Parisienne, Sauce. Another name for a Sauce Blonde."---ibid (p. 38)

"Blonde, Sauce. This is an ordinary Veloute with a binding of egg yolks."---ibid (p. 14)

[1961]"Allemand Sauce (Careme's recipe)--This name is given to a classic white sauce, made with veloute blended with yolks of eggs and cream. The recipe for this sauce, which is one of the best in the French Culinary repetoire, as it is made nowadays, is geven in the section devoted to sauces. In spite of its name, this sauce in no way originates in Germany. It is so called, according to Careme, because it is light in colour, to differentiate it form Esapgnole sauce, which is dak...There is, in the French culinary repertoire, a very great number of terms which, although borrowed from other countries, serve to describe dishes of entirely French origin. Modern authors also refer to the Allemande as Parisienne sauce...Careme's recipe.--Careme first of all gives the recipe for preparing Veloute...to prepare Allemande sauce. 'Pour into a saucepan half the veloute and the same quantity of good chicken consomme, in which you will have put a few mushrooms (stalks and peel), and as mcuh salt as can be held on the point of a knife. After having placed on a brisk fire, stir the sauce with a wooden spoon untl it comes to the boil; then put it on the edge of the stove, cover and leave to simmer for about an hour; ehn skim off fat and put back on a high flame stirring with a wooden spoon to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pan. When this sauce is perfectly cooked, it should coat the surface of a spoon quite thickly. When poured, it should be the same consistency as red-currant jelly, if it has reached the ideal point in its cooking. Then, you remove the saucepan from the fire, preapare a liaison using 4 yolks of egg, mix with two tablespoons of cream and, having passed it through a sieve, add best butter the size of a small egg, in small pieces; then pour it little by little into the veloute, stirring carefully with a wooden spoon to make sure that the liaison is blended in smoothly. When it is all perfectly incorporated, replace the allemande on a moderate fire and keep on stirring. As soon as a few bubbles start to rise, remove from heat; add as much grated nutmeg as can be held on the point of a knife. When well blended, pass through a sieve.'"---Larousse Gastronomique [Crown Publishers:New York] 1961 (p. 26-27) Not to be confused with

"Parisian Sauce (for cold asparagus). Sauce Parisienne--Pound in a bowl 2 small Grevaise cheeses (petits suisses or 2 ounces Philadelphia cream cheese). Season with salt and paprika. Beat with ol and lemon juice like a mayonnaise. Add a tablespoon of chopped chervil."--ibid (p. 861)

[1963]"White Sauces...Egg Yolk and Cream Enrichment [Sauce Parisienne--formerly Sauce Allemande]Sauces enrigched with egg yolks and cream are among the riches and most velvety in all the French repertoire. Sauce parisienne, or sauce allemand, is the generic term, but it invariably goes by another name according to its special flavorings or to the dish it accompanies. The simplest, sauce poulette, has a base of veloute flavored with meat or fish, onions and mushrooms. The most famous Sauce normande is a veloute based on white-wine fish stock and the cooking liquors of mussels, oysters, shrimps, ecrevisses, and mushrooms. The shellfish sauces such as cardinal, Nantua, and Joinville are shellfish veloutes with special trimings and a shellfish butter enrichment beaten in a at the end. As all of these sauces are a basic velote with a final enrichment of egg yolks, cream, and usually butter, if you can make you can make one, you can make all. Success in making the egg yolk liaison is but a realization that egg yolks will curdle and turn granular unless they are beaten with a bit of cold liquid first, before a hot liquid is gradually incorporated into them so that they are slowly heated. Once this preliminary step has been completed, the sauce may be brought to the boil; and because the egg yolks are supported by a flour-based sauce they may boil without danger of curdling. The sauce parisienne described in the following reicpe is used with eggs, fish, poultry, hot hors d'oeuvers, and dishes which are to be gratineed. A heavily buttered sauce parisienne is used principally for fish poached in white wine."---Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle, Julia Child [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1963 (p. 59-61) [NOTE: ingredients are: bechamel or veloute, egg yolks, whipping cream, salt, white pepper, lemon juice, more cream, & butter. We can sen the complete recipe if you like.]

Bechamel

According to the food historians, the art of reducing cream sauces (aka cream reductions) is generally attributed to 18th century France. Antonin Careme, in particular. The most notable of these sauces is bechamel. The story behind the *invention* of bechamel is still a subject for debate.

"Louis de Bechamel, the Marquis de Nointel (1630-1703), was a fascinating mix of connoissuer, bon vivant, and shrewd political operator...As for the sauce that is his namesake, the concensus is even clearer that it was not invented by him, but named after him by an unknown court chef who honored the Lord Steward by applying his name to a thick veloute, to which liberal amounts of fresh cream were added. This sauce had been known for some time before, probably under another name...Careme's recipe for bechamel sauce, the veloute finished with cream, included a final liaison of cream and egg yolks. Somewhere between Careme's departure (1833) and

Escoffier's Guide Culinare, bechamel evolved into the milk-thickened white sauce it is still known as in contemporary practice. That Escoffier's bechamel included diced lean veal is probably a throwback to the earlier veloute finished with cream. As with the criteria regarding the use of other flourless sauces, the same applies here. Heavy cream reduced by about one half, along with the aromatics and garnish appropriate to a specific sauce, represents the purist's approach..."---The Sauce Bible: Guide to the Saucier's Craft, David Paul Larousse [John Wiley:New York] 1992 (p. 143) [NOTE: this book contains a brief history of sauces (p. 3-12). Ask your librarian to help you find a copy]

"Bechamel...the name of a sauce which plays a large part in European cuisines; not only in France, although that is where the name originated. The question of its origins has been discussed by Sokolov (he wrote a book called The Saucier's Apprentice--ask your librarian to help you find a copy)..."Gastronomic literature is filled with tedious pages and trifling disputes...We can only point to the appearance of sauce called bechamel during the reign of Louis XIV. And, as so often, this original sauce bor only a slight resemblance to the modern sauce. While we think of behcamel as an all-purpose white sauce made of scalded milk, roux, and flavourings, Careme made it by enriching veloute with cream."...Sokolov also dismisses as intrinsically unimportant the debates which have taken place in modern times about whether a bechamel must be made with veal or need not be."---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 65)

"A bechamel...in the seventeenth century was a very complicated sauce which contained a number of vegetables and wines as well as old hens and old partridges, and after being strained several times was finished with reduced cream and cooked in the oven. Not so very long ago, a bechamel was cooked in the oven with ham, chopped onions coloured in butter and a bouquet garni. It was turned out and strained through a hair sieve, double cream was added and the sauce was stirred and reduced again..."---Gastronomy of France, Raymond Oliver [World Publishing Company:London] 1967 (p. 218, 220)

More on bechamel.

Espagnole

Espagnole is basically a brown roux. Roux (the combination of fat and flour to create a thickening agent) is ancient. It is interesting to note that La Varenne's Le Cuisnier Francois [1651] does not contain a recipe for sauce Espagnole. It does, however, offer brief instructions regarding sauce Robert, a well documented variation. Culinary evidence confirms during the 18th and 19th centuries several recipes for Espagnole were published. They ranged from original & complicated to convenient & simple. At some point, tomatoes were introduced. The difficulty with tracing the history of Espagnole has nothing do with the lack of documentation. It's a

fascinating sleuthing job sorting out the plethora of names by which this sauce assumes alias. To complicate matters? Lenten Espagnole does not (of course!) employ meat base.

"Espagnole. The name given in classical French cuisine to the 'mother sauce' from which are derived many of the sauces described under brown sauces. The name has nothing to do with Spain, any more than the counterpart allemande...has anything to do with Germany. It is generally believed that the terms were chosen because in French eyes Germans are blond and Spaniards are brown. Some authorities prefer to regard demiglace...as the parent of the group of brown sauces, and would say that espagnole is the penultimate stage in producing demi-glace. However, what is certain is that for people outside France as well as inside the term expagnole is widely understood to mean the basic brown sauce, and indeed one which can be used on its own although it normally has added flavourings and a new name. The arduous procedure for making an espagnole on traditionally approved lines is now rarely followed."---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 283)

ESPAGNOLE SAUCE THROUGH TIME

[1651]"Loin of Pork with a sauce Robert.Lard it with great lard, then roast it, and baste it with verjuice and vinegar, and a bundle of sage. After the fat is fallen, take for to fry an onion with, which being fried, you shall put under the loin with the sauce wherewith you have basted it. All being a little stoved together, lest it may harden, serve. This sauce is called sauce Robert."---The French Cook, Francois Pierre La Varenne [1651] Englished by I.D.G. 1653, Introduced by Philip and Mary Hyman [Southover Press:East Sussex] 2001 (p. 55)

[1747]"To Dress Eel with Brown Sauce.Skin and clean a large Eel very well, cut it in Pieces, put it into a Sauce-pan or Stew-pan, put to it a quarter of a Pint of Water, a Bundle of Sweet Hergs, an Onion, some whope Pepper, a Blade of Mace, and a little Salt. Cover it close, and when it begins to simmer, put in a Gill of Red Wine a Spoonful of Mushroom-pickle, a Piece of Butter as big as a Wallnut rolled in Flour, cover it close and let it stew till it is enough, which you will know by the Eel being very tender. Take up your Eel, lay it in a Dish, strain your Sauce, give it a boil quick, and pour it over your Fish. You mist make Sauce according to the Largeness of your Eel, or more less. Garnish with Lemon."---The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy, Hannah Glasse, Facsimile of the First Edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 92)

[1828]No. 75--Salmi Sauce a l'Espagnole. Cut four shalots, and a carrot into large dice, some parsley roots, a few bits of ham, a clove, two or three leaves of mace, the quarter of a bay-leaf, a little thyme, and get a small bit of butter, with a few mushrooms. Put the whole into a stew-pan over a gentle fire; let fry til you percieve the stew-pan is coloured all round. The moisten with half a pint of Madiera wine, and a very small lump of sugar. Let it reduced to one-half. Put in six spoonsful of Espagnole and the trimmings of our partridges. Let them stew for an hour on the corner of the stove. Skim the fat off, taste whether your sauce be seasoned enough; strain it over

the members, make it hot without boiling; dish the salmi, and reduced the sauce, which strain through a tammy. Then cover the salmi with the sauce."--The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, facsimile reprint 1828 book [Arco Publishing:New York]1978 (p. 35-6)

[1869]"Espagnole Sauce. The quantities in this recipe are calculated to make 4 quarts of Espagnole Sauce, which will certainly not be too much when treating of high-class cooking operations. It must be bourne in mind that Espagnole will keep perfectly good for three or four days; so that, in large establishments, even double the quantity I indicate may safely be prepared.

Butter a stewpan, and put in it 3 sliced onions; upon these place 6 lbs of boned fillet of veal, and 2 lbs of gravy-beef; moisten with 1 pint of General Stock, or Grand Bouillon, and set it boiling on a brisk fire; when the Stock is reduced one half, glaze the meat of a bright-brown and even colour, by simmering gently, and turning it frequently. This process requires particular attention; for, if the glaze be over cooked, and of a dark-brown colour, the sauce will have an acrid taste, which no amount of sugar added to it would rectify. When the meat is well glazed, take the stewpan off the fire; cover it, and let it stand five minutes before adding any more broth,--this will facilitate the dissolving of the glaze; then pour in 6 quarts of General Stock; boil; skim; and add:

1 faggot, 2 carrots, 1/2 oz. Of salt, 1/4 oz. Of mignonnette pepper, 1/4 oz. Of sugar; Boil, and simmer; and, when the meat is done, take it out, and strain the Stock through a broth napkin. Make a roux in a stewpan, with 14 oz. of clarified butter, and 14 oz. of flour; when this is cooked, moistened with the Stock; stir over the fire with a wooden spoon till boiling, and simmer for two hours on the stove corner, with the stewpan only three parts closed; skim, and take off the fat twice during that time; and the end of the two hours, skim, and free the sauce from fat once more; strain it through a tammy cloth; and put by for use. Observation.--I do not advise adding a hen or any game to this sauce, as is so often fone,--butcher's meat alone should constitute the basis of Espagnole, which, being intended to add to other preparations, any special flavouring given to it, either by poultry or game, would often be prejudicial."---Royal Cookery Book , Jules Gouffe, translated and adapted for English by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son & Marston:London] 1869 (p. 263-4)[NOTE: recipe for Epagnole Sauce Maigre (without meat) follows.]

[1884]"Espagnole Sauce.--Boil one quart of strong consomme or rich, highly seasoned brown stock, till reduced to one pint. Then use it as given under the rule for brown sauce, and flavor with wine."---Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln [1884], facismile reprint [Dover:Mineola NY] 1996 (p. 193)

[1903]"Sauce Espagnole. To make 5 litres (8 3/4 pt or 1 3/8 U.S. gal)

Ingredients:625 (1 lb 6 oz) brown Roux--using: 285 g (10 oz) clarified butter and 340 g (12 oz) sifted flour12 litres (2 5/8 gal or 3 1/4 U.S. gal) brown stock150 f (5 oz) roughly diced salt belly of pork250 g (9 oz) roughly diced carrots150 g. (5 oz) roughly diced onions2 sprigs thyme500 g (1 lb 2 oz) tomate puree or 2 kg (4 1.2 lb) fresh tomatoes2 dl (7 fl oz or 7/8 U.S. cup) white sauce.

Preparation:1. Place 8 litres (1 3/4 gal or 2/ 1/4 U.S. gal) of the stock in a heavy pan and bring to the boil; add the Roux, previously softened in the oven. Mix well with a wooden spoon or whisk and bring to the boil mixing continuously. Draw the pan to the side of the stove and allow to simmer slowly and evenly.2. Meanwhile, place the salt pork in a pan and fry to extract the fat, add the vegetables and flavourings and fry until light brown in colour. Carefully drain off the fat and put the ingredients into the sauce; deglaze the pan with the wine, reduce it by half and also add to the sauce. Allow to simmer gently for 1 hour skimming frequently.3. Pass the sauce through a conical strainer into another pan, pressing lightly. Add another 2 litres ( 3 1/2 pt or 9 U.S. cups) stock, bring to the boil and allow to simmer gently for a further 2 hours. Pass the sauce through a fine strainer and stir occasionally until completely cold.4. The next day, add the remainder of the stock and the tomato puree.; bring the sauce to the boil stirring continuously with a wooden spatula or whisk, then allow to simmer gently and evenly for 1 hour skimming carefully. Pass through a fine strainer or tammy cloth and stir occasionally until the suace is completely cold.

NOTES:1. The time required for the preparation and refining of this sauce cannot be indicated exactly as it depends to a large extent on the quality of the stock used in its making. The refining of this sauce will be quicker if the stock is of very good quality in which case an excellent Espagnole can be prepared in five hours.2. Before adding tomato puree to this sauce it is advisable to spread the required quantity on a tray and to cook it in the oven until it turns a light brown colour. This will destroy most of the excess acidity found in tomato purees, and when prepared in this way, the puree assists in clarifying the sauce and at the same time dives it a smoother taste and a more agreeable colour."---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Auguste Escoffier, [1903] The frist translation into English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann of Le Guide Culinaire in its entirely, [John Wiley:New York] 1979 (p. 7)

[1941]"Brown sauce.This sauce is the base of all brown sauces for meat and poultry.1 cup butter or good fat2/3 cup flour

6 cups boiling brown gravy or water1 cup Tomato Sauce2 or 3 tomatoes1 teaspoon salt10 peppercorns2 bay leaves1/2 teaspoon thyme3 sprigs parsley3 stalks celery2 chopped onions and 2 chopped carrots, browned in butter1 clove of garlic, crushedChicken, veal or beef bones1 glass dry sherry or MadieraMelt the butter in a saucepan and brown carrots and onions in it. Mix in the flour and let cook until golden brown. Add the boiling brown gravy or water and mix well with a wire whip. Add the Tomato Sauce, tomatoes, salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme, parsley, celery and garlic. In order to give the sauce a rich brown color, roast some chicken, veal or beef bones in the oven. The add the bones to the sauce and let boil slowly over low heat for 2 or 3 hours. Skim from time to time. Strain the sauce and correct the seasoning. When ready to serve, strain again through a fine strainer and add a glass of dry sherry or Madiera. This sauce will keep for weeks in a refrigerator. N.B. Whenever any good meat of poultry gravy is left over, set it aside as it will be very useful in making all kinds of Brown Sauce."---Cooking a la Ritz, Louis Diat [J.B. Lippincott Company:Philadelphia] 1941 (p. 87-8)

Hollandaise

Food historians generally agree that Hollandaise sauce was a French invention, most likely dating to the mid-18th century. Why the reference to Holland? This country (or more broadly the Netherlands) was famous for its fine butter and good eggs.

"Hollandaise. One of the most prominent suaces in the group of those which are thickened by the use of egg yolk. The fact that such a sauce will curdle if heated beyond a certain point is largely responsible for their reputation of being difficult. McGee (book: Curious Cook)...has investigated both the history and the chemistry of the sauce. He reports that one of the earliest versions which he found, " sauce a la hollandoise", in the 1758 edition of Marin's Dons de Comus, calls only for butter, flour, bouillon, and herbs; no yolks at all'...Sauces which are derived from, or can be regarded as variations of, hollandaise include: sauce aux capres, maltaise, mousseline, moutarde (Dijon mustard)."---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 383)

"Although Hollandaise was a French creation its name was not totally inaccurate. The Dutch cities of Leyden and Delft exported so much of their renown butter (the sauce's principal ingredient) in the seventeenth century, that they were forced to import cheaper butter from England and Ireland."

---The Horizon Cookbook and Illustrated History of Eating and Drinking Through the Ages, William Harlan Hale [American Heritage Publishing Co.:New York] 1968 (p. 625)

We find several recipes for Sauce Hollandaise (also sometimes referenced as 'Dutch Sauce') in popular 19th century American Cookbooks. If you are interested in an old recipe you can view the 1884 version printed in the Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln

It is interesting to note that the classic Dutch cookbook De Verstandige Kock (The Sensible Cook), circa 1683, contains several recipes for sauce meant for fish featuring butter, spices, verjus/lemon juice or wine. Few of these list eggs as an ingredient:

[1683]"To Make a Sauce for a Boiled Sturgeon.Take youg Onion cooked in Butter, Chervil, Parsley, Pepper, and Wine vinegar, let it cook together. It is a good sauce." (P. 70)

To stew small Bundles of Young Eels with Herbs.Split the Eel open and wash clean. Take Sorrel, Chervil, and Parsley, some Rice, a little Mace, tied close [and] boiled in water, some Salt in it. When the Eel floats thentake it out and place on an earthenware collander and a sauce of Butter and Vinegar with an Egg is poured over it. Is good." (P. 69)---The Sensible Cook: Dutch Foodways in the Old and New World, Translated and Edited by Peter G. Rose [Syracuse Univeristy Press:Syracuse NY] 1989 Original Dutch version [1669 edition] here.

Ketchup

The history of ketchup is fascinating and (believe it or not?) complicated. Food historians generally agree the predecessor of our ubiquitous All-American tomato-based condiment originated in Southeast Asia. Some believe the English word 'ketchup' was borrowed from Chinese, too. How is this possible when tomatoes are a "New World" food? Original recipes for this pungent condiment were flavored with Asian ingredients. When tomatoes were introduced to China (circa 16th century), they were eventually incorporated. 18th and 19th century British and American cookbooks offer dozens of ketchup recipes featuring a wide variety of tangy fruits, vegetables, nuts, and fish. By the end of the 19th century, American tomato ketchup, as we know it today, was commercially bottled and widely consumed by a hungry public.

What is ketchup?"When the term ketchup first entered the English language, at the end of the seventeenth century, it stood for something very different from the bottled tomato sauce of today. At that time tomatoes were an expensive rarity, and the ketchups were long-keeping, often vinegar-based sauces flavoured with mushrooms, anchovies, onions, lemons, oysters, pickled walnuts, etc. They formed the essential ingredients of the proprietary sauces so popular with the Victorians, of

which Worcester sauce is virtually the only survival..."---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 177)

English recipe, circa 1747:

"To make English catchup.Take the largest flaps of mushrooms, wipe them dry, but don't peel them, break them to pieces, and salt them very well; let them stand so in an earthen pan for nine days, stirring them once or twice a day, then put then into a jugg close stopp'd set into water over a fire for three hours; then strain it through a sieve, and to every quart of the juice put a pint of strong stale mummy beer, not bitter, a quarter of a pound of anchovies, a quarter of an ounce of mace, the same of cloves, half an ounce of pepper, a race of ginger, half a pound of shalots; then boil them altogether over a slow fire till half the liquor is wastged, keeping the pot close covered; then strain it through a flannel bag. If the anchovies don't make it salt enough, add a little salt."---First Catch Your Hare: The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 edition [Prospect Bpoks:Devon] 1995 (p. 169)

About American ketchup"The word 'ketchup' conjures up an image of the thick, sweet, tomato-based condiment...Americans did not invent ketchup, which was not thick, sweet, or made from tomatoes...British explorers, colonists, and traders came into contact with the sauce in Southeast Asia, and upon their return to Europe they attempted to duplicate it. As soybeans were not grown in Europe, British cooks used such substitutes as anchovies, mushrooms, walnuts, and oysters. British colonists brought ketchup to North Ameirca, and Americans continued experimenting, using a variety of additional ingredients, including beans and apples. Tomato ketchup may have originated in America. It was widely used throughout the United States in the early nineteenth century, and small quantities of it were first bottled in the 1850s. After the Civil War commercial production of ketchup rapidly increased...tomato ketchup became the most important version...In 1896 the New York Tribune reported that tomato ketchup was America's national condiment...Up until 1900, ketchup was mainly used as an ingredient for savory pies and sauces, and to enhance the flavor of meat, poultry, and fish. It then became famous as a condiment following the appearance of three major host foods: hamburgers, hot dogs, and french fries."---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, volume 2(p. 5-6)

Sample 19th & early 20th century ketchup recipes, courtesy of Michigan State University's Feeding America cookbooks. Search recipes, use both terms (catsup and ketchup) for comprehensive results.

About tomatoes in China"Solanaceous fruits are in part a natural group in Chinese. Eggplant...has the most respectable antiquity, introduced from India at some obscure time in the past...Tomatoes...were introduced from the West in the 1500s and promptly named fan chieh (barbarian eggplant), their similarity to eggplants noted from the start. At first tomatoes were grown only for Westerners near the coastal enclaves where they stayed, but its taste and ease of growth achieved popularity for the tomato eventually, and it continues to spread and become more widely accepted in cooking. At

present, however, it is still primarily a part of urbanized Cantonese cuisine--the area that has been longest and most intimately in contact with foreigners."---Food in China, E.N. Anderson [Yale University Press:New Haven CT] 1988 (p. 160)

Why call it ketchup (catsup)?"The etymological origin of the word ketchup is a matter of confusion. For almost two centuries speculation has raged regarding the origin of the word and what it signifies...Elizabeth David suggests in her Spice, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen that the word 'derived form caveach, a form of spiced-vinegar pickle in which cooked fish was preserved.' She announced that the word in different forms manifested itself throughout European cookery...E.N. Anderson believed that ketchup was cognate with the French escaveche, 'meaning food in sauce.' Similarly, others have speculated that ketchup was related to the Spanish and Portuguese words escabeche or escaveach, meaning 'a marinade or sauce for pickling.'... American culinary historian reports, escabeche derived from the Arabic word iskeby and specifically referred to pickling with vinegar. The term was Anglicized to caveach, and it appeared in print almost simultaneously with ketchup in English cookery books. Still others have claimed that the word ketchup originated in East Asia. In 1877 Eneas Dallas speculated that the true Japanese word was kitjap...However, if anything is clear in this etymological confustion, it is that the word kitjap is not of Japanese origin. Concurring in this opinion, the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary suggested that 'Japanese' cited by many was possibly an error for 'Javanese.' This speculation was based on the presumption that some observers believed that ketchup derived form the Malay language...Culinary historian Alan Davidson...believed that the term specifically derived from the Indonesian word kecap. Owen presumed that retired British colonial servants brought the word back home with them from Malaya. However, ketchup was entrenched in Britain well before the British possessed a colony in Malaya...Indeed, Malay dictionaries claim that ketchup is of Chinese origin...The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary, citing Douglas's Chinese Dictionary, presented a different Chinese-origins theory, reporting that ketchup really derived from ke-tsiap, a word from the Amoy dialect of Chinese meaning 'the brine of pickled fish.'"---Pure Ketchup: A History of America's National Condiment, Andrew F. Smith [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1996 (p. 4-5)

What is the correct spelling?"...ketchup is among the few commonly eaten products with no agreed upon spelling. Ketchup, catchup, or catsup continue to be used today, but other similar spellings have been employed for years...Over the past two centuries food commentators have presented cases for particular 'correct' spellings of the word...In America, Isaac Riley, editor of the 1818 edition of The Universal Receipt Book, believed that ketchup was the correct spelling. According to Riley, catchup was a vulgarization, and catsup was simply an affectation...Until a few decades ago, catsup was the preferred spelling in many dictionaries. Today ketchup clearly is in the ascendancy, and is the clear choice of lexicographers and manufacturers."---Pure Ketchup: A History of America's National Condiment, Andrew F. Smith [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1996 (p. 6)

Recommended reading: Andrew F. Smith's Pure Ketchup: A History of America's National Condiment. This book traces the evolution of ketchup from ancient times to present-day. It also

includes historic recipes and is well documented if you are conducting a scholarly project. Your librarian can help you find a copy.

Related foods: Salsa & tomato sauce.

Mayonnaise

How many theories are there on the origin of mayonnaise? At least four! The fifth is generally overlooked. Some early recipes indicate mayonnaise sauces accompanied jellied fish, in the traditional of aspic.

"Mayonnaise, a famous sauce which is, essentially, an emulsion of olive oil and vinegar (or lemon juice) stablized with egg yolk and seasoned to taste...As a French word mayonnaise, meaning the sauce, first appeared in print in 1808. However, an interesting curiousity is its appearance in the phrase 'mayonnaise de poulet' in a German cookbook of 1804."---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2007 (p. 488)

"The derivation of the word mayonnaise has always been a matter of some controversy. Among suggestions put forward in the past are that it is an alteration of bayonnaise, as if the sauce originated in the town of Bayonne, in southwestern France; that it was derived from the French verb manier, 'stir' (this was the chef Careme's theory); and that it could be traced back to Old French moyeu, 'egg yolk'. But the explanation that it origianlaly meant literaly 'of mahon' and that the sauce was so named to commemorate the taking of Port Mahon, capital of the island of Minorca, by the duc de Richelieu in 1756 (presumably Richelieu's chef, or perhaps even the duke himself, created the sauce). English borrowed the word from French in the 1840s..."---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 208)

"The Eighteenth Century...Members of the royal court invented new dishes, or tather they appropriated the glory for their discovery from helpless chefs...The greatest of these noble discoveries, if in fact occurred, was the world premiere of mayonnaise, said to have taken place at the table of the Duc de Richelieu, second cousin of the cardinal, after the capture of Port Mahon in 1759. This is the most disputed of all sauce origins. Some people are persuaded that mahonnaise was indeed transformed into mayonnaise. Others find a more appealing etymology in the old-fashioned word for egg yolk: moyeu. Careme insisted on yet a third alternative: "Some people," he wrote, "say mayonnaise, others mahonnaise, still others bayonnaise. It makes no difference that vulgar cooks should use these words, but I urge that these three terms never be uttered in our great kitchens (where the purists are to be found) and that we should always denominate this sauce with the epithet, magnonaise." Careme was convinced that his etymology made the most sense: magnonaise came from the verb "manier," to handle or work, which, he argued, was exactly what one did to produce a good mayonnaise...If I may further add to the confusion, it seems to me improbably that no one has yet proposed a fourth solution to the problem. Since most sauces are named after places (bearnaise, venitienne, italienne, africaine), it is logical that mayonnaise refer to one also. Unfortunately, there is no town of Mayonne;

however, there is a city in France, at the western edge of Normandy, called Mayenne. Who is to day that mayonnaise did not begin as mayennaise?"---The Saucier's Apprentice, Raymond Sokolov [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1976 (p. 6-7)

A sampler of historic mayonnaise recipes

[1828]"NO. 60.--Mayonnaise.Take three spoonsful of Allemande, six of aspic, and two of oil. Add a little tarragon vinegar that has not boiled, some pepper and salt, and chopped ravigotte, or some chopped parsley only. Set the whole over some ice, and when the mayonnaise begins to freeze, then put in the members of fowl, or fillets of soles, &c. The mayonnaise must be put into ice: but the members must not be put into the sauce till it begins to freeze. Dish up the meat or fish, cover it with the sauce before it be quite frozen, and garnish the dish with whatever you think proper, as beet-root, jelly, naturtiums, &c."---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, facsimile Englished edition of book originally published in French, 1828 [Arco Publishing:New York] 1978 (p. 20)

[1869]"White Mayonnaise SaucePut, in a small basin: the yolk of 1 egg, well freed from white; 1 pinch of salt; and a small pinch of pepper; stir with a wooden spoon, and pour in, by drops at first, then by teaspoonfuls, about 4 oz. of oil,--being careful to mix the oil well before adding any more; at every eighth teapsoonful of oil, add 1 teaspoonful of vinegar, till all the oil is used; taste the seasoning; and serve. Mayonnaise should, as a rule, be of rather high seasoning."

"Green Mayonnaise SaucePrepare a white mayonnaise, as just indicated; Cop 3 tablespoonfuls of ravigote, i.e. a mixture of chervil, tarragon, cress, and burnet;--if tarragon is scarce, chervil alone, with a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar added to the sauce, will do as well. Mix the herbs, in the sauce; and serve."---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marson:London] 1869

[1907]"Sauce MayonnaiseMany composed cold sauces are derived from Mayonnaise and it is therefore classified as a basic sauce in the same way as Espagnole and Veloute. Its preparation is very simple provided note is take of the principles outlined in the following recipe:Ingredients6 egg yolks (these must be unblemished)1 litre (1 3/4pt or 4 1/2 U.S. cups) oil10 g (1/3 oz) fine saltpinch of ground white pepper1 1/2 tbls vinegar (or its equivalent in lemon juice if the cause is required to be very whiteMethod1. Whisk the yolks of egg in a basin with the salt, pepper and a little of the vinegar or a few drops

of lemon juice.2. Add and whisk in the oil, drop by drop to begin with, then faster in a thread as the sauce begins to thicken.4. Lastly add 2 tbs boiling water which is added to ensure that the emulsification holds if the sauce is to be reserved for later use.---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, A. Escoffier, originally published in 1907, translated by H.L. Cracknell and R. J. Kaufmann [John Wiley & Sons:New YOrk] 1997 (p. 30)[NOTE: Escoffier also includes recipes for: Sauce Mayonnaise Collee (Jellied Mayonnaise), Sauce Mayonnaise Fouette a la Russe (Whipped Mayonnaise, Russian Style), and Various Mayonnaise Sauces (generally including creamy parts of large shellfish).

Related food? Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake.

Mirepoix

The definition of Mirepoix is a study in culinary evolution. Notes here:

"Mirepoix: A culinary preparation created in the 18th century by the cook of the Duc de Levis-Mirepoix, a French field marshal and ambassador of Louis XV. It consists of a mixture of diced vegetables (carrot, onion, celery); raw ham or lean bacon is added when the preparation is with meat. A mirepoix is used to enhance the flavour of meat, game and fish, in the preparation of sauces (notably espagnole sauce) and as a garnish for such dishes as frog's legs, artichokes and macaroni. When a mirepoix is used in braised or pot-roasted dishes, it should be simmered gently in a covered pan until all the vegetables are very tender and can impart their flavour to the dish. Mirepoix without meat is mainly used in the preparation of shellfish, for braised vegetable dishes and in certain white sauces."---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 751)

"A mirepoix is a mixture of finely chopped vegetables, typically onion, carrot, and celery, fried in butter and used for flavouring stews and other meat dishes, as a base for sauces, and as a garnish. It was reputedly devised in the eighteenth century by the cook to the Duc de Levis-Mirepoix, a French field marshal."---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 215)

"Mireopoix, Charles-Pierre-Gaston Francois de Levis, Duke of (1699-1757). Mirepoix was an incompetent and mediocre individual', writes Pierre Larousse at the end of the 19th century, who owed his vast fortune to the affection Louis XV felt toward his wife'. This same author informs us that the unfortunate Mirepoix had one claim to fame: he gave his name to a sauce made of all kinds of meat and a variety of seasonings'...But what exactly, in the 18th century, constituted a dish a la Mirepoix? The answer is hard to supply since it is not until the 19th century that the term is encountered regularly in French culinary texts. Beauvilliers, for instance, in 1814, gives a short recipe for a Sauce a la Mirepoix which is buttery, wine-laced stock garnished with an aromatic mixture of carrots, onions, and a bouquet garni. Careme, in the 1830s, gives a similar

recipe calling it simply Mire-poix and, but the mid-19th century, Gouffe refers to a Mirepoix as a term in use for such a long time that I do not hesitate to use it here'. His mirepoix is listed among essences' and, indeed, is a meaty concoction (laced with two bottles of Madeira!) Which, like all other essences, was used to enrich many a classic sauce. By the end of the 19th century, the mirepoix had taken on its modern meaning and Favre in his Dictionnaire universel de cuisine (c. 1895, reprinted 1978) uses the term to describe a mixture of ham, carrots, onions, and herbs used as an aromatic condiment when making sauces or braising meat."---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 509)

Compare these recipes:

[1869] Gouffe"Mirepoix, or Essence of Meat and Vegetables.Observation.--Mirepoix is such a common term in cookery that I cannot help using it, although I have thought it well to indicate its composition in the title itself. It is an extract of meat and vegetables;--the word mirepoix alone would certainly not make this fact as clear as desirable. To make mirepoix: Cut 2 lbs of fillet of veal, 1 lb. Of fat bacon, and 2 lbs. Of raw ham, half lean, half fat, in 1 1/2 inch pieces, and put these into a stewpan with: 4 sliced carrots, 4 middle-sized onions, 4 bay leaves, 1 sprig of thyme, 4 shallots; Fry till the meat is of a light brown colour, and pour in 2 bottles of Madeira, and 5 quarts of General Stock; add 1/2 oz. Of mignonnette pepper; boil; then simmer gently for two hours; strain through a broth napkin; and put by for use, --without taking off the fat."---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated from the French and adapted for English use by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marston:London] 1869 (p. 269)

[1903] Escoffier"322. MirepoixThe ingredients are the same as those for Matignon with the following differences: the vegetables are cut into large or small Bruinoise according to how the Mirepoix is to be used and the raw ham is replaced by lean salt belly of pork cut in dice and blanched. Lightly brown all the ingredients in a little butter.

"321. MatignonCut 125 g (4 1/2 oz) red of carrot, 125 g (. 1/2 ox) onion, 50 g (2 oz) celery and 100 g (3 1/2 oz) raw ham all into thin Paysanne; add 1 bayleaf and a sprig of thyme. Stew together in a little butter and deglaze with a little white wine."---Escoffier: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Escoffier [1903], the first translation into English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann of Le Guide Culinaire in its entirety [John Wiley:New York] 1979 (p. 50)

[1996] CIA"MirepoixYield: 1 pound (450 grams)Onions, chopped, 8 ounces (225 grams)Carrots, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)Celery, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)

1. Cut the vegetables into an appropriate size based on the cooking time of the dish. 2. Add mirepoix to the recipe as directed.

"White MirepoixYield: 1 pound (450 grams)Onions, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)Leeks, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)Celery, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)Parsnips, chopped, 4 ounces (115 grams)Mushroom trimmings (optional), 2 to 3 ounces (60 to 85 grams)1. Cut the vegetables into an appropriate size, based on the cooking time of the dish.2. Add mirepoix to the recipe as directed."---The Professional Chef, Culinary Institute of America, 6th edition, 1996 (p. 420)

Mother

In the French culinary tradition "Mother Sauces" are those from which all others are derived. Contemporary classic French cuisine generally rests upon five mother sauces.

Which are the mother sauces?Easier asked than answered. There is no single definative list of "Mother Sauces." Candidates vary according to period and culinary perspective. Most often listed are: espagnole, mayonnaise, tomato, bechamel, veloute, & hollandaise (similar to allemande).

A timeline (of sorts) here:

[19th century Careme & 20th century Escoffier]

"Sauces, like all else, are continually changing in details whilst the foundations upon which they are built change but little if at all. There are five foundation sauces or basic sauces, called in French Grandes Sauces or Sauces Meres [mother]. Two of them have a record of two hundred years between them; they are the Bechamelle and the Mayonnaise. They have lasted so long, not only because they are very good, but because they are so adaptable and provide a fine basis for a considerable number of other sauces. The other three, which also date back to the eighteenth century, are the Veloute, the Brune and the Blonde; Careme called these last two Notre Espagnole and Notre Allemande, to emphasize that both were French sauces and that their names were due to their dark and fair complexions. These five sauces still provide the basis for the making of many modern sauces, but no longer of most of them. Modern sauces may be divided into two classes: the Careme and Escoffier classes. Among the faithful, in the great kitchens of the world, Escoffier is to Careme what the New Testament is to the Old. Careme and his disciples produced sauces that were works of art: beautiful and delicious, but complicated. Their chief concern might have been--and probably was--to camouflage as much as possible the meat, game or fish served with some sauce. Many of sauces whcih Careme used or introduced were strong and spicy... Escoffier took a different view: he was the apostle of simplicity; he wanted

his sauces to help and not to hide the flavour of whatever dish they adorned. He introduced...fumets and essences...evaporated stock obtained by allowing the water, milk or wine in which meat, fish or vegetables happen to be cooked, to steam away slowly so as to leave behind a fragrant concentrate as a basis for whatever sauce will be served with them."---A Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy, Andre L. Simon [Harcourt, Brace and Company:New York] 1952 (p. 4-5)

[1869]"Fundamental sauces...Espagnole...Veloute...Allemande...Bechamel..."---Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson, Low, Son and Marston:London] 1869 (p. 262-266)

[1902]"The Mother Sauce Matrix: As formulated by August Escoffier in his Guide Culinaire (1902): Espagnole, Veloute, Bechamel, Hollandaise, Tomate."---The Sauce Bible: Guide to the Saucier's Craft, David Paul Larousse [John Wiley & Sons:New York] 1993 (p. 58)

[1927]"As numerous and diverse as French sauces are, they all originate from the same basic sauces: espagnole and demi-glace, which, in good home cooking are replaced by what are known as 'boureois sauces' and which we call 'brown sauce' ...or whaite sauces such as veoulte...parisienne; and bechamel. The primary function of these sauces is to provide--in strictly anonymous fashion...the fundamental elements of any sauce: concentrated flavors from extracts of meat, fish, or similar; liquid; and liaison. In other words...starting from a basic sauce, any number of ingredients can be added to give to each a particular sauce its own distinctive flavor...The difference between the basic sauces of haute cuisine and those of the home cook is not necessarily in the ingredients used. For all intents and purposes, they are about the same. The difference is in the quantity of these ingredients, and, more important, in the time and care taken for the preparation..."---La Bonne Cuisine, Madame E. Saint-Ange, originally published in 1927, translated with an introduction by Paul Aratow [Ten Speed Press:Berkely CA] 2005 (p. 49) [NOTE: We own the original French text, if you question the translation.]

[1963]"Sauces are the splendor and glory of French cooking...For while the roster of French sauces is stupendous, the individual sauces divide themselves into a half a dozen definite groups and each one in a particular group is amde in the same general way...The French Family of SaucesWhite Sauces: These stem from the two cousins, bechamel and veloute. Both use a flour and butter roux as thickening agent. Bechamel is moistened with milk; veloute, with white stock is made from poultry, veal, or fish.Brown Sauces: For the brown sauces, the butter and flour roux is cooked slowly untilit turns a nut brown. Then a brown stock is added.Tomato SauceEgg Yolk and Butter Sauces: Hollaindaise is the mother of this family.

Egg Yolk and Oil Sauces: These are all variations of mayonnaise.Oil and Vinegar Sauces: Vinaigrette--French dressing--heads this family.Flavored Butters: These include the hot butter sauces, and butters creamed with various herbs, seasonings or purees."---Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle, Julia Child [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1963 (p. 54-55)

[1993]"As it is now practised in present-day cookery...Sauce demi-glace, Sauce veloute, Sauce bechamel, Sauces aux beurre, Sauce Hollandaise, Sauce blanc, Sauce Tomate."---The Sauce Bible: Guide to the Saucier's Craft, David Paul Larousse [John Wiley & Sons:New York] 1993 (p. 58)

Backstory, courtesy of the food historians:Careme's original scheme contained five foundation sauces: veloute, bechamel, espagnol, mayonnaise and allemande. Escoffier is generally credited for elevating tomato sauce to this lofty position.

"It was Careme who began to classify sauces. The hot sauces, which are by far the more numerous, are subdivided into brown sauces and white sauces....and they too, have innumerable derivatives. Cold sauces are usually based on mayonnaise or vinaigrette, and they also have many variations."---Larousse Gastonomique, Completely revised and updated edition [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 1042)

"In addition to stocks, the repertoire of French haute cuisine contains a multitude of sauces, in which different ingredients are added to stocks and cooked in a number of ways. They all tend, however, to be variations on the them of several basic, or "mother" sauces: espagnole, veloute, bechamel, tomato, and hollandaise."--- Haute Cusine: How the French Invented the Culinary Profession, Amy B. Trubek [University of Pennsylvania Press:Philadelphia PA] 2000 (p. 18)

"French sauces are the height of culinary technique...They are also part of a structure so orderly and Cartesian that it could only be French...French sauces are not just a group of randomly assembled essences and emulsions. They come in families, each one which descends from one basic sauce known appropriately as sauce mere or mother sauce. Once you have made the mother sauce (which is rarely served by itself), you can make all the small or compound sauces (the ones that are served) in a matter of minutes by adding the appropriate special ingredients that make up the particualr sauce...The sauce system is like a group of family trees that evolved over centuries and reached their fullest elaboration in the late nineteenth century. The system was codified by Escoffier after World War I, and it is still the basis for what is called haute cuisine or classic cuisine in France today. Not it is a fact that younger chefs in France have radically "simplified" their menus and no longer cook precisely in the manner of Escoffier...as far as sauces are concerned, they have eliminated or virtually emliminated flour as a thickening agent for the mother sauces. Instead, they reduce their stocks further and use other liaisons: cream, butter, hollandaise and egg yolks, as well as arrowroot. This amounts to a fundamental

change in direction. Its proponents assert that flour muddied the taste of the (now) old-fashioned espagnoles and veloutes. They go on to say the streamlined nature of modern life demands lighter sauces that do not overwhelm the basic elements of the dish which the sauce accompanies. These arguments are persuasive up to a point. Flour-bound sauces do tend to be more present as a complex taste and a texture than do sauces based on pure reductions of veal stock. On the other hand, in my opinion it is a slander on the past and an error to dismiss 150 years of professional saucemaking as a muddy, glutinous botch."---The Saucier's Apprentice, Raymond Sokolov, [Alfred A Knopf:New York] 1976 (p. xiv-xv)[NOTE: Mr. Sokolov's book serves an excellent course in the contributions La Varenne, Massaliot, Careme, Ude and others. If you are a culinary student this book is in your school's library. If not? Your public librarian can help you find a copy. Use this book to trace connection between demi glace (Espagnole in its most refined stage) and sauce Robert, Duxelles, Poivrade, Piquante, Chasseur, Perigoudine, etc.

Careme & Escoffier: compare & contrast:

"Sauces, like all else, are continually changing in details whilst the foundations upon which they are built change but little if at all. There are five foundation sauces or basic sauces, called in French Grandes Sauces or Sauces Meres [mother]. Two of them have a record of two hundred years between them; they are the Bechamelle and the Mayonnaise. They have lasted so long, not only because they are very good, but because they are so adaptable and provide a fine basis for a considerable number of other sauces. The other three, which also date back to the eighteenth century, are the Veloute, the Brune and the Blonde; Careme called these last two Notre Espagnole and Notre Allemande, to emphasize that both were French sauces and that their names were due to their dark and fair complexions. These five sauces still provide the basis for the making of many modern sauces, but no longer of most of them. Modern sauces may be divided into two classes: the Careme and Escoffier classes. Among the faithful, in the great kitchens of the world, Escoffier is to Careme what the New Testament is to the Old. Careme and his disciples produced sauces that were works of art: beautiful and delicious, but complicated. Their chief concern might have been--and probably was--to camoflage as much as possible the meat, game or fish served with some sauce. Many of sauces whcih Careme used or introduced were strong and spicy...Escoffier took a different view: he was the apostle of simplicity; he wanted his sauces to help and not to hide the flavour of whatever dish they adorned. He introduced...fumets and essences...evaporated stock obtained by allowing the water, milk or wine in which meat, fish or vegetables happen to be cooked, to steam away slowly so as to leave behind a fragrant concentrate as a basis for whatever sauce will be served with them."---A Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy, Andre L. Simon [Harcourt, Brace and Company:New York] 1952 (p. 4-5)

Pesto

Food historians generally trace the origin of the concept of pesto to ancient condiments made by grinding spices with mortar and pestle and combining them with oil. The word 'pesto' literally means 'pounded'. These types of foods were known in the Persia and ancient Rome. The key to understanding pesto is basil, the primary ingredient. Pounded basil products were noted in Italy

in Medieval times. Today, pesto is a popular accompaniment to many dishes served in restaurants and at home.

About basil"Basil., aromatic plant. Basil was already being eaten by slugs in ancient Greek gardens, but why it was grown there is uncertain. In the modern Near East basil is grown for its aroma by not traditionally used in food. In the ancient world it was controversial whether basil should be taken as fod, though according to Galen some ate it as a salad, dressed with olive oil and garum. Its medicial qualities are recorded from the Hippocratic Regimen onwards. The basil of the Mediterranean is Ocimum americanum. The ancient name was okimon in Greek, ocimum in Latin; the now-familiar name basilikon appears first in early medieval texts, and the two are equated in Byzantine sources such as the manuscripts of Simeon Seth's dietary manual, but some scholars, including Laufer, have doubted that the ancient okimon is realy basil."---Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 48)

Basil, A Modern Herbal, M. Grieve, 1931:

About pesto

"Genoa is closely associated with its basil and pesto. Pesto is said to be of Persian origin, and although the pounding of coriander and garlic into a pesto is quite old in the Middle East, I believe the origins of Genoese-style pesto may be Roman, as they were known to have made pounded condiments. Although we can't be sure of the first use of pesto, we do know that Genoa was associated with basil the star ingredient of this pesto, as early as the mid-fifteenth century, from the story of the humanist ambassador and lawyer Francesco Marchese, who won his fame on the basis of a remark he made to the Duke of Milan upon presenting him a tub of basil; if treated well, basil gave off a very nice scent, if dealt with harshly, it produced serpents and scorpions."---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [William Morris:New York] 1999 (p. 351)

"In Genoa, the birthplace of basil, and all along the Ligurian coast, the air is redolent of basil...The most famous Genovese sauce, pesto, is made of basil which has been worked to form a durable, portable sauce, perfectly suited to long, hazardous voyages of discovery. It had been suggested that during the crusades, the Genovese contingent could be easily identified even as far afield as Jerusalem, by the characteristic aroma of pesto that surrounded them...Originally, [making pesto] was a slow, laborious procedure since the basil, garlic and nuts had to be pounded by hand with a pestle and mortar-hence the name pesto'."---The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces, Diane Seed [Ten Speed Press:Berkeley CA] 1987 (p. 9-10)

"Pesto. 'Pounded'. Any food mashed with mortar and pestle, but more specifically a verdant green sauce made with mashed fresh basil leaves, olive oil, pine nuts or walnuts, and pecorino cheese. Forms of pesto date back to the ancient Romans' moretum, which was made from crushed garlic, parsley, olive oil, vinegar, and ewe's milk. The first mention of the word pesto dates to a Florentine cookbook of 1848, but the condiment has become most closely associated with Liguria and, specifically, with Genoa, where trenette al pesto, with green beans and

potatoes, is a classic dish. From the Late Latin 'pestare'."---Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p. 190)

[1893]"Salsa Verde (Green sauce)To prepare green sauce, squeeze the brin out of some capers and then, using a mezzaluna, finely chop them together wtih an anchovy, a little onion, and very little garlic. Mash the mixture with a knife blade and make it into a fine paste which you will place in a gravy dish. Add a fair amount of parsley chopped with a few basil leaves. Blend everything in fine olive oil and lemon juice. This sauce goes well with boiled chicken, cold fish, hard-boiled or poached eggs. if you have no capers, brine-cured pepper may be used instead."---Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, Pellegrino Artusi, Translated by Murtha Baca and Stephoen Sartalli [Marsilio Publshers:New York] 1997 (p. 117-118)

Pesto entered mainstream American culinary conscious during the 1930s:

[1935]"In Liguria you must try the minestrone col pesto, a soup in which oil, cheese, garlic and basil are used."---"Italy Richly Endowed with Foods Renowned," Darrell Preston Aub, The Washington Post, September 8, 1935 (p. F1)

[1944]"Italian Spaghetti Paste. Those who are fond of spaghetti may be interested in learning of an Italian paste which, though not new, is relatively little known. Called Pesto Genovese, it is dark green in color and is made of finely chopped parsley, anise, basil, garlic, cheese, olive oil and seasoning. it needs only to be added to oil or margarine to make a delicious sauce. The kind we have in mind is Poggiolo brand. The paste, which is especially popular with Italians, has a pungent anise flavor, in which a trace of basil is also apparent. For this reason, a linking for anise is a prerequisite to its use. Although the directions on the tin call for two tablespoons of the paste to be mixed with oil as desired, those with conservative tastes will find one tablespoon sufficient for each serving of spaghetti. Mix it with one tablespoon of oil, or with one and a half tablespoons of fortified margarine. The sauce should then be heated, added to the spaghetti and sprinkled generously with an Italian-type grated cheese. One six-ounce tin of the paste will serve twelve persons. If all of the package is not used at once, the remainder may be kept in a glass jar in the refrigerator. Pesto Genovese, which is often referred to simply as green paste, may be found at most Italian grocery stores, and, specifically at Manganato's, 488 Ninth Avenue, where it sells for 28 cents."---"News of Food," Jane Holt, New York Times, October 24, 1944 (p. 20)

[1946] ,br> "Pasta al Pesto (pesto means "pounded," and refers to the mode of preparation) is the distinctive contribution of the Northern Italians to the culinary art. Into a mortar placed generous quantiteis of fresh basil--the dry will not do--and a few cloves of garlic. Pound vigorously with a pestle, adding small quantities of olive oil from time to time, until garlic and basi merge into a fine paste. Complete the process as described for pasta al burro, adding this paste and butter to

the pasta. Pestle and mortar are stock kitchen equipment in many Italian homes; if they are not avialable, the ingredients may be minced on a cutting board with a heavy, straight-edges knife. If a knife is used, the mincing must be continued until garlic and basil are thoroughly fused. This seasonal dish--it can be prepared only when fresh basil is available--is an extraordinary pleasant experience both for the nostrils and the palate. Its only disadvantage is that it may unduly whet the appetite. I once knew a man in Florence who wagered that he could eat two pounds of pasta al pesto--six ounces in a generous portion for the average man --after a normal dinner. The prize was a barrel of Chianti. He won the wager and lived to drink the wine!"---"Spaghetti: The fine points of preparing it in the native manner," Sunset, January 1946 (p. 30-31)

[1952]"Pesto Sauce, Genoise Style.1 large bunch fresh sweet basilParsely, about a s much as basil4 cloves garlic1/2 teaspoon saltFreshly ground pepper4 tablespoon Romana cheese.1. Chop to a paste basil, parsley and garlic, using a chopping bowl or mortar and pestle. Do not prepare this sauce too far ahead of serving time or the green color will be lost.2. Add salt and pepper. Add oil about drop by drop, beating and rubbing continuously until mixture is of sauce consistency. Stir in cheese. Serve by mixing about one-half the sauce with cooked fine spaghetti or noodles and use the remaining sauce as garnish on top. The sauce also may be added to minestrone soup, a spoonful to each serving. Yield: four servings."---"News of Food," New York Times, May 10, 1952 (p. 24)

[1955]"Basil--once called the herb of kings--is becoming more common in American cookery. The sweet, fragrant plant is well known to European epicureans, who use it for flavoring soups, meats and sauces...Lucky Americans returning from an Italian vacation will speak fondly of having eaten a fresh-basil spaghetti sauce called "pesto." This delicacy may be prepared as follows:Chop very fine one large buch fresh sweet basil with an equal amount of parsley and four cloves of garlic. Better still, mash all all together in a mortar with a pestle. Add olive oil drop by drop until mixture is of sauce consistency. Season to taste. Stir in four tablespoons grated Romano cheese. Mix about one-half the sauce with cooked fine spaghetti or noodles and use remaining portion as garnish."---"Basil Brings Soupor Meat a Novel Tang," New York Times, August 24, 1955 (p. 30)

[1957]

"Pasta al Pesto...In the late 70s/early'80s, when fresh basil could be had at most farmer's markets, pesto became the pasta sauce of choice."---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 214)

Roux

"Roux. The various kinds of roux are used as thickening agents for basic sauces, and their preparation, which appears to be of little importance, should actually be carried out with a great deal of care and attention.' So begins August Escoffier's article on Roux in his monumental Guide culinaire; almost an entire page is devoted to roux brun, though only short paragraphs deal with the preparation of roux blond and blanc. Etymologically, and historically, all this makes perfect sense. Roux in French literally means reddish' (or orange') hence the first roux were made by cooking flour and butter together until a reddish tint was obtained then using this to thicken a souce or broth. Its widespread use in French cooking seems to date from the mid-17th century. At that time, La Varenne (1651) described the preparation of a liaison de farine (flour thickener) made by cooking flour in lard an, by the end of the century, cooks are referring to this mixture either as farine frit or roux. By the mid-18th century cookbooks authors are advising that roux de farine'...be cooked until the butter and flour are a nice yellow' and recommend that the resulting paste be stored for later use...The roux had its critics...and some French gastronomes began complaining about the over-use of roux in sauces as the 19th century approached. Careme came to its defence in the 1830s calling those who dared criticize the use of roux ignorant men'...A roux, writes Careme, is an indespensible to cooks as ink to writers but, he warns, just as a poor scribbler cannot produce a masterpiece simply by dipping his pen into that black liquid, a sauce is not necessarily impoved if the roux has not been simmered with sufficient care. In recent years the roux has once again come under heavy criticism and, with the advent of nouvelle cuisine in the early 1970s, many chefs abandoned its use...But, despite its chequered history, the roux remains one of the cornerstones of French cuisine..."---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 674)

La Varenne's original recipe:

"Thickening of flowreMelt some lard, take out the mammocks; put your flowre into your melted lard, seeth it well, but have a care it stick not to the pan, mix some onion with it proportionably. When it is enough, put all with good broth, mushrums and a drop of vinegar. Then after it hath boiled with its seasoning, pass all through the strainer and put it in a pot. When you will use it, you shall set it upon warm embers for to thicken or allay your sauces."---The French Cook, Francois Pierre La Varenne, Englished by I.D.G. 1653, Introduced by Philip and Mary Hyman [Southover Press:East Sussex] 2001 (p. 105)

NOTE: Escoffier's Guide Culinare has recently been reissued in English. Your librarian can help you find a copy or obtain the pages you need: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, translated by H. L. Cracknell and R. J. Kaufman [John Wiley:New York] 1997. In this edition, his notes and recipes for roux appear on pages 6-7.

ABOUT CAJUN ROUX

"Roux has a particular fascination for Louisiana cooks, who contend it is the ingredient that distinguishes their finest preparations. Creole roux are made with butter or bacon fat and are

cooked far longer than most French roux and achieve a deep honey color (althought there is also a white roux, which is pale in color because it is cooked quickly and not allowed to brown.) Cajun roux are made with vegetable oil or lard and cooked to a caramel color, although Cajuns also use lighter roux."---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lehbhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 276)

"The Creoles, like their French ancestors, hold that the three mother sauces, or "Sauces Meres," are Brown Sauce, or "Sauce Espagnole"; the White Sauce, or "Sauce Allemande," and the "Glace," or "Glaze." These are the foundation of all sauces, and upon their successful making depends upon the taste and piquancy of the numberless variety of fancy sauces that give to even the most commonplace dish an elegance all its own. The Creoles are famous for their spendid sauces, and the perfect making of a good sauce is considered an indispensable part of culinary art and domestic economy. The first thing to learn in making sauces of every kind is how to make a good "Roux," or the foundtion mixture of flour and butter, or flour and lard. We have the Brown Roux and the White Roux. In making a brown Roux, this unfailing rule must be the guide: Never, under any consideration, use burnt or over-browned flour."---The Picayune Creole Cook Book, facsimile 1901 2nd edition [Dover Publications:New York] 1971 (p. 158)

Here is the recipe from this book (circa 1901):

"Brown roux.1 Tablespoonful Butter. 1 Tablespoonful Flour.In making the roux, which is the foundation of fancy sauce, melt the tablespoonful of butter slowly, and add gradually the flour, sprinking it in and stirring constantly, till every portion is a nice, delicate brown. Never make it too brown, because it must continue browning as the other ingredients are added in the order given in every recipe in this book. It is a great mistake to pile all ingredients, one after another, pell-mell, into a dish, in the course of preparation. The secret of good cooking lies in following implicity the gradual introduction of the component parts in the order specified.

In making a roux for cooking gravies or smothering meats, the proportions are one tablespoonful of lard and two of flour, butter always making a richer gravy than lard, and sometimes being too rich for delicate stomachs. It is a great fad among many in our day to use nothing but butter in cooking. The Creoles hold that butter should be used its proper place, and lard in its own. The lard is not only less expensive, but is far preferable to an inferior quality of butter, and in many cases preferable to the best butter, according to the dish in course of preparation. Properly made, the taste of lard can never be detected, and it is feared that butter is used by many to cover up, by its taste, the deficiencies of having made the roux improperly. If there is the slightest indication of burnt odor or over-browning, throw the roux away and wash the utensil before proceeding to make another. Remember that even a slighly burnt sauce will spoil the most savory dish."---(p. 159)

"White roux.1 tablespoonful Butter. 1 Tablespoonful Flour.

The White Roux is made exactly like the Brown Roux, only that the butter and flour are put simultaneously into the saucepan, and not allowed to brown. It is then moistened with a little broth or boiling water, and allowed to boil a few minutes, till thick. The White Roux is the foundation of all white sauces, or those containing milk and cream. It is also used in nearly all purees. In the Sauce Veloute it should be colored."---(p. 159)

Related sauce? Allemande.

Sour cream

The first sour [cultured] creams were probably made by accident...it's what happens naturally to cream that is left too long in the heat. Food historians do not seem to have fixed an exact date or place to this event. Yogurt has a somewhat similar history. Countries/cuisines which have incorporated sour cream into traditional fare are generally located in central and northern Europe. Sour cream was introduced to the New World by immigrants from these regions.

"Sour cream An example of a dairy product in motion; its use has been steadily spreading westwards. It is a traditional and important ingredient in Russian, E. European, German, and C. European cooking, both in savoury and in sweet dishes. In the second half of the 20th century...it has started to become a staple in the western parts of Europe, N. America, and elsewhere...Russian smetana and Polish smietana are often taken by translators to be 'sour cream', although the dictionaries give the meaning of the words simply as 'cream'...Traditionally, sour cream was made by letting fresh cream sour naturally. Lactic (and to a small extent, acetic) acid-producting bacteria in a cream could normally be relied upon to give an acceptable taste...Modern cultured sour cream is made by pasteurizing and homogenizing light (English 'single') cream and inoculating it with a pure culture of selected bacteria." ---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 736)

"'Sour' cream as distinct from 'soured' or 'cultured' is fresh cream which has been kept long enough to sour naturally. This may produce a pleasant or unpleasant flavor depending on the bacteria present in the cream. In countries where cooking with sour cream has long been a tradition, the kind used is that allowed to sour naturally but 'cultured' or 'soured' cream can be substituted successfully. Northern and Central Europe are the countries where sour cream is an important ingredient in cooking, and many of the recipes I include here have their origins in Russian, German, Hungarian, Polish and Czechoslovakian cooking. In Britain, particularly in farmhouse cooking, sour cream is traditionally used in baking in place of milk for making scones and similar goods." ----Cooking with Yogurt, Cultured Cream and Soft Cheese, Bee Nilson [Hippocrene Books:New York] 1973 (p. 69)

Semtana

"Smetana (or smitane, the French version of its name) is sour cream. Until recently it was familiar in Western gastronomy only in smetana sauce, a savoury sauce made with sour cream,

onions, and white wine, but over the past two decades it has become relatively widely available in its own rights in British supermarkets. The term is of Russian origin." ---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 314)

"Smetana. A soured (sour) cream, used extensively in central and eastern Europe. Produced by bacterial fermentation, it does not keep well. It is mainly used with fish, borsch, and as a sauce for stuffed cabbage leaves, sauerkraut and Hungarian meat stews. The similar sauere Sahne of Germany has a milder taste but is used in the same ways and also in horseradish sauce with herrings." ---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revised and Updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 1096)

Popular Amreican uses

Mexican-American food & sour cream: tradition or convergence?Food historians confirm traditional Central American recipes do not include sour cream. Cheesemaking was introduced by European settlers. They were not immediately co-mingled with native fare. Which begs the question: why is sour cream a 'staple' of contemporary Mexican-American cuisine?

"Joe Valdez Caballero, who helped adapt Mexican food to American taste buds by creating a crisp taco shell and smothering his enchiladas in sour cream, has died at age 81. Caballero, considered a pioneer of Tex-Mex cuisine, died Friday, his family said. During a 37-year career at El Chico Restaurant in Dallas, Caballero was apparently the first restaurateur to put sour cream on chicken enchiladas, and thought up the idea of the hard taco shell, said Fred Cavazos, who worked many years with Caballero." ---"Joe Valdez Caballero, Inventor of Hard Taco Shell, Dead at 81," The Associated Press, May 13, 1989 [NOTE: There is a large German population in Texas; influence on local cuisine was inevitable.]

About California dip.

Soy

"Soy sauce. The universal condiment of China and Japan, is also widely used throughout SE Asia. It is the main condiment of Indonesia, where soya beans are grown extensively...Although soya beans have been grown in China for at least 3500 years, the sauce is a slightly more recent invention. It was developed during the Zhou dynasty (1134-246 BC) , and probably evolved in conjunction with the fermented fish sauces, many of which involved both fish and rice. The moulds Aspergillus oryzae and A. soyae are the principal agents in producing soy sauce, and the enzymes which they provide are similar to those which ferment fish sauce. These organisms are common and could accidentally have got to work on soya beans, with results which would have been recognized as a fishless fish sauce'. Early soy sauce was a solid paste known as sho or mesho. This developed into two products, liquid shoyu and solid miso. In China the liquid sauce

is used more than the paste, while in Japan both are of equal importance. The European name soy' (similar in all lnaguages) originates with the 17th-century Dutch traders who brought the sauce back to Europe, where it became popular despite its high price."---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 740)

About soy

Recommended reading (both contain extensive bibliographies for further reading):Food of China, E. N. AndersonCambridge World History of Food, Kiple & Ornelas

Tartar sauce

Yes, tartar(e) sauce was named for the Tatar peoples of Mongolia. No, it is not a traditional Tartar recipe. The word 'tatar' refers to the Turkic-speaking people [Tatars] who settled in Mongolia sometime during the 5th Century AD. In the food world, 'tatar' takes on the French spelling 'tartare' and is most often associated with tartar(e) sauce and steak tartare.

Meat/fowl/fish sauces made with eggs, oil, vinegar and spices date back to Medieval times, a tradition carried over from Ancient Roman cookery. These recipes were not called "tartar sauce" but are unmistakably similar to the sauce we know today. They were still popular in Elizabethan and later times:

"Sauce for hens or Pullets to prepare them to roast...Then for the sauce take the yolks of six hard eggs minced small, put to them white-wine, or wine vinegar, butter, and the gravy the of the hen, juice of orange, pepper, salt, and if you please add thereto mustard."--- Accomplist Cook, Robert May [1685] (p. 149)

The first step in dating modern tartar sauce is dating the origin of this recipe's major component: mayonnaise. There are many variations on the recipe for tartar sauce; the simplest being a mix of mayonnaise and chopped pickles. Elaborate recipes give instructions for making one's own mayonnaise and include chopped onions, scallions and a mix of spicy herbs.

Compare these recipes:

[1845] "Tartar Sauce.Add to the preceding remoulade, or to any other sauce of the same nature, a teaspoonful or more of made mustard, one of finely-minced shalots, one of parsley or tarragon, and one of capers or of pickled gherkins, with a rather high seasoning of cayenne, and some salt if needed. The tartar-mustard of the previous chapter, or good French mustard, is to be preferred to English for this sauce, which is usually made very pungent, and for which any ingredients can be used to the taste wich will serve to render it so. Tarragon vinegar, minced tarragon and eschalots, and plenty of oil, are used for it in France, in conjunction with the yolks of one or two eggs, and chopped capers, or gherkins, to which olives are sometimes added."

---Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton, originally printed in 1845, with an introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1993 (p. 137)

[1879] "Morcan's Tartar Sauce--To Mix MustardYolk of one raw egg, sweet-oil added very slowly, until the quantity is made that is desired; thin with a little vinegar. Take two small cucumber pickles, two full teaspoonfuls of capers, three small sprigs parsley, and one small shalot or leek. Chop all fine, and stir into the sauce about an hour before serving. If very thick, add a tablespoonful cold water. This quantity will serve eight persons--is good with trout, veal cutlets, and oysters."---Housekeeping in Old Virginia, Marion Cabell Tyree [1879] (p. 303)

[1884] Tartar Sauce & Sauce TartareBoston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln [1884]

[1890?] "Tartar saucePlace a round-bottomed basin in a deep sauta-pan containing some pounded ice, put two raw yelks [yolks] of eggs into the basin with a little pepper and salt, and with a wooden spoon proceed, with the back part of the bowl, to work the yelk of eggs, dropping in, at intervals, very small quantities of salad-oil, and a little tarragon-vinegar, until a sufficient quantity of sauce is produced; bearing in mind, that the relative quantity of oil to be used in proportion to the vinegar is as five to one. When the sauce is finished, add some chopped tarragon and chervil, and half a shalot. In making this sauce, should it decompose through inattention, it may instantly be restored to its proper consistency by mixing in it a good spoonful of cold white sauce."---Francatelli's Modern Cook, C. E. Francatelli, 26th London Edition [1890?] (recipe 96, p. 55)

Why is this recipe called tartar sauce? And when was it first referred to a such? This is hard to say. According to Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens (p. 156) "Beef Tartare--finely minced lean raw beef--became fashionable in France in the nineteenth century. It was named for the Tartars (Originally "Tatars") or Mongols who had terrorized eastern Europe in the days of Gengis Kahn....Beef Tartare was usually served as it is now, with a bevy of garnishes, including a piquant sauce with a mayonnaise base that came to be called sauce Tartare or Tartar Sauce. Today, at least in the United States, it is more often served with fish."

What about steak tartare?

Tomato sauce

Tomatoes are a "new world" food. The first tomato sauces were made by ancient South Americans. These spicy sauces/salsas also employed chilies, peppers, and other finely diced vegetables. About salsa. The practice of combining pasta and tomato sauce originated in the late 18th century. Ragus, sugos and tomato gravies proliferated. By the middle of the 19th century, tomato ketchup became America's favorite condiment. Italian-American pasta dishes (Spaghetti and meatballs ) slathered with tomato sauce gained popularity in the 20th century.

Where did tomatoes originate?Food historians generally agree the ancestors of the fruits we now call tomatoes originated in the Andes.

"Sophie Coe and others explain that the tomato originated in north-western S. America, where the ancestor of our edible tomato was most likely L. cerasiforme, S. pimpinellifolium, or currant tomato, which bears a long spray of tiny red fruits which split on the plant is another candidate, but L. cerasiforme has greater genetic similarity to the cultivated variety than any other. The edible descendant traveled north to Mexico and was one of the Solanaceae cultivated by the Aztec. There is no evidence that the wild varieties were ever eaten in their lands of origin, and all tomatoes consumed in S. America were reintroduced after the Spanish Conquest." ---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2007 (p. 802)

"The tomato (lycopersicon esculentum) is an American plant with an American name. In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, tomatl indicates something round and plump, and this fruit (rather than vegetable) was almost certainly domesticated in Mexico, even though the presence of its numerous wild relatives (consisting of at least seven species) in South America suggests that it originated there. Apparently, however, tomatoes were not much used in the Andes region."

---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000, Volume Two (p. 1870) [NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Check with your university to see if they can supply you with pages.]

Tomatoes in EuropeTomatoes were introduced to Europe from the New World by explorers in the 16th century. They were not immediately embraced because they were considered poisonous. Tomatoes were grown as "botanical curiosities," not as food. Tomatoes grew easily in the Spain and Italy and were widely used in Southern European dishes by the 17th century. Tomatoes slowly spread throughout Northern Europe, then back to the American colonies.

"The first description of the tomato in the Mediterranean was in 1544, by the Italian botanist Pierandrea Mattioli. He was desribing the yellow-fruited varity, and it has been suggested that the Italian word for tomato, pomodoro (apple of gold), derived from this variety...Another theory of the origin of pomme d'amour is that it is a corruption of pomme des mours, "apple of the Moors," in recognition that two important members of the Solanaceae family, the egglant and the tomato, were favorite Arab vegetables. At first the tomato was used only as an ornamental plant in Mediterranean gardens because growers recognized it as a member of the nightshade family, then only known as comprising only poisonous members such as mandrake."---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [William Morrow:New York] 1999 (p. 213)

"The tomato, initially regarded as an ornamental fruit and later adopted as a food, was an exotic curiousity that first appears in the writings of P.A. Mattioli and Jose de Acosta, travelers and naturalists. Apart from these sources, allusions to its consumption are very rare. Costanzo Felici tell us...that the usual "gluttons and pople greedy for new things" did not realize they could eat

the tomato as they would eat mushrooms or eggplants, fried in oil and flavored with salt and pepper. Although we must not exclude the possibility that tomatoes were consumed at an earlier date by the common people, it is only at the end of the seventeenth century that we observe their inclusion in elite cuisine, thanks to the Neapolitan recipe collection of Antonio Latini. Iberian influences may be detected in their adoption for culinary purposes, since various recipes that call for tomatoes are designated as "in the Spanish style." Among these is a recipe for "tomato sauce," which is flavored with onions and wild thyme "or piperna" and subsequently adjusted to taste by adding salt, oil, and vinegar. With a few modifications, this preparation was to enjoy a remarkable future in Italian cuisine and in the industry of preserved foods. The custom observed in ancient and medieval times, as well as during the Renaissance, of serving sauces as accompaniments to "boiled foods or other dishes"--as Latini expresses it in this instance--facilitated the acceptance of the tomato by integrating it into an established gastronomic tradition. For the same reason, it gained widespread ocurrence in Italian cooking in the eighteenth and nineteenth cneturies. Panunto in Tuscany, Vincenzo Corrado in Naples, and Francesco Leonardi in Rome all include it in their recipe books."---Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History, Alberto Capatti & Massimo Montanari [Columbia University Press:New York] 1999 (p. 42-3)

"Despite the current enthusiasm for tomatoes in Italy, Spain and the rest of southern Europe, they were not well received upon arrival from the New World in the sixteenth century. Looking and smelling much like their poisonous relatives in the Solanaceae family it is not surprising that few people tried to eat them. They were usually grown as ornamental flowers, and only described botanically in Mattioli's Commentaries on Dioscordes in 1544. Although wealthy diners would not eat tomatoes, it does appear that their poorer neighbors had begun to eat them out of necessity. Good evidence of this can be found in 1650 in Melchior Sebizius' On the Faculty of Foods in which he writes that they are so cold and moist that they must be cooked with pepper, salt and oil, but "our cookes abosolutely reject them, even though they grow easily and copiously in gardens." The first published cookbook recipes including tomatoes appeared in Naples at the very end of the seventeenth century in Antonio Latini's Lo Scalo all a Moderna."---Food in Early Modern Europe, Ken Albala [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2003 (p. 32)

Tomatoes in North America

"...English herbalist William Salmon...In 1687...he left for the New World...He traveled to New England and the Caribbean and practiced medicione in South Carolina...During the early yuears of the eighteenth century, he began working on his major work, Botanologia; he completed it in 1710. In an early section of the herbal, Salmon revealed that he had seen tomatoes growing in Carolina, which was in 'the South-East part of Florida.' As strange as this may seem today, his geography was accurate because the term Florida then referred to what is now the eastern part of the United States. This is the first known reference to the tomato in the British NOrth American colonies. Several different theories have been espoused to account for the presence of tomatoes in the Carolinas. The most likely explanation is that there were multiple introductions by different peoples at different times for different purposes. The Spanish, who had probably cultivated and consumed tomatoes in their settlements in Florida earlier in the seventeenth century, had established colonies and missions...It is probable that the Spanish introduced tomatoes into what is today Georgia and the Carolinas. Alternatively, as gardeners grew

tomatoes in Europe, French Huguenot refugees and British colonists may have brought seeds directly from the Caribbean...Whatever the initial source, tomatoes were cultivated in the Carolinas by the mid-eighteenth century...Only one colonial cookery manuscript is known to have contained a tomato recipe...author Harriott Pinckney Horry...From the southern states, tomatoes spread northward...Beginning in the late eighteenth century, cookbooks and agricultural books published in Philadelphia contained references to tomatoes...the earliest primary source pinpointing the tomato in New Jersey was George Perot Macculloch's farm journal, which noted the planting of tomatoes from 1829 onward in Morristown...In Massachusetts, tomatoes were introduced in the late eighteenth century."---The Tomato in America: Early History, Culture, and Cookery, Andrew F. Smith [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1994(p. 25-32)

"To Keep Tomatoes for Winter useTake ripe Tomatas, peel them, and cut them in four and put them into a stew pan, strew over them a great quantity of Pepper and Salt; cover it up close and let it stand an Hour, then put it on there fire and let it stew quick till the liquor is entirely boild sawy; then take them up and put into pint Potts, and when cold pour melted butter over them about an inch thick. They commonly take a whole day to stew. Each pot will make two Soups. N.B. if you do them before the month of October they will not keep."...This could well be the earliest reference to tomatoes in any American cookbook...this is among the recipes that were almost certainly placed by Harriott in the book in 1770."---The Receipt BBook of Harriott Pinckney Horry, 1770, edited with an introduction by Richard J. Hooker [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 89)

When were tomatoes first combined with pasta?

"Not until...1790, with the publication of the Neapolitan chef Francesco Leonardi's L'Apicio Moderno (The Modern Apicius) does the spaghetti and tomato sauce of today begin to emerge."---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [William Morrow:New York] 1999 (p. 32)

"How and when the tomato-as-condiment was first put on pasta is a mystery. The first mention of using tomatoes in a pasta dish is actually French. In L'Almanach des gourmands (1807), Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent Grimod de la Reyniere recommended that in the autumn, tomatoes be substituted for the purees and cheese usually mixed into vermicelli before serving. He justified this practice by noting that 'the juice of this fruit or vegetable...gives a rather agreeable acidity to the soups into which it is put, which is generally pleasing to those who have become accustomed to it.' Using tomatoes in soups was a long-standing practice in Italy...by Grimod's time, tomatoes were also consumed in Paris...The marriage between pasta and the tomato is usually said to have taken place in Naples. La cucina casereccia...has a recipe for macceroni alla napolitana, in which the pasta is boiled in a meat broth in which tomatoes have been cooked...The recipe for macceroni alla napolitana is not a tomato sauce. it was not until 1837 that Cavalcanti write that the secret of the successful dish of baked vermicelli with tomatoes...was to make the tomato sauce dense, to cook the pasta just until firm, and to toss everything together in a pan. As for the accompanying tomato sauce, Cavalcanti wrote that whether it was made from fresh, dried, or preserved tomatoes, there was no point describing its preparation, since everyone knew how to make it... A recipe for 'macaroni a la napolitana,' combining pasta and tomatoes,

first appeared in an American cookbook just a few years later, in 1847. By the 1880s, the tomato had been established as the condiment of choice for pasta for the peasants of the Campania region, and pasta itself had become a staple."---Pomodoro: A History of the Tomato in Italy, David Gentilcore [Columbia University Press:New York] 2010 (p. 89-90)

[1692]Latini's 1692 recipe would have produced something quite similar modern salsa:"Spanish Tomato Sauce.Take a half dozen tomatoes that are mature and put them over the coals and turn them until they are charred, then carefully peel off the skin. Cut them up finely with a knife, and add onions finely cut up, at your discretion, finely chopped peppers, a small quantity of thyme or pepperwort. Mix everything together and add a bit of salt, oil and vinegar. It will be a very tasty sauce for boiled meats or whatever."---Food in Early Modern Europe, Ken Albala [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2003 (p. 138)

[1839]"Tomato SauceRoll a pound of fresh butter in flour, break it up, and put it in a sauce-pan, with eight table-spoonfuls of vinegar. Take fine ripe tomatoes, peel them, chop them small, season them with salt and pepper, and stir enough of them into the butter to make it as thick as you desire it. Just let it boil up, and serve it in a boat. It will be found very fime for beef, veal or mutton."---The Kentucky Housewife, Lettice Bryan, facsimile 1939 edition stereotyped by Shepard & Stearns [Image Graphics:Paducah KY] (p. 168)[NOTE: a "boat" is a gravy boat, special china serving piece made to pour sauces.]

[1845]"253. Tomato Sauce, for present UsePour boiling water on the tomatoes, take the skin off, cut them up in pieces, and cover them all over with loaf sugar. No more should be prepared than you wish to use at once, as they will not keep good."---The New England Economical Housekeepr and Family Reciept Book, Mrs. E. A. Howland [E.P. Walton and Sons:Montpelier VT] 1845 (p. 66)

Related foods? Ragu, sugo & tomato gravy.

About Ragu:Although ragu variations are enjoyed in many regions of Italy, our research indicates the orignal recipe belongs to Bologna. Notes here:

"Ragu...Meat sauce, usually referring to the long-simmered Bolognese classic, ragu alla bolognese, made with vegetables, tomatoes, heavy cream, and beef."---The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p. 211)

"Bolognese pasta is almost always served with a ragu (the word is a corruption of the French ragout, or stew). This is a thick sauce made from such ingredients as onions, carrots, finely chopped pork and beef, celery, butter and tomatoes."---The Cooking of Italy, Waverley Root [Time-Life Books:New York] revised 1972 (p. 86)

"Ragu can be the dense concentrated meaty sauce made in Bologna to accompany the egg tagliatelle of the region, or a dish of a slow-cooked beef or pork from Naples, whose thick dark cooking juices season ridge short pasta, the meat making a delicious second course. This Neapolitan recipe used to be made by the portinai, or doormen, who sat watchfully observing both the comings and goings of tenants and the murmurings of the barely simmering pot. Both recipes have nothing in common with that Anglo-Saxon abomination Spag Bol, spaghetti bolognese, a recipe loved the world over but quite unknown in Italy."---Oxford Companion to Italian Food, Gillian Riley, with a forward by Mario Batali [Oxford Univeristy Press:New York] 2007 (p. 433)

Related foods? Tomato sauce, sugo & tomato gravy.

About Sugo:

""Juice." Both fruit juice and the juices that seep from meats being cooked. Italians may use the terms sugo (plural, sughi) and salsa interchangeably, but some cooks distinguish between the two--without agreeing on what those distinctions are. In his cookbook La Scienca in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (1891), Pellegrino Artusi insisted that a sugo di omodoro (tomato sauce) is "simple, i.e., made from tomatoes that are simply cooked and run through a food mill. At the most, you may add a small rib of celery and a few leaves of parsely and basil to tomato sugo, if you must." Salses, he contended, as accompaniments like greens auce...to other dishes. Yet sugo di carne, a suace made with meat juices (if with beef alone, it is called sugo di manzo), was well known among wealthy families of the 19th century, and sugo finto (fake sauce) is a common term used by poor people for a pasta sauce made to taste like a sugo di carne by using the same ingredients, but without the meat. And meat sauces are also termed salse. To further complicate matters the words ragu, and in Tuscany, tocco, are often used for a meat sauce...It would appear...that the two terms sugo and salsa are often interchangeable, with sugo reserved for a pasta sauce while salsa may be used to describe sauces that may or may not accompany pasta."---The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p. 249-250)

"Sugo di Umido de Maiale (Campania) Rich Pork Stew Sauce. This rich sauce is typical of Naples and is used to sauce various lasagne, macaroni dishes, and timapny...The finished sauce will contain a substantial amount of fat, traditionally a prized source of calories for the poorer population."---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [William Morrow:New York] 1995 (p. 280)

Artusi's 1891 recipe translated here:

"6. Sugo Di Pomodoro [Tomato Sauce]Later, I shall speak about another kind of tomato sauce that we call "salsa," as opposed to "sugo."

Sugo must be simple and therefore compoased only of cooked, pureed tomatoes. At the most you can add a few chunks of celery or some parsley or basil leaves, when you think these flavors will suit your needs." Editor's NB: "As Artusi points out, there is an important difference between "sugo di pomodoro" (which is described here) and "salsa di pomodoro" (which will be described in recipe 125). Unfortunately, English does not allow for this distinction and both dishes are therefore called tomato sauce. To avoid confusion, whenever the 'sugo" (rather than the "salsa") appars in a recipe the text will include a parenthetical reference to this recipe."---Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, Pellegrino Artusi, orginally published in Italian, 1891, translated by Murtha Baca and Stephen Sartarelli [Marsilio Publishers:New York] 1997 (p. 35)[NOTE: Artusi's book also contains recipes for (4) Sugo di Carne (Brown Stock) and (5) Sugo di Carne Che I Francesi Chiamano Salsa Spagnuola (The Meat sauce The French Call Spanish Sauce)

Recommended readingPomodoro: A History of the Tomato in Europe, David GentilcoreThe Tomato in America, Andrew F. Smith

Related foods? Tomato sauce, ragu & tomato gravy.

Tomato GravyTechnically, tomato sauce can't be a gravy. Why? Because gravies (by traditional culinary definition) are meat-based: "gravy A sauce made from meat juices, usually combined with a liquid such as chicken or beef broth, wine or milk and thickened with flour, cornstarch or some other thickening agent. A gravy may also be the simple juices left in the pan after meat, poultry or fish has been cooked." "sauce n. In the most basic terms, a sauce is a thickened, flavored liquid designed to accompany food in order to enhance and bring out its flavor.---Food Lover's Companion

"Q. Is there a difference between sauces and gravies?A. That is indeed an interesting question in semantics. But let it first be said that the word "sauce" has a lot more class than does the word "gravy." Where hot, savory sauces are concerned--those that accompany meat or poultry, for example--the words are generally interchangeable. Gravies, for the most part, have been thickened, generally with flour. But that is not invariably true. I have known many first, second and third generation families of Italian origin who invariable referred to their tomato sauces as tomato gravies, although they were unthickened with any any form of starch."---"Q&A," New York Times, January 18, 1978 (p. C6)

So why call it gravy?According to I Grandi Dizionari Sansoni (1979), the Italian word sugo has two definitions: (1) sauce (salsa) and (2) gravy (sauce with meat). Indeed, Italian-American cookbooks confirm meat-based tomato sauces are sometimes referred to as "gravy." In Southern and Appalachian regions, milk-based tomato gravies sometimes accompanies biscuits.

<B<[1905]< b>The earliest reference we find for "tomato gravy," meaning meat sauce, in an American cookbook is this one from 1905. It contains ground beef. Note: the fact it is labled a "Spanish" recipe. This was a common moniker at that time for anything containing tomatoes.

[1955]Food companies introduced the term to mainstream America:"15-Minute Meat Loaf...When Hunt's home economist developed this recipe she said, "Busy homemakers and career girls will appreciate this one!" And you will! Because, besides being a "quickie"--just fifteen minutes cooking item--it is truly delicious with its savoury tomato gravy!"---"Quick Stunts with Hunts Tomato Sauce," New York Times, May 22, 1955 (p. 265)

[1962]"Generals and colonels became mess sergeants--but only very temporarily--yesterday at Governors Island. They were particiapting in the first semi-public demonstration of new combat rations that are pre-cooked and dehydrated. The officers took turns adding either hot or cold water to produce such G.I. delicacies-of-the-future as chili con carne with apple sauce, beef loaf with tomato gravy, instant mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, hot tea, coffee and lumpy cocoa."---"New Dehydrated G.I. Rations Prove Satisfactory (to Officers)," John C. Devlin, New York Times, November 9, 1962 (p. 37)

[1971]"I grew up in the Italian section of South Philadelphia, and there were set dishes in that neighborhood--four blocks in every direction families cooked the same things. On Monday there was soup, pasta on Tuesday, veal or beef on Wednesday, pasta on Thursday, fish on Friday, pot luck on Saturday and an elaborate feast on Sunday. Everybody made tomato gravy once a week." (Like what would seem to be a majority of first, second or third generation Italians in America, Mr. Paone speaks of tomato sauce as gravy.)"---"When His Painting Goes Badly, He Turns to the Art of Cooking," Craig Claiborne, New York Times, March 18, 1971 (p. 34)

[2002]"There are many different opinons on what to call Italian red tomato sauce. When Italians make a meatless tomato sauce, we call it sauce or marinara sauce. When we make tomato sauce with pork, beef, sausage, and meatballs, or with any meat, we call it gravy. Our mothers and millions of other Italians called in gravy and it was probably because there was meat in it."---Cooked to Perfection, Andrew Corella and Phyllis Petito Corella [iUniverse] 2002 ISBN 0-595-26122-1 (p. 23)

[2004]"Stories of Italian grandmothers simmering their tomato sauces for hours are familiar but probably untrue. Tomatoes that are cooked for too long lose their sweetness, and the resulting sauce tastes old and tired. Most likely those beloved none were actually cooking a ragu or sugo, that is, a meat sauce, which may or may not have included tomatoes. Meat sauces generally call for beef, veal, pork, or a combination...The term sugo is used for a sauce, a gravy, pan juices..."

---Italian Slow and Savory: A Cookbook, Joyce Esersky Goldstein [Chronicle Books:San Francisco] 2004 (p. 48)

What about milk-based tomato gravies & biscuits?Biscuits & gravy is a popular traditional combination in Southern and Appalachian cuisine. Most gravies are based on milk, butter, fat & flour. Combinations are endless. One of these combinations is Tomato Gravy. This is a very different recipe and application from the Italian-inspired Tomato Gravies destined for macaroni, pizza & meat. This particular gravy is paired with biscuits.

Our tomato expert (Andrew F. Smith) suggested the origin might have been inspired by late 19th century health advocates. The earliest recipe he identified (see below, 1892) titled Tomato Gravy, combining this fruit with cream, was published by Ella Eaton Kellogg, of Battle Creek. Note: this recipe is actually a sauce, as it does not use any fat drippings. Our survey of Southern cookbooks (current & historic) returned several tomato recipes; mostly sauces and ketchups. None of these combined milk/cream or were suggested to accompany biscuits.

"Tomato Gravy. Pervasive in Appalachia, where frugal cookery is foundational, this gravy is chunkier and more countrified than a New Orleans red graby. It's also more likely to be poured atop biscuits or fried chicken than pasta. Leftovers of tomato gravy make the beginnings of tomato soup."---The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook, Sara Roahen & John T. Edge editors [University of Georgia Press: Athens GA] 2010(p. 19)[NOTE: recipe for Tomato Gravy is included in this book. We can send if you like.]

TOMATO GRAVY=VEGETARIAN/HEALTH FOOD

[1892]"Tomato Gravy.--Heat to boiling one pint of strained stewed tomatoes, either canned or fresh, and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed smooth in a little water; add salt and when thickened, if desired, a half cup of hot cream. Boil together for a minute or two and serve at once."---Science in the Kitchen, Ella Eaton Kellogg [Modern Medicine Publishing Company:Battle Creek MI] 1892 (p. 261)

[1976]"Tomato Gravy (Alabama) 2 tablespoons bacon drippings 3 tomatoes, peeled and chopped 2 tablespoons flour 1/2 teaspoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2 cups milk 1. Heat the bacon drippings in a skillet and cook the tomatoes in it until tender. Sprinkle with the

flour, sugar, salt and pepper and stir to mix well. Cook two minutes.2. Add the baking soda to the milk and stir in the tomato mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring. Spoon over hot biscuits or grits. Yield: Three cups."---New York Times Southern Heritage Cookbook, Jean Hewitt [G.P. Putnam Sons:New York] 1976

TENNESSEE STYLE [1998]"Tomato Gravy (Tennessee) Tomato gravy is a hill country favorite.. This particular recipe adaptation comes from...The Spirit of Tennessee Cookbook. The tomato gravy can be cooked after frying salt pork, bacon, pork chops or ham. Tennessee Tomato Gravy 1/4 finely chopped onion 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped Chicken stock and water as required 1/2 teaspoon powdered thyme 1 1/4 teaspoons sugar Salt and pepper to taste In a fry pan containing around 2 tablespoons of drippings, saute onion until tender. Mix in flour and cook several minutes. Add tomatoes; stir well. Water or chicken stock may be required here, depending on the liquid available from the tomatoes. Season with the thyme, sugar, and salt and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring periodically until gravy thickens. Yields 2 cups of gravy."---Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking, Joseph E. Dabney [Cumberland House:Nashville TN] 1998 (p. 209)

Related foods? Tomato sauce, ragu & sugo.

Veloute

Veloute is considered by some to be the most practical of all "mother sauces." Ordinary veloute is a based on basic white stock. Chicken and fish veloute inspired their own cadre of flavorful descendents.

"A veloute is a basic white sauce made from veal, chicken, or fish stock and a flour-and-butter roux. In French the word means literally " velvety," and it seems to have been introduced into English in the early nineteenth century. It should not be confused with the fairly similar bechemel sauce, which is made with milk or cream rather than stock."---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 357)

"Veloute...is the term used for a basic French sauce which is made with stock...First of all roux is made with butter and flour; then plenty of stick is blended in and flavouring added. After prolonged simmering, the sauce will have acquired its velevety texture. A liaison of egg yolk

and/or a little cream can be added at the end to enrich it and make it even more velvety. Veloute, with the addition of various other ingredients, acquires new names..."---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 842)

Related sauce? Allemande.

Vodka sauce

Several traditional Italian sauces incorporate native wines. Vodka??? Intriguing, but decidedly un-Italian. A survey of newspaper/magazine articles places the genesis of vodka sauce in the 1980s. Nuevo Cucina.

"Pasta with vodka-enhanced sauce was another trendy food in the mid-Eighties. Although cooks later devised such dishes as pasta with vodka, sour cream, and two caviars, the first and probably best was a simple dish of penne (a thick, tubular pasta), vodka, tomatoes, and cream. According to Barbara Kafka in Food for Friends (1984), it was fashionable in Italy before Joanna's Restaurant in New York put it on the menu and made it a fad in the United States."---Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovegren [MacMillan:New York] 1995 (p. 401)

The first references we find to vodka sauce in American newspapers were printed in 1983:

"Pasta with sweet red pepper sauce, pasta with salmon, pasta with sage sauce, pasta with vodka sauce--and this is just the beginning..."---"Diner's Choice," Bryan Miller, New York Times, October 7, 1983 (p. C18)

"The wives of two American Diplomats who met in Rome five years ago have written a cookbook with recipes that include pasta with vodka sauce and rice with strawberries. Both are examples of nuova cucina, Italian for new cuisine. What the authors have not included among the more than 250 recipes in "Pasta and Rice Italian Style" (Scribner's, $16.95) is pasta with flavors such as chili peppers and carrots. Tomatoes and spinach are used in Italy to color some pasta, but not to flavor it, Efrem Funghi Calingaert and Jacquelyn Days Serwer said in an interview during a trip to New York. They said the fad for unusual flavored pastas in the United States has not caught on in Italy. "Italians like to experiment with the sauces, not the pasta," Mrs. Calingaert said."---"Two American Diplomat's Wives Tackle Italy's Nuova Cucina'," Jean Lesem, United Press International, November 29, 1983

By the late 1980s, vodka sauce is all the rage:

"With farm markets and produce stands in full bloom, I am always experimenting with new recipes to take advantage of the seasonal bounty. The recipe given here is a variation on pasta primavera, a dish that has countless incarnations, although the classic version calls for a wide assortment of vegetables and a cream-based sauce. The major twist is adding a dash of flavored

vodka to the sauce. You do not really taste the alcohol, most of which evaporates in cooking, but a kind of peppery flavor does come through. Many herb-flavored vodkas are available, and it can be fun experimenting with them."---"Flavored Vodka Toasts This Pasta Primavera With a Twist," Pierre Franey, St. Petersburg Times, July 7, 1988 (p. 15D)

Chocolate gravy

Chocolate gravy is a specialty of the American south and Appalachian regions. This flour-thickened sauce is served with biscuits for breakfast. There are (at least) two theories regarding the origin of this recipe:

"Spanish Louisiana had a trading network in to the Tennessee valley. This trade may have introduced Mexican-style breakfast chocolate to the Appalachians, where it is called "chocolate gravy." (Another possibility is that the very old population of mixed-race Appalachian Melungeons has preserved the dish from the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish colonies on the East Coast.)"---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 699)

"Chocolate gravy in the Appalachians? Yes, say Mark Sohn of Pikefill, Kentucky, who says this recipe has been handed down over the years by mountain families in his region of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia...It's a milk-and-flour-based sauce that should be cooked thick enough to stick well on open biscuits."---Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking, Joseph E. Dabney [Cumberland House:Nashville] 1998 (p. 210)

"Chocolate Gravy. This gravy, once served by isolated Highlander families as a treat for children, is now a treat for adults. Why? Because while adults have hond memories of chocolate gravy, children don't know it. They don't see it advertised on TV, and they can't buy it...When I first heard about this sauce, the name did not appeal to me. Later when I tasted its smooth chocolately sweetness, when I lifted it with butter and biscuit to my mouth, when I first smelled the chocolate and saw it shine, then its flavor filled my chocolate-craving taste buds and it entered my long-term memory. I will never forget that moment. As badly as an itinerant preacher seeks converts, I want you to taste this gravy! Our elderly mountain cooks make chocolate gravy with canned "cream," a product that manufactureres call evaporated milk. To this "cream," they add enough water so the gravy will flow and spread, but not so much that it runs over the plate...Chocolate gravy is a milk and flour-based sauce, a white sauce or a bechamel. It is low in fat--spoon for spoon, it has fewer calories than butter, cream cheese, chocolate sauce, marmalade, or strawberry jelly--and it is low-cost and easy to prepare. It is thick, full, smooth, and chocolatey. And when the gravy is cold, it cane be used as a cake filling--it softens as it warms." ---Mountain Country Cooking, Mark F. Sohn [St. Martins Press:New York] 1996 (p. 10-11)

ABOUT CHOCOLATE SAUCE & PUDDINGS IN AMERICAMid-19th American century cookbooks contain recipes for hot chocolate drinks (shaved from unsweetened block chocolate), cocoa and chocolate puddings. Late 19th century American cookbooks also contain recipes for chocolate cakes, frostings, candy, and fudge. This coincides with the mass-marketing of chocolate to the American people (the Hershey company was founded around this time). Creamy chocolate products (puddings, especially) were promoted in the late 19th century by food companies and domestic scientists as healthful foods for their milk content. Typical early thickeners included corn starch, arrowroot, and gelatine.

SO WHERE DOES CHOCOLATE GRAVY FIT IN?The taste for breakfast chocolate is hundreds of years old. Modern recipes for chocolate gravy may have evolved from popular 19th century combinations of cocoa and pudding. Many of the articles we find (1980-present) referencing chocolate gravy attribute it to "grandmother's recipe" without noting dates or author's ages. None of the standard American cook books we have suggest combining chocolate with biscuits. Presumably this combination can be found in community cookbooks published by churches, women's clubs etc. Up "North," chocolate chip pancakes are consumed with gusto. Same basic idea; different presentation.

SELECTED CREAMY CHOCOLATE RECIPES

[1863]"Cocoa.Put in a tea or coffee cup, one or two tablespoonfuls of ground cocoa, pour boiling water or boiling milk on it while stirring with a spoon, and sweeten it to your liking. A few drops of essence of vanilla may be added, according to taste."---What to Eat and How to Cook It, Pierre Blot [D. Appleton and Company:New York] 1863 (p. 17)

[1879]"Cocoa. To one pint milk and one pint cold water add three tablespoonfuls grated cocoa. Boil fifteen or twenty minutes, milling or whipping as directed in foregoing recipe. Sweeten to taste, at the table. Some persons like a piece of orange-peel boiled with it."---Housekeeping in Old Virginia, Marion Cabell Tyree [John P. Morton and Company:Louisville] 1879 (p. 6)

[1912]"Chocolate sauce. 1 cup milk2 egg yolks1/4 cup sugar1/8 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon butter2 ounces Lowney's Premium Chocolate or 1/4 cup Lowney's Cocoa.Cook all ingredients in double boiler, stirring constantly until the spoon in coated. Serve hot or cold."

---Lowney's Cook Book Illustrated, revised edition, Maria Willett Howard [Walter M. Lowney Co.:Boston] 1912 (p. 207)

[1934]"Cocoa Fudge Sauce.1/4 cupful Hershey's Cocoa...3/4 cupful granulated sugar...1/2 teaspoonful salt...1 tablespoonful cornstarch...1/2 cupful light corn syrup...1/2 cupful milk...2 tablespoonfuls butter...2 teaspoonfuls vanilla. Combine dry ingredients in saucepan. Add corn syrup and milk, and blend thoroughly. Bring to a boil, boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Cool, without stiring, until pan feels warm to hand. Serve. Yield: 1 1/2 cupfuls sauce."---Hershey's 1934 Cookbook, revised and expanded with chocolate recipes brought up to date for use in today's kitchen, Hershey Chocolate Company [Hershey PA] 1971 (p. 38)[NOTE: this would produce something similar to the the recipes for chocolate gravy found on the Internet. Cornstarch would produce the same thickening properties as flour. This book does not offer written serving suggestions but it does have a picture showing this sauce on plain (pound?) cake.]

[1996]Steps In a medium saucepan, combine the dry ingredients: sugar, four, and cocoa. Mix fully. Mix until the lumps of flour and cocoa are gone. Gradually mix in the milk. Bring the mixture to a boil, simmer 1 minute, and stir in the vanilla. Remove from the heat."---Mountain Country Cooking (p. 11)

[1998]Kentucky Chocolate Gravy1 cup European-style cocoa3/4 cup sugar1/4 cup all-purpose flour2 cups milk1 1/2 teaspoons vanillaIn a saucepan, combine the dry ingredients: cocoa, flour, and sugar. Stir until well mixed and flour and cocoa lumps disappear. Pour in the milk gradually. Turn the heat up to bring mixture to boiling, simmer 1 minutes, and stir in the vanilla. Remove from the heat. The yield is 6 servings."---Smokehouse Ham...(p. 210)

If you have an old family recipe for chocolate gravy we'd love to hear from you!

About these notes: Food history can be a complicated topic. These notes are not meant to be a comprehensive treatment of the subject, but a summary of salient points supported with culinary evidence. If you need more information we suggest you start by asking your librarian to help you find the books and articles cited in these notes. Article databases are good for locating current

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