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English Sweet Sauce
Put into a saucepan the yolks of four eggs with four or five ounces of powdered sugar, and stir with a spatula until it becomes a whitish color. Add two gills of sweet cream, little by little, beating constantly, and grate in the rind of one orange. Place the pan on a slow stove, and stir the contents well for four minutes, being careful not to let them boil. Take the pan off, strain the sauce through a sieve, and it is ready for use.
This is a crème anglaise in all but name, and everything depends on holding the eggs below the point where they scramble. A few of Oscar's terms need translating before you start.
- Two gills of creamA gill is half a cup, so this is 1 cup of cream. "Sweet cream" simply means fresh, unsoured cream, as opposed to soured cream.
- Powdered sugarIn a kitchen of this period "powdered" means finely ground granulated sugar, not the cornstarch-laced confectioners' sugar sold today. Use 4-5 oz (roughly 1/2 to 3/4 cup) of ordinary granulated or caster sugar.
- A slow stoveLow heat, and lower than you think. A heavy saucepan over the smallest burner works; a bowl set over barely simmering water is more forgiving and costs only a few extra minutes.
- The hinge: do not let it boilOscar says so explicitly, for good reason. Above about 185F the yolk proteins seize and the sauce curdles irreversibly. Pull it at 175-180F, when it coats the back of a spoon and a finger drawn through leaves a clean line.
- Four minutes is optimisticDepending on your pan and burner it will take five to ten. Judge by thickness and temperature, not the clock, and stir constantly across the whole base of the pan rather than in a circle.
- Insurance against overheatingHave the sieve set over a cold bowl before you begin. Straining the instant it thickens stops the cooking and catches the strands of orange rind along with any bits of set egg.
- The orangeGrate only the coloured zest, avoiding the white pith, and use an unwaxed or well-scrubbed fruit. Adding the zest early, as written, gives the cream time to take up the oils.
- Yield and servingAbout 1 1/2 cups, enough for four to six. Serve warm over steamed or baked puddings, or chill it and pour cold over fruit; refrigerate and use within two days.
"English sweet sauce" is the French kitchen's name for an English habit: sauce anglaise, the pouring custard that British cooks sent to table with every steamed pudding, baked apple and slice of tart. Oscar Tschirky, who ran the Waldorf's dining rooms rather than its stoves, compiled his 1896 book from the working repertoire of a hotel kitchen organised on French lines, so the classical sauces appear under classical headings even when the dish itself is thoroughly English. The technique here is unchanged from the modern crème anglaise taught in any professional course: yolks and sugar beaten to a pale ribbon, cream added gradually, the whole thickened over gentle heat and strained. The orange rind is the one flourish, and a period-appropriate one, since citrus zest and rosewater are often said to have been among the common perfumes for custard, alongside vanilla.