Читать книгу The Fall of a Saint - Christine Merrill, Christine Merrill - Страница 6

AUTHOR NOTE

After you read this book, you will all ask the same question: What is Wow Wow sauce, and what does it taste like?

It was actually one of the hot recipes of 1817, published in The Cook's Oracle, by Dr William Kitchiner. My heroine would be disappointed to learn that there is no evidence he was a real doctor. But he was famous for his dinner parties and his cooking.

Here is the recipe for Wow Wow Sauce:

Chop some Parsley leaves very finely, quarter two or three pickled Cucumbers, or Walnuts, and divide them into small squares, and set them by ready; put into a saucepan a bit of Butter as big as an egg; when it is melted stir to it a tablespoonful of fine Flour, and about half a pint of the Broth in which the Beef was boiled; add a tablespoonful of Vinegar, the like quantity of Mushroom Catsup, or Port Wine, or both, and a tea-spoonful of made Mustard; let it simmer together till it is as thick as you wish it, put in the Parsley and Pickles to get warm, and pour it over the Beef—or rather send it up in a Sauce tureen.

I recommend going light on the pickles and thinking of a really small egg when adding the butter, as those were the only things I could taste. I found it rather bland. But Kitchiner recommends a variety of additions, including shallots, capers and horseradish, for those who think it is ‘not sufficiently piquant’.

DEDICATION

To George Bloczynski,

who gave me my sense of humour.