Sauce boat facts for kids
A sauce boat, also known as a gravy boat or saucière, is a special type of jug. It has a handle and is used to serve sauce or gravy at the table. Its shape often looks like a small boat, which is how it got its name. It usually sits on a matching dish, sometimes attached, to catch any sauce that might drip.
Some gravy boats are designed to be very clever. They can even separate fat from gravy! These boats have a spout that pours from the bottom of the container. This way, any fat floating on the surface stays behind in the boat, giving you healthier gravy.
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The History of Sauce Boats
People have used containers for sauces since ancient times. However, the modern sauce boat became popular in the late 1600s. This happened in the fancy French court, where new styles of cooking were becoming popular.
Sauce Boats in Early Times
Silver sauce boats with two handles and two spouts were first seen around 1690. They were created because of a new cooking style called nouvelle cuisine, which focused on lighter, more flavorful sauces. French fashion was very important in England during the 1700s. English silversmiths started copying these French sauce boats. By the 1740s, English porcelain factories also began making them.
English Porcelain and Sauce Boats
Sauce boats became a very important product for English porcelain factories. This was because Chinese export porcelain items were not very exciting at the time. So, the first English factories, like Bow, Chelsea, and Worcester, all made sauce boats. They were a popular item for people to buy.
Sauce Boats for Everyone
In the second half of the 1700s, sauce boat designs became simpler. This was because more middle-class families wanted to buy them. Many different designs were made, and they looked less like silver items.
Most early factories did not make full dinner sets. But then, Wedgwood developed a new material called creamware. This material made it easier to create large plates, which were hard to make with early porcelain. Because of this, the sauce boat became a regular part of a full dinner service. It is still a common item in dinner sets today.
