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Sauce Citronne
1 pound of sugar. 2 ounces of corn starch. 1 quart of water. 2 ounces of fresh butter. 2 lemons' rind grated and juice of one. 6 yolks of eggs. Mix the sugar, grated rind and starch together dry; stir them into the boiling water; add the lemon juice and butter, and when it boils again pour in the beaten yolks quickly and beat well. As soon as the eggs begin to thicken take the sauce from the fire and strain immediately.
A bakery-scale lemon pudding sauce, thickened twice — first with cornstarch, then with yolks. It comes together in a few minutes and can break in a few seconds.
- The hinge: the yolksOnce the beaten yolks go in, the sauce must not return to a boil, or the eggs scramble and the sauce turns grainy. Pull the pan the moment it thickens and strain at once, as directed — straining into a cool bowl also stops the carryover cooking.
- Weights to volumes1 pound of sugar is about 2 1/4 cups; 2 ounces of cornstarch is a scant 1/2 cup; 2 ounces of butter is 4 tablespoons. The quart of water is a liquid quart, 4 cups.
- Mixing starch with the sugarThe dry sugar, starch and rind are combined first largely because the sugar keeps the starch grains apart so they do not clump when they hit boiling water. Do not skip it and do not add the starch alone.
- TemperingThe book says pour the yolks in quickly and beat, which works at bakery speed with a strong arm. At home it is safer to whisk a cup of the hot sauce into the yolks first, then return the mixture to the pan.
- Rind and juiceTwo lemons' worth of zest to the juice of one gives an aromatic rather than sharp sauce. Zest before juicing, and grate only the yellow — the white pith is bitter.
- Yield and useRoughly 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 quarts, enough for 12 to 16 servings. It is a pouring sauce for steamed and boiled puddings, cottage pudding and plain cake, served warm; refrigerated, it sets firmer and thins again with gentle reheating and a whisk.
- Fresh butterIn period usage this generally means sweet, newly made butter rather than the salted keeping butter; unsalted is the nearest modern equivalent.
Books written for the professional American pastry cook around the turn of the twentieth century often gave French titles to plain workroom formulas — sauce citronne is simply lemon sauce, dressed for the menu card. Sauces of this type, a starch-bound syrup enriched at the last moment with yolks and butter, were a common accompaniment to steamed and boiled puddings; the quart of water and pound of sugar suggest a batch quantity for a dining room rather than a family. Cornstarch was cheap, reliable and widely manufactured in the United States by the second half of the nineteenth century, and a starch-bound base is less prone to curdling than an all-egg mixture.