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1236. For each half-pint of egged wine intended to be made, take two eggs, beat them up thoroughly in a small basin with an ounce and a half of white sugar (fine moist will do), and a little powdered nutmeg and cloves. While doing this, heat half a pint of sherry and water in equal quantities, or stronger of the sherry, if desired, and when boiling hot stir it into the eggs; after which pour the whole backwards and forwards, from the saucepan into the basin, and vice versa, until it thickens. If this, from the coldness of the atmosphere, does not take place, it must be put on the fire again, and constantly stirred till it does, which never fails in a few minutes.
This is a hot wine custard, closer to a thin zabaglione than to cold eggnog, and the whole thing hinges on keeping the mixture below the point where egg sets hard.
- The measuresAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups. An ounce and a half of sugar is roughly 3 tablespoons; "fine moist" was a soft, damp, fine-grained sugar, less refined than modern white sugar, so either a soft light brown sugar or caster sugar will stand in.
- Ratio per servingTwo eggs, 3 tablespoons sugar and 10 fl oz of liquid make one large tumbler or two small cupfuls. It is written to be scaled by the half-pint, so multiply straight through.
- Do not let it boilThe liquid goes in boiling hot, but once the eggs are in, the mixture must not exceed about 175F/80C or it will curdle into sweet scrambled egg suspended in wine. It thickens to a coating consistency at 160-170F/71-77C.
- Temper as you pourAdd the hot sherry and water to the eggs in a thin stream while whisking hard, not the other way round. Pouring the full quantity in at once will set the eggs before they can disperse.
- Why the pouring back and forthMoving the mixture between saucepan and basin both aerates it and drops the temperature in stages, which is what keeps it smooth. If it stays thin, the gentle return to the heat with constant stirring is the correction the original gives, and it works.
- The sherryA medium amontillado or an oloroso suits this better than a dry fino, though the recipe specifies nothing beyond "sherry". Cream sherry risks tasting cloying at this sugar level.
- SpicingGrate the nutmeg fresh and use cloves sparingly, no more than a good pinch per half-pint. Ground cloves bought some time ago will taste medicinal rather than warm.
- Eggs and temperatureHeld at 160F/71C the eggs are cooked, but if you are serving anyone pregnant, elderly or immunocompromised, use pasteurised eggs and check with a thermometer rather than by eye.