Dr. Kitchiner’s Wow Wow sauce

Dr. Kitchiner’s Wow Wow sauce from his discursive and delightful Cook’s Oracle is as eccentric as the ‘doctor’ (he was not) and his book. Typical of his taste for the piquant and particularly good with roast or boiled beef, hot or leftover.

• 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 Tablespoon flour (preferably Wondra)
• 1 cup good beef broth
• 1 Tablespoon mushroom ketchup
• 1 Tablespoon prepared English mustard (like Colmans)
• 1 Tablespoon Port (tawny is drier)
• 1 Tablespoon malt or red wine vinegar
• a diced pickled walnut or two (see the Notes)
• about a Tablespoon minced curly parsley.

1. Whisk together the butter and flour in a heavy pot over medium heat.
2. Slowly whisk the broth into the roux until the sauce becomes silken.
3. Whisk in the ketchup, mustard, Port and vinegar, then reduce the heat to low and simmer the sauce until it thickens to your taste.
4. Stir the walnut and parsley into the sauce and serve it hot with the meat.

Notes:

• For a (slightly) sweeter sauce go ahead and choose ruby or LBV port.
• Any vinegar will do; we use Barolo vinegar from The Tin Building by Vongerichten in New York. Alternatively use brine from the pickled walnuts.
• Pickled walnuts are expensive and although available at a premium online can be difficult to obtain in the United States. Good cucumber pickles like cornichon make a suitable alternative but their brine is too assertive for the sauce.
• Flat parsley will but as Fergus Henderson insists more generally the curly kind is superior, especially for the English idiom.