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Plain Melted Butter.
TO MAKE ONE PINT.
Suppose we wish to make a pint of plain melted butter:- Take three ounces of good butter; one
ounce of flour; a pinch of pepper and salt; half a pint of cold water: put one ounce of the three
ounces of butter and the one ounce of flour, into a quart stewpan, mix the butter and flour into a
soft paste, add the pepper and salt and half a pint of cold water. Stir over the fire with a wooden
spoon till the contents boil. If it should be too thick (which will depend on the flour, for old
flour requires more water), add half a gill or so of warm water before putting in the remainder of
the butter. The sauce should then be thick enough to coat the spoon. Cut the remaining two ounces of
butter into pieces to accelerate the melting, take the stewpan off the fire and stir till the butter
is melted. It must not be placed on the fire again.
The great point in preparing melted butter is this:- as soon as it has come to the boil to take
it off the fire, and then add the cold butter, which gives it the flavour of butter. The failure in
properly making melted butter may arise from the flour being in excess, which destroys the flavour
of the butter; or it may arise from mixing the whole quantity of butter with flour at once.
If too thin, mix a tablespoonful of flour with half an ounce of cold butter, take the sauce off
the fire and allow it to cool for a few minutes, add the mixture flour and butter, and stir while
off the fire. When melted, put the sauce over the fire again till just boiling, then add a small
piece of butter before serving.
The essential condition of success is that the flour and butter should be of the very best, or
good melted butter is impossible, no matter what recipe is followed. The butter, unless good and
fresh, gives an unpleasant flavour to the sauce. Melted butter is sometimes preferred slightly acid,
when a little lemon-juice is stirred into the sauce before serving.
All plain sauces should have a simple but decided character, and be served as hot as possible.
They should therefore never be made until just before they are wanted. Sauces with liaisons or
creams should be well stirred, and never allowed to boil after the liaison or cream is added. The
same care must be exercised with lemon-juice, pickles, and other acid mixtures. For sauces use clean
stewpans, those of enamel or porcelain are the best, and stir always with a wooden spoon.
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