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Sabayon Sauce with Madeira
Put into a saucepan the yolks of four raw eggs, and one and one-half ounces of powdered sugar; place it on a hot stove and with a wire whisk beat for two minutes. Drop in gradually two gills or so of Madeira wine, stir constantly for two minutes, take from the fire and strain through from a fine sieve over the pudding with which it is to be served.
A classic sabayon, thinned with Madeira rather than the Marsala of the Italian original. The whole thing takes under five minutes, and the only real difficulty is keeping the yolks from setting into sweet scrambled eggs.
- The hinge: indirect heat"Place it on a hot stove" means direct heat and a cook who never stops whisking. Set the bowl or saucepan over barely simmering water instead, with the base clear of the water, and the yolks will thicken without curdling.
- Two gillsA gill is half a cup, so "two gills or so" is one cup of Madeira for four yolks. That is a loose, pourable sauce; use two-thirds of a cup if you want it thick enough to mound on a spoon.
- The sugarOne and a half ounces of powdered sugar is about 3½ tablespoons, or 42 g. Nineteenth-century "powdered" sugar means finely ground granulated, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold today; either dissolves fine here, but plain caster sugar is closer to the intent.
- When it is doneIgnore the clock and watch the sauce. It is ready when it has risen well in volume, holds a ribbon trail for a second or two, and reaches about 160F on an instant-read thermometer, which also settles the question of the yolks.
- Which MadeiraChoose a Bual or Malmsey. The dry Sercial styles will leave the sauce thin-tasting against the sugar.
- The strainingPassing it through a fine sieve catches any thread of set yolk. Do it while the sauce is hot; once it cools it deflates and will not push through cleanly.
- Yield and timingFour yolks make roughly two cups of foam, enough to sauce six servings of pudding. Sabayon collapses within minutes, so make it last and pour it over the pudding at the table.
Sabayon is the French spelling of the Italian zabaglione, a whisked foam of egg yolk, sugar and fortified wine generally traced to the courts of northern Italy and long made with Marsala. The Madeira version was already standard in professional French and American kitchens by this date. Madeira had long been a prestige wine on the American eastern seaboard, favoured because it travelled well and because colonial trade arrangements kept it plentiful, and it survived in American kitchens as a flavoring long after it faded as a dinner wine.