Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Maitre d' Hotel Sauce. — There are many ways of making this sauce, from the rich French sauce made of cream and butter, down to the economical substitute of Engfish melted butter, with just a dash of vinegar in it. It will, however, answer our purpose if we give two recipes for it, a rich one and one less expensive. First, for the true French sauce : — Melt two ounces of fresh butter in a small enamelled saucepan and stir to it, by degrees, two teaspoonfuls of flour ; continue stirring for five or ten minutes, until the butter and flour are well blended, when add, also by degrees, a quarter of a pint of boiling cream and a quarter of a pint of good veal stock, also boiling;" add a few spoonfuls of each at a time, and stir well, allowing the sauce to simmer a minute or two between each addition. When perfectly smooth, put in the strained juice of a lemon, or, if preferred, a table-spoonful of chilli vinegar, a little pepper, or cayenne, or a pinch of salt, and a table-spoonful of chopped parsley. The yolks of two eggs are a great improvement to this sauce, and are almost necessary when it is MAI (401 ) MAI served with lish ; but in that case, only half the quantity of flour should be used, as the eggs help to thicken. For the plainer way : — Take half a pint of milk, thicken it with one ounce of butter, and a heaped tea-spoonful of flour well worked together, and flavour with lemonjuice, pepper, and salt. We need scarcely say that the latter way is not to be compared to the former in taste or appearance ; but where economy is an object, it will prove a good substitute for the richer sauce. Time to simmer, fifteen to twenty minutes. The ingredients mentioned in describing the genuine article are sufficient for three-quarters of a pint of sauce. Maize or Indian Corn.— This is the noblest of the cereal grasses. It was found native in America when that continent was discovered, and it now constitutes the breadcorn in North America, Mexico, and a great part of Africa. It is almost as extensively used for the support of man as rice, but there are great differences of opinion as to its merits. It ia said to contain very little gluten and sugar ready formed, and hence it is asserted that its nutritive power must be small. Certainly it cannot be fermented into good bread without the addition of wheat-flour ; yet people who live upon it are as healthy and strong as could be wished. The American and West Indian labourers think no bread so strengthening as that which is made of Indian corn-flour. When very coarse ground and boiled, maize forms the hominy of the southern portion of the United States. The porridge made of Indian meal goes in North America under the name of mush {see Mush of Indian Com). The entire grains are employed under the name of hulled corn or samp. When the unripe grains are slightly roasted, they burst and turn inside out, and look very peculiar ; in this state they are called pop-corn, and are much relished as food in America. The unripe cobs of Indian com are often pickled as well as boiled for the table. The starch of maize is a good substitute for arrowroot, and is largely employed in this country under various names, Oswego corn-flour, &c. " Maize," says Mr. C. W. Johnson, " was brought very prominently into notice by Mr.