Lemon Sauce
1 small lemon, juice and grated yellow part of the rind 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup flour 1 egg yolk 1 2/3 cups hot water 1 tablespoon butter substitute A few grains salt Mix the sugar and flour; stir into it the lemon juice and rind and the egg yolk. Then stir the hot water into this mixture. Cook in a double boiler till it thickens. Add the butter substitute and salt.
A flour-and-yolk thickened dessert sauce of the sort poured over steamed puddings, gingerbread and cottage pudding. It comes together in about ten minutes and needs only attention to the thickening.
- Butter substituteThis phrase suggests a period of butter economy or conservation, and would have meant margarine or a solid vegetable shortening of the day. Use butter or a modern block margarine; one tablespoon in this quantity is for gloss and flavour, not structure.
- Zest before you juiceGrate only the yellow rind from the whole lemon first, while the fruit is still firm. The white pith beneath turns the sauce bitter.
- Order of mixingMixing the sugar with the flour dry, then working in the juice and yolk, is what keeps the starch from lumping. Add the hot water in a thin stream while stirring rather than all at once.
- Double boiler timingOver simmering water the sauce takes roughly 8 to 12 minutes to thicken, and it should be stirred throughout. It is done when it coats a spoon and no raw flour taste remains; the water beneath should never boil hard.
- The yolkWith a quarter cup of flour present the yolk will not curdle easily, but the sauce should not be pushed to a rolling boil once it has thickened. Straining it at the end removes any bits of set egg and the coarser rind.
- Consistency and yieldThis makes about two cups, enough for six to eight servings. It thickens further as it cools; thin with a little hot water if it stiffens past pouring.