Cumberland sauce
Cumberland sauce is a British condiment of redcurrant jelly, mustard, blanched orange peel and port, traditionally served cold with ham, game and cold meats.
Historical attestation
Pontack elderberry sauce
Pontac · Pontack · Pontac · Pontac catsup · Pontack catsup · Elderberry catsup
An English elderberry condiment of vinegar, shallots and warm spices, historically called a catsup and tied to Pontac's Head tavern in London.
Overview
Pontack is an English elderberry sauce made from fruit cooked in vinegar. The berries are cooked slowly in vinegar, the juice is strained and then simmered with shallots and warm spices. Its historical name was catsup.
Sources for this section
History
The sauce is traced to François-Auguste de Pontac, a Frenchman who had been president of the Parliament of Bordeaux. After he moved to London he opened Pontack's Head tavern, where the account read for this page says the sauce was first served. The seventeenth-century date for it rests on that account.
Eliza Acton's cookery book, first published in 1845 and later titled Modern Cookery for Private Families, is said by secondary sources to include a Pontac catsup. This page has not read her recipe, and it does not say how her method compares with the modern one.
Sources for this section
Preparation
The modern method given by phytoalimurgia.com starts with the berries cooked in vinegar. The berries are stripped from their stems, placed in a covered ovenproof casserole with the vinegar and cooked at about 120 °C for four to six hours.
The cooked berries are strained, pressed by hand and the seeds are discarded. The juice is then simmered gently for twenty to thirty minutes with the salt, minced shallots and whole spices: cloves, allspice, nutmeg and black peppercorns. The sauce is poured hot into clean jars and sealed.
Sources for this section
Storage and keeping
The source recommends storing sealed jars in a pantry and waiting at least a few months for the best flavour. It states that tradition holds the sauce keeps for at least seven years and improves with age, and that the author doubts a jar would last that long. It also considers the botulism risk close to none because of the vinegar content.
None of these statements comes with a source or a tested process. They are recorded as the author's and tradition's views. No time, temperature or acidity target for safe keeping is given here.
Sources for this section
Notes
The page has not read the historical primary text. Acton's recipe, the seventeenth-century Pontack's Head account and the nineteenth-century catsups need checking against the original books before the historical account can be treated as established.
Sources for this section
History
The sauce is traced to François-Auguste de Pontac, a Frenchman who had been president of the Parliament of Bordeaux and who opened Pontack's Head tavern in London. Phytoalimurgia dates the sauce to the seventeenth century and says it was first served there.
Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery for Private Families is said by secondary sources to include a Pontac catsup, first published in 1845. This page did not read her text, so it does not describe her recipe. The 1882 edition is digitised by the Wellcome Collection.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
ElderberriesStrip from the stems and rinse quickly in a colander.
454 g1 lb as recorded
fresh or frozenCider vinegar
473 mL2 cup as recorded
ShallotsMince.
227 g½ lb as recorded
Nutmeg
2.5 mL½ tsp as recorded
Black peppercornsWhole.
15 mL1 tbsp as recorded
2.5 mL½ tsp as recorded
Method
Risks and precautions · Elevated risk
Unvalidated preserving method
The modern method seals the hot sauce in jars and keeps it in a pantry. The sources give no tested process, time or temperature for that storage.
Hazard sourceThe pantry storage, the multi-month wait and the multi-year keeping are the author's and tradition's claims. They are not validated, and this page does not endorse them.
Elderberry fruit, raw or underprocessed, is not part of this recipe. Cook the berries as the method says.
- Strip the elderberries from their stems and rinse them quickly in a colander.
- Place the berries in a covered, ovenproof casserole with the vinegar.
- Cook at 250°F (about 120°C) for 4 to 6 hours. The kitchen will smell strongly of the fruit and vinegar for a couple of days.
- Strain the cooked berries into a large bowl. When they have cooled slightly, press them by hand to get as much juice as possible, and discard the seeds.
- Pour the juice into a pot with the salt, shallots and spices, and simmer gently for 20 to 30 minutes.
- While the sauce simmers, clean and sterilise the jars.
- Pour the hot sauce into the jars and seal them.
Conditions
Temperature120°C
Places
London
Historical attestation · Locality evidenceThe source places the sauce at Pontack's Head tavern in London. It does not give a precise street-level origin beyond that.
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Sources
PhytoalimurgiaMethod · History · Safety
Pontack, an elderberry sauceModern ingredients: 1 lb elderberries, 2 cups cider vinegar, 0.5 lb shallots, 5 cloves, 5 allspice berries, 0.5 tsp nutmeg, 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, 0.5 tsp salt
Method: cook berries in vinegar at 250°F (about 120°C) for 4 to 6 hours, strain and press, simmer juice with salt, shallots and spices 20 to 30 minutes, hot-fill sealed jars
History: François-Auguste de Pontac, Pontack's Head tavern in London, 17th century
Storage claims: pantry storage, months before use, multi-year keeping tradition, the author's botulism view; not sourced
Cited in: Overview; History; Preparation; Storage and keeping; Notes
Wellcome CollectionHistory
Modern cookery for private familiesA digitised 1882 edition of Acton's Modern Cookery for Private Families is held (catalogue record only; the recipe text was not read)
Cited in: History; Notes