SC - Welser's gravy

[Crystal A. Isaac]

I was looking through Valoise Armstrong's translation of Sabina Welser's
Cookbook (c. 1553 CE) and found the following recipe.

#9 To make a yellow sauce for game or birds
First put fat in a pan and fry some flour in it, then take some wine and
three times as much of broth and put it into the pan and add to it ginger
and pepper and color it yellow, then it is ready.

And also...
#11 To make a yellow peppersauce
Make it as follows: Brown good flour in fat, pour wine and meat broth in it,
and seasonings to it. When it is a fast day, however, then take pea broth
instead of meat broth.

I've had it in my head that "gravy" or roux -- you know, that flour cooked
in fat stuff Grandmamma makes at Thanksgiving -- is an out of period
technique, but I am not sure where I read/heard that.

My first pass at redaction brought up the following two results:

Test Batch One (suitable for vegetarians)
Melt 2 Tbl butter* in very small pan. Add 4 level Tbl of white flour,
whisking madly. <sucking noise> Big lump of stuff in pan. Reduce heat. Add
1/4 cup white wine, stir, stir, stir. Wine evaporates with shocking speed.
Reduce heat as far as possible (hurl curses at gas stove). Add about 9
tablespoons of hot reconstituted veggie bullion. Stir. Add 1/4 tesp ground
ginger, 1/8 tesp fresh ground pepper and 5 threads saffron (for yellow
color)**. Stir for a minute over very low heat to thicken.

*I used butter because Welser mentions using pea broth for a feast day
alternative, so I thought butter rather than drippings or lard might be
appropriate.
*I thought about using egg yolks for color and additional fat, but I was out
of eggs.

Results from Test Batch One
My personal food tester said, yum!
I liked this version, but I think it needed _way_ more ginger and pepper.
Would be good for an "unchallenging" and familiar dish at a feast. Would be
a good sauce for roasted vegetables.

By this time the chicken was done baking, so test batch two was begun.

Test Batch Two (NOT suitable for vegetarians, but closer to the original)
Take 3/4 cup pan drippings and place in medium sized pan. Whisk in 1/2 cup
flour. Cook till almost dry. Place 1/2 tesp ground ginger, 1/4 tesp fresh
ground pepper and 5 threads saffron in 1/2 cup white wine. Add wine to pan.
stir madly. As it dries, add 15 tablespoons* hot reconstituted veggie
bullion and keep stirring. I didn't let this batch reduce to the true
"gravy" consistency, so it was a little more sauce-like.

*I'm sorry about the inconvenient units of measurements, the ladle I was
using holds 3 Tbl, and I used 5 of them.

Results from Test Batch Two
My personal food tester said, yum, but I like the other one better.
This one definantly needed more spices, I think it may have needed salt as
well. (Test Batch One used salted butter so the lack was less obvious.)
Still, it was a good recipe, and we'll probably eat it again.

Questions:
Obviously, by adjusting the amounts of flour to liquids, you can make
something like Grandmamma's gravy, or something like a thin pesto. Does
anybody have another source that mentions recipe like this one?

Does anybody else remember a (good) authority that said roux-based sauce was
out of period?

Any help cheerfully accepted,
Crystal of the Westermark



- --------
Crystal A. Isaac
"It is enough to be sure of the deed. Our courteous Lord will deign to
redeem the motive." -- St. Julian of Norwich