To Melt Butter

Ingredients

• 1/4 pound good butter
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 1 tablespoon water
• salt

Instructions

1. Keep a quart tin sauce-pan with a cover exclusively for this purpose. Weigh one quarter of a pound of good butter and rub two teaspoons of flour into it. When well mixed, put it in the sauce-pan with one tablespoon of water and a little salt. Cover the sauce-pan and set it in a larger pan of boiling water. Shake it constantly until completely melted and beginning to boil.
2. Note: Never set the pan containing butter directly on coals, as this will oil the butter and spoil it. This quantity is sufficient for one sauce-boat.
3. A great variety of delicious sauces can be made by adding different herbs to melted butter, all of which are excellent with fish, poultry, or boiled butchers' meat. For herb-flavored butter, wash a large bunch of fresh herbs very clean, pick the leaves from the stems carefully, boil them ten minutes in salt and water, drain them perfectly dry, and mince them exceedingly fine. Stir them into the butter when it begins to melt. When herbs are added, use two spoonfuls of water instead of one. Chervil, young fennel, burnet, tarragon, and cress or pepper-grass may all be used and must be prepared in the same manner as the parsley.