GENERAL SAUCE
(Directions for Cookery, 1851)

Chop six shalots or small onions, a clove of garlic, two peach leaves, a few sprigs of lemon-thyme and of sweet basil, and a few bits of fresh orange-peel.

Bruise in a mortar a quarter of an ounce of cloves, a quarter of an ounce of mace, and half an ounce of long pepper.

Mix two ounces of salt, a jill of claret, the juice of two lemons, and a pint of Madeira.

Put the whole of these ingredients together in a stone jar, very closely covered. Let it stand all night over embers by the side of the fire. In the morning pour off the liquid quickly and carefully from the lees or settlings, strain it and put it into small bottles, dipping the corks in melted rosin.

This sauce is intended to flavour melted butter or gravy, for every sort of fish and meat.