Sauce Alone
A host of correspondents have written on the subject of Sauce Alone, but none has said whether the name is still current in this or that locality. Its use has been much more widely recorded than I had thought. It appears, for example, in an essay of Richard Jefferies which I have long admired. The word was perhaps forgotten because the next name to it is given as " gix," a form that particularly attracted my attention because the spelling current in my Midland home was " kex " ; and many people seem not to have met either form. Sauce Alone seems to have been used for the crucifer more popularly and not less prettily known as Jack-by-the- hedge, but also, almost generically, for country folk are seldom expert bctanists, for a group of the mustard-like plants. Many interesting points are quoted. It was once much used in rustic meals in England, both raw and cooked, and in Germany as a salad and an anti-scorbutic medicine. Its garlic-like flavoeir is suggested in its proper generic title, Alliaria. Today how very few wild plants are used for food or drink! Even the old recipes for making yarrow beer, once very widely popular, cannot be found. If any correspondent possesses a recipe it would be gratefully received by many country people. The worst of many country compounds is that they are thought to be teetotal, but are often extremely alcoholic.
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