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Sauce

Norfolk Sauce, Or, Rich Melted Butter Without Flour

A sauce made by boiling water, adding butter, stirring until dissolved, then shaking until thick and smooth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Norfolk Sauce, Or, Rich Melted Butter Without Flour

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Put the water into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil.

  2. Add the butter and stir until completely dissolved.

  3. Remove the saucepan from the heat and shake it until the sauce is thick and smooth.

  4. Do not allow the sauce to boil after adding the butter.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Butter
Melts into the water to add richness and a smooth, glossy body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Do not let the sauce boil after adding the butter. Boiling can break the butter emulsion, so the fat separates and the sauce turns greasy and loses its smooth texture.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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