As advertised

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe: British Bread Sauce.
"Traditional bread sauce is one of the great, classic British sauces, but I think it has suffered from either not being made properly or - worst of all - being made from a mix or packet. The real thing is beautifully creamy and the perfect accompaniment to chicken or turkey."
It's desperance's fault I heard of this. Which kind of makes sense.

4 oz freshly made white breadcrumbs (a two-day-old white loaf with crusts removed will be hard enough to grate, but the best way to make the crumbs is in a liquidiser, if you have one)
1 large onion
15-18 whole cloves or freshly grated nutmeg
1 bay leaf
8 black peppercorns
1 pint breakfast milk (I assume this means whole milk, which is what I used)
2 oz butter
2 Tbsp double cream (Can you use 4 Tbsp single cream? Seems logical, right?)
salt and pepper

Cut the onion in half and stick the cloves in it - how many you use is a personal matter; I happen to like a pronounced flavor of clove. (Personal matter indeed. Which is why I used zero.) If you don't like them at all, you can use some freshly grated nutmeg instead. Place the onion, studded with cloves, plus the bay leaf and the peppercorns, in a saucepan together with the milk. Add some salt then bring everything up to boiling point.

Take off the heat, cover the pan and leave in a warm place for the milk to infuse for two hours or more. When you're ready to make the sauce, remove the onion, bay leaf, and peppercorns and keep them on one side. Stir the breadcrumbs into the milk and add 1 oz of the butter. Leave on a very low heat, stirring now and then, until the crumbs have swollen and thickened - about 15 minutes.

Now replace the onion, bay leaf, and the peppercorns. (You mean "remove". You're deplacing them.) Leave the pan in a warm place until needed. Just before serving, remove the onion and spices. Reheat gently and beat in the remaining butter and cream. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.

What worked: This was very tasty. Rich without being cloying and it went beautifully with a roast chicken.

What didn't: I didn't read this through again before starting and failed to notice the two hour infusion. Since the roast chicken was already out of the oven and resting, I said "screw it" and just threw in a shake of nutmeg. It would have been better with infused onion flavor.
Also, the house-made bread I used didn't grate particularly well. It did dissolve in the milk, at least, so there weren't soaked cubes in the sauce.

Will I make it again? Certainly. I want to try it as written and I suspect this will be an occasional sauce with poultry.

Comments

[vittoriosa.livejournal.com]

i'm delighted to see this. i had bread sauce when i was in england a couple years ago (with roast grouse! delicious) and have been idly wondering how to recreate it.

i had assumed it would be broth-based, like italian bread sauce, but of course it's not. butter and cream? no wonder so tasty.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Reminiscent of all those bread-thickened medieval sauces.

[psybelle.livejournal.com]

I think you missed much of the paragraph, not just the two hour infusion:

"Take off the heat, cover the pan and leave in a warm place for the milk to infuse for two hours or more. When you're ready to make the sauce, remove the onion, bay leaf, and peppercorns and keep them on one side. Stir the breadcrumbs into the milk and add 1 oz of the butter. Leave on a very low heat, stirring now and then, until the crumbs have swollen and thickened - about 15 minutes."

The next step, "replace the onion, bay leaf, and the peppercorns" is correct.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Hmm. You are correct. That's what I get for having missed that portion of the recipe when making it and then sort of bleeping over it while typing it in.