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Sauce for the Same
One pint of cream, large spoonful of butter, one glass of wine. Season to the taste. Let it cook, but not come to a boil.--Mrs. A. F. Another Sauce.
Cream half a pound of butter; work into it six tablespoonfuls of sugar; beat in one egg, add a wine-glass of wine or brandy, and half a grated nutmeg. Set it on the fire, and as soon as it boils, serve it for the table.--Mrs. F.
Two dessert sauces of the same family: sweetened cream or butter, spirits, and nutmeg, meant to be poured over a boiled or baked pudding. Both live or die on heat control.
- The hinge: do not boil the first oneCream, butter and wine held just below a simmer will thicken slightly and stay smooth; a boil after the wine goes in will make the acid split the cream into curds and a thin whey. Keep it around 170-180F, stirring, and pull it as soon as it coats a spoon.
- The second sauce will curdle if you follow it literallyOne egg beaten into creamed butter and brought straight to a boil is scrambled egg in disguise. Warm it gently over low heat or a water bath, stirring constantly, and take it off the moment it thickens.
- "A wine-glass"In American cookbooks of this era a wine-glass is about 2 fluid ounces, a quarter cup. The first recipe's vaguer "one glass of wine" is genuinely ambiguous; 2 ounces to a pint of cream is a reasonable reading, and more than 3 will thin the sauce and taste raw.
- "Season to the taste"Most likely sugar and grated nutmeg, as in the companion sauce, though the recipe does not say. Start with 3 to 4 tablespoons of sugar per pint of cream and a few gratings of nutmeg.
- Half a pound of butterTwo American sticks, 225 g. With only six tablespoons of sugar this is a rich, barely sweet sauce; the sugar will not fully dissolve in creamed butter, so expect a slight grain unless you warm it through.
- Half a grated nutmegA whole nutmeg yields roughly 2 to 3 teaspoons grated, so half is over a teaspoon. That is assertive by modern palates; half a teaspoon is closer to current taste, and freshly grated is not optional here since the flavor is the point.
- Wine or brandy"Wine" in sauces of this kind was often a fortified or sweet wine rather than a dry table wine. A dry modern table wine gives a thinner, sharper result; a fortified wine or brandy is likely closer to the intent.
- YieldThe cream sauce makes about 2 cups, enough for eight servings of pudding. The butter sauce makes a smaller quantity and is served in small spoonfuls.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by some 250 Virginia housekeepers, appears to be arranged so that a pudding is followed by its sauce, which would explain why this entry carries the bare title "Sauce for the Same" and no clue about what "the same" was. Both versions belong to the long line of English pudding sauces that came to America with plum pudding and boiled batter puddings: butter, sugar, nutmeg and wine, either creamed cold as hard sauce or warmed into a pouring sauce as here. The contributors are identified by initials, "Mrs. A. F." and "Mrs. F."; and the call for wine or brandy and whole nutmeg shows such goods were within reach of a Virginia pantry.