Sauce for Cold Boiled Fowl (Mrs. Spence's Recipe)

History

This recipe is a contributor's sauce recorded in Hildagonda Duckitt's "Hilda's 'Where Is It?' of Recipes," first published in 1891, a Cape Colonial (South African) collection gathering "many old Cape, Indian and Malay dishes and preserves". The book prints it under the heading "Sauce for Cold Boiled Fowl" and credits it to a named contributor, "(Mrs. Spence's Recipe.)".

As printed, it is a thickened milk-and-egg-yolk coating sauce: the maizena (cornflour), salt, cayenne, and egg yolks are mixed with a little new milk, then stirred into the rest of the boiled milk "over the fire till smooth and thick," poured out and cooled, and poured over the fowl so that "It should lie on it without dropping off". Duckitt follows it immediately with a second version from the same contributor ("Sauce (another), for Cold Boiled Fowl"), built on a strained stock of the birds' feet and neck with a blade of mace and a slice of onion, thickened with maizena and enriched with cream and egg yolk, then garnished with hard-boiled egg, beetroot, and carrot as "a very nice dish for lunch or supper".

Beyond the book's own attribution and instructions, the historical record consulted here documents nothing further about this specific sauce. It is a domestic coating sauce for cold poultry; there is no documented social-status, class, or "aristocratic" significance attached to it, and it is not an aspic or medieval meat-jelly, so the earlier account tracing it to aspic and to aristocratic prestige is unsupported and is a misidentification of the dish.

Ingredients

• 1 pint New Milk
• 2 oz Butter
• 2 Egg yolks
• 2 oz Maizena
• Salt
• Cayenne
• Lemon-peel

Instructions

1. Mix the maizena, salt, cayenne, and the egg yolks together with a little of the new milk.
2. Boil the rest of the milk.
3. Add the maizena mixture to the boiled milk, stirring over the fire until smooth and thick.
4. Pour out and stir until cold.
5. Pour the sauce over the fowl.