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Vanilla Sauce
1 pint of milk 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar Yolks of four eggs 1 teaspoonful of vanilla Put the milk on to boil in a farina boiler. Beat the yolks and the sugar together until light, then add them to the boiling milk; stir over the fire for two minutes. Take off, add the vanilla, and put away to cool.
This is a plain boiled custard — crème anglaise by another name — and the whole thing turns on temperature rather than time.
- The hinge: heat, not minutes"Stir over the fire for two minutes" assumes a double boiler and a moderate flame. Judge by the custard instead: pull it at 175–180F, when it coats the back of a spoon and a drawn finger leaves a clear track. Past about 185F the yolks curdle.
- Farina boilerA farina boiler is a double boiler — an inner pan set in an outer pan of simmering water. Any bain-marie setup works, or a heatproof bowl over a pan of water. Direct heat is possible but leaves no margin for error.
- MeasuresA pint here is 2 cups of milk. Two tablespoons of sugar is a restrained 25 g, sweet enough for a sauce meant to accompany an already-sugared pudding; up to 1/4 cup if you want it sweeter on its own.
- TemperingThe instruction to add beaten yolks straight to boiling milk is riskier than modern practice. Whisk about a third of the hot milk into the yolks first, then return the mixture to the pan, and streaks of cooked egg are far less likely.
- Strain itThis recipe does not mention straining, but pouring the finished sauce through a fine sieve catches any set egg and gives a smoother texture.
- VanillaA teaspoon of extract goes in off the heat, as written, so the alcohol and aromatics do not boil away. Half a split vanilla bean steeped in the milk beforehand is an alternative.
- Yield and keepingAbout 2 cups, enough for six to eight servings poured over baked or steamed pudding, fruit or plain cake. Chill it covered — a skin forms otherwise — and use within two days.
Vanilla sauce of this kind is the English-speaking household's version of crème anglaise: milk, yolks, sugar and flavouring, cooked just short of setting so it pours. It belongs to the group of "boiled custards" that nineteenth-century cookery writers distinguished from baked custards, and the appearance of a farina boiler in the instructions is characteristic of the period -- the double boiler was a common defence against scorching before controllable gas rings. Its place in a book of hot weather dishes makes sense: the sauce is made in minutes, then "put away to cool," and served cold over fruit or a light pudding rather than heating the kitchen with a long bake.