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Wine Sauce (for Puddings)
INGREDIENTS for sauce for large pudding.pint of sherry, 1/4 pint of water, the yolks of 5 eggs, 2 oz. of pounded sugar, 1/2 teaspoonful of minced lemon-peel, a few pieces of candied citron, cut thin. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 2d.
Separate the yolks from the whites of 5 eggs; beat them, and put them into a very clean saucepan (if at hand, a lined one is best); add all the other ingredients, place them over a sharp fire, and keep stirring WINE, TO MULL. until the sauce begins to thicken; then take it off, and serve. If it is allowed to boil, it will be spoiled, as it will immediately curdle. TIME. To be stirred over the fire 3 or 4 minutes; but it must not boil.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Wine Sauce (for Puddings; Excellent).-INGREDIENTS for sauce for goodsized pudding. The yolks of 4 eggs, 1 teaspoonful of flour, 2 oz. of pounded sugar, 2 oz. of fresh butter, 1/4 saltspoonful of salt, 1/2 pint of sherry or Madeira. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 3d.
Put the butter and flour into a saucepan, and stir them over the fire until the former thickens; then add the sugar, salt and wine, and mix these ingredients well together. Separate the yolks from the whites of 4 eggs; beat up the former, and stir them briskly to the sauce; let it remain over the fire until it is on the point of simmering; but do not allow it to boil, or it will instantly curdle. This sauce is delicious with plums, marrow, or bread puddings; but should be served separately, and not poured over the pudding.
TIME. From 5 to 7 minutes to thicken the butter; about 5 minutes to stir the sauce over the fire.
Two versions of the same idea: a sherry custard for boiled and baked puddings, one thickened with yolks alone, the other with a butter-and-flour base that makes it more forgiving. Both live or die by the same rule.
- Never let it boilThis is the hinge; the original warns twice that boiling will curdle the sauce "instantly." Pull it off the heat when it coats the spoon, around 175F; a bowl set over barely simmering water is a safer approach than the "sharp fire" the original calls for.
- The missing quantityThe first recipe's sherry measure has been lost to a printing error — it reads only "pint of sherry" against a quarter pint of water. The companion recipe uses half an imperial pint of wine to four yolks, which is the sensible reading; treat the figure as unknown rather than guessing at a full pint.
- Imperial pintsMrs Beeton's pint is 20 fl oz, so half a pint is 10 fl oz (1¼ US cups) and a quarter pint is 5 fl oz. Using US cup measures throughout will leave the sauce noticeably thicker than intended.
- SaltspoonfulA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so a quarter saltspoonful is only a pinch — enough to sharpen the wine, not to taste of salt.
- Pounded sugarSugar was bought in loaves and crushed at home; pounded sugar is what we call caster or superfine sugar. Granulated works but needs a little longer to dissolve before the yolks go in.
- The panA "lined" saucepan of this date would most likely be tin-lined copper; bare copper or iron can react with acidic, egg-based mixtures, which may be why a lined pan is preferred here. Use stainless steel or enamel, not aluminium.
- Candied citronStill sold at Christmas and from Italian grocers; candied lemon peel is the closest substitute. Cut it very thin so it softens in the few minutes the sauce is on the heat.
- Yield and serviceThe second version makes roughly 1 1/2 to 2 cups, enough for six to eight helpings; the first cannot be calculated while the wine quantity is missing. The instruction to serve it separately rather than poured over is worth keeping.
Wine sauces of this kind are the English branch of a family that includes Italian zabaglione and French sabayon: yolks, sugar and fortified wine warmed together until they thicken. A sauce like this was the standard partner for the heavy steamed puddings of the period — plum pudding, marrow pudding, bread pudding — where something rich and liquid was needed to carry a dense suet crumb. Beeton gives the total cost of the sauce as 1s. 2d. to 1s. 3d., not a trivial sum in the 1860s, and directs that it be handed round separately.