Yes, indeedie, there really is a lovely little condiment known
as “Wow Wow Sauce.” Our intrepid travelers through centuries
of British Foodways, Giles and Sue, enjoyed it with beef during
their first dinner at Trafalgar House in the initial episode
of “The Supersizers Go Regency.”
Here’s the receipt (recipe), from The Cook’s Oracle (1817),
as “Instituted in the kitchen of William Kitchiner, M.D.”:
_________________________
Wow Wow Sauce for Stewed or Bouilli* Beef—(No. 286).
Chop some Parsley-leaves very finely,
quarter two or three pickled Cucumbers,
or Walnuts, and divide them into small
squares, and set them by ready;—put
into a saucepan a bit of Butter as big
as an egg; when it is melted, stir to it
a table-spoonful of fine Flour, and
about half a pint of the Broth in which
the Beef was boiled; add a table-spoonful
of Vinegar, the like quantity of Mushroom
Catchup, or Port Wine, or both, and
a tea-spoonful of made Mustard; let it
simmer together till it is as thick as you
wish it, put in the Parsley and Pickles
to get warm, and pour it over the Beef,
—or rather send it up in a Sauce-tureen.
_________________________
*Bouilli: French for boiled meat
