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Lemon Sauce III
1/3 cup butter 1 cup sugar Yolks 3 eggs 1/3 cup boiling water 3 tablespoons lemon juice Few gratings lemon rind Cream butter, add sugar gradually, and yolks of eggs, slightly beaten; then add water, and cook over boiling water until mixture thickens. Remove from range, add lemon juice and rind. Serve with Apple Pudding or Popovers.
A yolk-thickened lemon sauce built like a stirred custard rather than a cornstarch sauce, so the whole thing hinges on gentle heat.
- Cook it over water, not on the burner"Cook over boiling water" means a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, with the bowl clear of the water itself. Direct heat will scramble the yolks in seconds.
- Know when it is doneThe sauce thickens somewhere in the region of 170-180F, when it coats a spoon and a finger drawn across leaves a clean track. The sugar here gives the yolks some protection, but pushed much hotter they will curdle. A thermometer is worth using.
- "Remove from range"The range is the stove. Lift the bowl off the water promptly, since residual heat keeps cooking the sauce and can tip it over the edge.
- Add the acid last, as writtenThe lemon juice goes in off the heat; acid stirred in while the yolks are still setting can encourage them to break. The rind goes in at the same time, which also keeps its oils from being cooked off.
- Creaming the butterButter at cool room temperature, around 65F, creams properly with the sugar. Melted butter will not hold the air and gives a greasier sauce.
- If it breaksA sauce that begins to look grainy can sometimes be pulled back by immediately whisking it hard off the heat, or by straining it. Once it has genuinely scrambled it will not recover.
- Yield and servingMakes roughly a cup and a half, enough for six to eight servings. Serve warm; it thickens further as it cools and can be loosened over warm water.
- StorageThis is a lightly cooked egg sauce with no starch to stabilise it. Refrigerate leftovers and use within two days, rewarming gently over water rather than in a pan.