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Almond Sauce for Puddings
Boil gently a quarter of a pint of water and half that quantity of new milk. Pour this slowly when boiling--stirring all the time--upon a dessertspoonful of arrowroot, mixed with a little water. Add sugar to taste, the beaten yolk of an egg, and enough essence of almonds to flavor nicely. Serve in a tureen. Do not pour the sauce over the pudding, as every one may not like the flavor. A little brandy may be added. Time, about ten minutes to boil.
A thin, pale custard-style pouring sauce thickened with arrowroot rather than flour, meant to be passed at table rather than ladled over the pudding. It comes together in about ten minutes and wants close attention only at the end.
- The hinge: the yolkOnce the beaten yolk goes in, the sauce must not return to a boil or it will curdle into threads. Stir it in off the heat, then set the pan back over the lowest flame only long enough to thicken slightly, around 175F.
- Quarter of a pintIn a US kitchen that is 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 cup of milk; if you are working from a British measure, 5 fl oz and 2 1/2 fl oz. Either way the total is small, so use a small saucepan.
- A dessertspoonfulTwo level teaspoons of arrowroot. Slake it with a tablespoon of cold water to a smooth cream before the hot liquid goes in, or it will set in lumps.
- Essence of almondsModern almond extract is dominated by benzaldehyde and can be very strong; the strength of period essences is not something we can pin down. Start with 1/8 teaspoon, taste, and add more by drops.
- New milkSimply fresh whole milk, unskimmed and unsoured. Whole milk is the closest thing on a supermarket shelf.
- Arrowroot behaviourArrowroot thickens at a lower temperature than cornstarch and thins again if held at a boil or reheated hard. Make this sauce just before serving and keep it warm, not hot.
- Serve in a tureenAny warmed sauceboat or small pitcher. The instruction to pass it separately rather than pour it is sound advice for a flavour as assertive as almond.
- YieldAbout 3/4 cup, enough for four modest servings alongside a steamed or baked pudding. Double it if the sauce is the main interest.
- BrandyA teaspoon or two, stirred in at the very end so the alcohol is not driven off. Added earlier it can also encourage the yolk to seize.
Arrowroot-thickened sweet sauces belong to a nineteenth-century British tradition that treated the starch as lighter and more digestible than flour, which is why it turns up constantly in invalid cookery and in the genteel end of pudding making. Almond flavouring in such sauces is connected to ratafia and the older use of bitter almonds, whose essence carried the same benzaldehyde note now supplied by commercial extract. The instruction to pass the sauce in a tureen rather than pour it is at least suggestive: this writer clearly expected that not every diner would want the flavour.