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Egg Cream
Two eggs, two tabiespoons of sugar, juice and grated rind of half a lemon.
Separate yolks from whites of eggs and beat with sugar in bowl until both are well mixed, then add lemon juice and rind and place the bowl in a dish of boiling water on the stove. Stir slowly until the mixture begins to thicken, then add beaten whites of eggs and stir for two minutes, or until the whole resembles very thick cream. Remove from the fire and pour into a small pudding dish and cool. Serve in small dainty cups or glasses. Mrs John A. Oberg, Rockford.
A lemon sabayon in all but name, cooked in a bowl set over boiling water. The whole thing lives or dies on heat control.
- The hinge: gentle heatThe bowl sits in or over boiling water, never on the burner. Keep the water at a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil; egg yolks with only two tablespoons of sugar to protect them will curdle quickly if the bowl gets much above 180F.
- "Dish of boiling water on the stove"Use a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, ideally not touching the surface. Stir constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon and scrape the sides, where it sets first.
- DonenessCook the yolk base to 160F on an instant-read thermometer, and give the mixture another two minutes after the whites go in so they are heated through as well.
- Pasteurized eggsIf the person eating it is elderly, pregnant, very young or immune-compromised, use pasteurized shell eggs. The two-minute finish with the whites is brief and easy to undercook.
- Lemon rindGrate only the yellow zest from half a lemon, no white pith. On a modern fine rasp grater that is roughly a teaspoon.
- Beating the whitesBeat them to soft peaks, not stiff and dry, so they fold into the warm base without leaving lumps of meringue.
- Yield and servingTwo eggs give about a cup, enough for two small custard cups or one generous glass. Chill before serving; it thickens further as it cools and is best eaten the same day.
Sections devoted to "Invalid Cookery" were a common feature of American community cookbooks, and their logic was that of the sickroom rather than the dining room: small portions, bland or gently acid flavors, and eggs and milk as the two accepted vehicles for getting nourishment into someone with no appetite. Egg Cream belongs to a large family of whipped egg-and-sugar preparations cooked over water, the same technique behind Italian zabaglione and French sabayon, minus the wine. The lemon does real work here, cutting the eggy flatness that made plain egg-nogs and egg gruels so unwelcome to the sick. The attribution to Mrs. John A. Oberg of Rockford is typical of the subscription cookbook format, where recipes were solicited from members of a church or club and printed with the contributor's married name and town as both credit and guarantee.