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Sauce Sabayon
For plum puddings, fritters, etc. 1/2 pound of sugar. 12 yolks of eggs. 1/2 pint of sherry or other wine. Beat the yolks and sugar together in a deep saucepan as if making egg-nogg. Set the saucepan on the range; stir in the wine a little at a time, and then with the egg-whisk whip the mixture to a froth till it has become hot and begins to thicken. It must not quite boil, and ought to be made only just before it is needed. Either powdered cinnamon, vanilla, or extracts can be added for flavor. Brandy or rum mixed with the wine is generally considered an improvement.
A classic wine sabayon, built on the same principle as Italian zabaglione: yolks, sugar and wine whisked over heat until they foam and thicken. The whole thing lives or dies on heat control.
- The hinge: never let it boilThe moment the mixture simmers, the yolks scramble and the foam collapses into sweet wine with lumps in it. Pull it off the heat while it is still thickening and keep whisking; residual heat in the pan will carry it further.
- Use a bain-marieThe original sets the saucepan straight on the range, which works for a cook who never stops whisking over a coal top. A metal bowl over barely simmering water gives far more margin, and a wide bowl lets you whip in more air.
- MeasurementsHalf a pint is one cup of wine. Half a pound of sugar is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of granulated. Twelve yolks is a large batch — roughly 3 cups of finished sauce, enough for 10 to 12 servings; the recipe halves and quarters cleanly.
- DonenessCook to a temperature of about 160-165F, when the whisk leaves a trail across the surface and the foam holds a ribbon for a second or two. That also brings the yolks to a safe temperature, which the vague "begins to thicken" does not guarantee on its own.
- Adding the wineA little at a time, as written, matters. Dumping the whole cup of cold wine into the beaten yolks thins the base so much that it takes far longer to build volume, and the longer it sits on heat the greater the risk of curdling.
- The wineSherry is the first wine named, and a medium or cream sherry suits the sweetness of the sauce; Marsala is the usual Italian choice and can be substituted, though the flavour differs. Dry white wine gives a thinner, sharper sauce and may want a little more sugar.
- Serve at onceThe instruction to make it "only just before it is needed" is not fussiness — the foam begins to weep within minutes. If it must wait, hold it over warm (not hot) water and re-whisk, or fold in a little whipped cream to stabilise it and serve cold.
Sabayon is the French form of the Italian zabaglione, a whisked egg-and-wine foam generally traced to northern Italy and long associated with Marsala; in Italy it is often eaten on its own from a glass, while French kitchens used it as a warm sauce for puddings, fruit and fritters. That is the role it plays here, alongside the plum pudding named in the first line. The recipe's casual reference to beating yolks and sugar "as if making egg-nogg" points to an American readership assumed to know that motion already, so the writer saw no reason to describe it twice.