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Sauce

Norfolk Saucis, Or, Rich Melted Butter Without Flour

A sauce made by melting butter in water without flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Norfolk Saucis, Or, Rich Melted Butter Without Flour

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a small saucepan, bring 3 tablespoons of water to a boil.

  2. Add 4 ounces of fresh butter and stir until completely dissolved.

  3. Remove the saucepan from the heat and continue stirring until the sauce thickens and becomes 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

Fresh butter
Melts into the water to form a smooth, emulsified sauce that thickens as it cools slightly.

The step that matters

Keep the sauce from boiling after the butter goes in. Once butter is added, boiling can cause the emulsion to break, separating fat from liquid and leaving a greasy, grainy sauce instead of a smooth one.

“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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