SAUCE PIQUANTE, for Cutlets, Roast Meat, &c

Ingredients

• 2 oz butter
• 1 small carrot
• 6 shalots
• 1 small bunch of savoury herbs, including parsley
• 1/2 a bay-leaf
• 2 slice lean ham
• 2 cloves
• 6 peppercorns
• 1 blade mace
• 3 whole allspice
• 4 tablespoonful vinegar
• 1/2 pint stock (No. 104 or 105)
• 1 small lump of sugar
• 1/4 saltspoonful cayenne
• salt to taste

Instructions

1. Put into a stewpan the butter, with the carrot and shalots, both of which must be cut into small slices;
2. add the herbs, bay-leaf, spices, and ham (which must be minced rather finely), and let these ingredients simmer over a slow fire, until the bottom of the stewpan is covered with a brown glaze.
3. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon, and put in the remaining ingredients.
4. Simmer very gently for 1/4 hour, skim off every particle of fat, strain the sauce through a sieve, and serve very hot.
5. Care must be taken that this sauce be not made too acid, although it should possess a sharpness indicated by its name.
6. Of course the above quantity of vinegar may be increased or diminished at pleasure, according to taste.