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Claret Sauce
Whisk two eggs thoroughly, and put with them a cupful of claret. Put the mixture into a saucepan with half a tea-spoonful of finely-grated lemon-rind, a heaped table-spoonful of sugar, and a little pounded cinnamon. Whisk the sauce over the fire till it is well frothed, and when it is on the point of boiling pour it over the pudding. Claret is an excellent wine for sauces, as it contains very little spirit and a great deal of flavour. Time, ten minutes. Probable cost, 3d., exclusive of the wine. Sufficient for a small pudding.
A hot wine sabayon, thickened by egg alone and served over a steamed or boiled pudding. The whole thing succeeds or fails on heat control.
- Never let it boilThe instruction to pull it off "on the point of boiling" is the hinge. Two eggs in a cup of acidic wine will scramble into grains the moment they pass roughly 180F, and there is no starch or cream here to protect them. Whisk constantly and take it off while it is still pourable.
- Use a bain-marieCassell's assumes a coal range where the pan could be shifted to a cooler spot at will. Over a modern burner, set the saucepan in a wide pan of barely simmering water; direct heat will catch the eggs at the base before the sauce has frothed.
- ClaretThe British trade name for red Bordeaux. Any dry, medium-bodied red works, though something low in tannin and oak is kinder here, since tannin turns harsh and drying when heated with sugar.
- A cupfulVictorian cups were not standardised; a breakfast cup ran to about half an imperial pint (10 fl oz / 285 ml), a teacup to rather less. Somewhere in the region of 8-10 fl oz (240-285 ml) for two eggs is a reasonable reading.
- Pounded cinnamonGround cinnamon, pounded from stick in a mortar. Modern ready-ground cinnamon is finer; a scant quarter teaspoon is enough not to muddy the wine.
- Sugar and lemonA heaped tablespoon is about 20 g. Grate the lemon rind directly into the sugar so the oils are not lost on the grater, and avoid the white pith.
- Yield and timingThe recipe says only "sufficient for a small pudding". It holds no more than a few minutes before the foam collapses, so make it while the pudding is turning out and serve at once.
- The cost note"Probable cost, 3d." is given as exclusive of the wine, so it covers only the eggs, sugar and spice; imported wine carried duty and would have added appreciably to the total.
Wine sauces of this kind sit between the English pudding sauce and the Italian zabaglione or French sabayon, both of which whisk egg, sugar and wine over gentle heat until foaming. Here the egg -- whole eggs, not yolks alone -- is the sole thickener, aerated by whisking. The editorial aside that claret "contains very little spirit and a great deal of flavour" reflects a Victorian distinction between fortified wines such as port, sherry and Madeira and unfortified table wine, whose lower alcohol makes it less likely to curdle the eggs or overwhelm the pudding. Claret itself was the standard British term for red Bordeaux.