milk or water, to a smooth paste, before adding it to liquid; add, usually, one tablespoonful of butter.  Place the mixture in a saucepan and cook until the consistency of cream, add 1/2 teaspoonful of salt just before removing from the fire, and dust pepper over when serving.  When mixing gravy to serve with roast beef or veal, omit butter.  For a thick sauce use either 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of flour and the same amount of butter.  This thick sauce may be used to mix with meat for croquettes in the proportion of 1 cup of sauce to 2 cups of chopped cold roast lamb, beef, veal or chicken.  Should a richer sauce be desired, add 1 or more yolks of eggs to the cream sauce.  Some of the numerous dishes which might be served by the young housewife to vary the daily bill of fare by the addition of “cream sauce,” are:  Small, new potatoes, cauliflower, onions, cabbage asparagus tips, thinly sliced carrots, celery, mushrooms, fish, oysters, chicken, veal and sweetbreads.  All of these, when coked, may be served on slices of toasted bread, or served in Pattie-cases, with cream sauce, or served simply with cream sauce.

PREPARATION OF SAVORY GRAVIES

The art of preparing savory gravies and sauces is more important in connection with the serving of the cheaper meats than in connection with the cooking of the more expensive cuts.

There are a few general principles underlying the making of all sauces or gravies, whether the liquid used is water, milk, stock, tomato juice or some combination of these.  For ordinary gravy, 2 level tablespoonfuls of flour or 1-1/2 tablespoonfuls of cornstarch, or arrow root, is sufficient to thicken a cup of liquid.  This is true excepting in recipes where the flour is browned.  In this case, about 1/2 tablespoonful more should be allowed, for browned flour does not thicken so well as unbrowned.  The fat used may be butter or the drippings from the meat, the allowance being 2 tablespoonfuls to a cup of liquid.  The easiest way to mix the ingredients is to heat the fat, add the flour and cook until the mixture ceases to bubble, and then to add the liquid.  This is a quick method and by using it there is little danger of getting a lumpy gravy.  Many persons, however, think it is not a wholesome method, and prefer the old-fashioned one of thickening the gravy by means of flour mixed with a little cold water. (Aunt Sarah was one who thought thus.) The latter method is not “practicable for brown gravies,” to quote the Farmers’ Bulletin.

The Farmers’ Bulletin further adds: