Sauce Spectacular

A “Sauce Spectacular” from William Kitchiner is typical of the condiments he relished and carried with him in his “Magazine of Taste” containing his preserved ‘essences,’ ketchups, sauces and powdered herb and spice of various substances and combinations. It “consists,”, he said “of a ‘SAUCE BOX,’ containing four eight-ounce bottles, sixteen four-ounce, and eight two- ounce bottles.” With the addition of another ingredient the Spectacular, according to Kitchiner, “a DELICIOUS DOUBLE RELISH.”

For the sauce:

• 1 cup mushroom ketchup
• 1 cup good red wine (Kitchiner specifies claret) or Port
• ½ cup walnut pickle brine
• 2 oz mashed anchovies or anchovy paste
• heaped teaspoon allspice
• scant ¼ teaspoon cayenne or a heaped ½ teaspoon curry powder
• scant ¼ teaspoon celery seed
• 1 Tablespoon grated horseradish
• heaped teaspoon black pepper
• 1 Tablespoon minced shallot
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest

Dump everything in a suitable jar and give it a good shake or two or more each day for two weeks then strain and bottle it.

For the DELICIOUS DOUBLE RELISH:

Add 4 oz soy sauce to the other ingredients at the outset.

Notes:

• The sauce is actually a condiment intended as a base or sharpener for sauces rather than a sauce per se as Kitchiner’s accompanying, and timeless, ‘Observation’ indicates:

  “To make a Sauce for Poultry, &c., put a piece of butter as big as an egg, into a stewpan, set it on the fire; when it is melted, put to it a tablespoonful of flour; stir it thoroughly together, and add to it two tablespoonsful of Sauce, and bydegrees, about half a pint of broth or boiling water, let it simmer gently for a few minutes, skim it and strain it through a sieve, and it is ready.” (boldface supplied)

• Sound advice now as then; nobody drafts clearer instruction. Do note, however, that eggs were substantially smaller then so use a Tablespoon of flour.
• The annotation to the basic recipe is typical of Kitchiner and his Oracle in their grandiloquent aspiration to universality. “This composition,” he claims

  “is one of the ‘chef-d’ouvres’ of many experiments I have made, for the purpose of enabling the good Housewives of Great Britain to prepare their own Sauces: it is equally agreeable with fish, game, poultry, or ragouts, &c., and as fair lady may make it herself, its relish will be not little augmented, -- by the certainty that all the ingredients are good and wholesome.” (emphasis original)