flesh, or fowl.

_Obs._ This is the best way of preparing melted butter; milk mixes with
the butter much more easily and more intimately than water alone can be
made to do. This is of proper thickness to be mixed at table with
flavouring essences, anchovy, mushroom, or cavice, &c. If made merely
to pour over vegetables, add a little more milk to it.

N.B. If the butter oils, put a spoonful of cold water to it, and stir it
with a spoon; if it is very much oiled, it must be poured backwards and
forwards from the stew-pan to the sauce-boat till it is right again.

MEM. Melted butter made to be mixed with flavouring essences, catchups,
&c. should be of the thickness of light batter, that it may adhere to
the fish, &c.

_Thickening._--(No. 257.)

Clarified butter is best for this purpose; but if you have none ready,
put some fresh butter into a stew-pan over a slow, clear fire; when it
is melted, add fine flour sufficient to make it the thickness of paste;
stir it well together with a wooden spoon for fifteen or twenty minutes,
till it is quite smooth, and the colour of a guinea: this must be done
very gradually and patiently; if you put it over too fierce a fire to
hurry it, it will become bitter and empyreumatic: pour it into an
earthen pan, and keep it for use. It will keep good a fortnight in
summer, and longer in winter.

A large spoonful will generally be enough to thicken a quart of gravy.

_Obs._ This, in the French kitchen, is called _roux_. Be particularly
attentive in making it; if it gets any burnt smell or taste, it will
spoil every thing it is put into, see _Obs._ to No. 322. When cold, it
should be thick enough to cut out with a knife, like a solid paste.

It is a very essential article in the kitchen, and is the basis of
consistency in most made-dishes, soups, sauces, and ragouts; if the
gravies, &c. are too thin, add this thickening, more or less, according
to the consistence you would wish them to have.

MEM. In making thickening, the less butter, and the more flour you use,
the better; they must be thoroughly worked together, and the broth, or
soup, &c. you put them to, added by degrees: take especial care to
incorporate them well together, or your sauces, &c. will taste floury,
and have a disgusting, greasy appearance: therefore, after you have
thickened your sauce, add to it some broth, or warm water, in the
proportion of two table-spoonfuls to a pint, and set it by the side of
the fire, to r