No. 3096

Cabinet Pudding with Sabayon

Pouding Cabinet au Sabayon

Prepare a Genoese cake mixture the same as for No. 3239; pour and spread it on a baking sheet, covered with buttered paper, in a layer half an inch thick, and bake it in a slow oven; when done, remove and invert it on a grate, lift off the paper and let get cold. Wash three-quarters of a pound of candied fruits in hot water, such as pears, apricots, plums, orange peel and cherries; cut them up into quarter-inch dice, and lay them in a vessel; mix with a few crushed macaroons, and pour a few spoonfuls of rum over the whole. Butter and sugar a plain cylindrical mold (Fig. 150), place in its bottom thin slices of the Genoese cake, overlapping each other, and scatter on top a part of the fruits and macaroons; on these lay more slices of cake, then more fruit, proceeding the same as before, and continue the operation until the mold is full. Break ten egg-yolks into a vessel, beat in four ounces of sugar, and add the grated peel of one lemon; mix with a whisk, and dilute this preparation with a quart of cream, then run the whole through a fine sieve. Pour it over the pudding, filling it well, and let it soak thoroughly for several minutes, then place it in a bain-marie and when the water has reached boiling point push it into a slack oven to cook for one hour. Unmold the pudding on a dish, cover it with Madeira Sabayon sauce, and serve more of it separately.

For the Sabayon, put half a pound of sugar and eight egg-yolks in a bain-marie, set it on the fire, and whip the preparation until it becomes frothy, then add half a pint of Madeira or other wine, and continue to whip until the sauce is very light and begins to thicken, then remove it at once from the bain-marie, and serve.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A layered sponge-and-custard pudding steamed in a water bath, finished with a warm wine foam. Two things decide the outcome: the custard must set gently, and the sabayon must never be allowed to scramble.

The hinge — gentle heat, twiceThe pudding is a baked custard and wants a slack oven, about 300-325F, with the bain-marie water already hot when it goes in. Pull it when the center reaches 170-175F and still trembles; carryover finishes it, and hard heat will curdle a quart of cream and ten yolks into something weeping and grainy.
Oven words"Slow" for the Genoese sheet is conventionally read as roughly 300-325F, though a half-inch sheet at that heat will take a while to color; many modern bakers would run it at 350F and watch it. "Slack" for the pudding is generally taken to mean the same low range or a little cooler.
The GenoeseNo. 3239 is Ranhofer's Genoese, a whole-egg sponge of the genoise type enriched with butter. Any firm, close-grained sponge sheet works; a soft chiffon or an American butter cake will dissolve into the custard.
MacaroonsThese are crisp almond macaroons of the amaretti type, not the soft coconut kind and not French macaron shells. They are there to absorb rum and hold texture.
Candied fruitThe hot-water wash removes the sticky exterior syrup so the pieces stay distinct and do not sweeten the custard further. Dry them well before dicing, or the surface moisture will thin the soak.
The moldA plain cylindrical mold means a charlotte or timbale type; judging by the quart of custard plus cake and fruit, something in the region of 2 quarts. Butter it, then dust with sugar rather than flour — the sugar gives a faint caramel skin that helps release.
Soaking and unmolding"Several minutes" is a minimum; give it fifteen so the cake is saturated to the center, and top up with custard as it sinks. Let the cooked pudding rest 10-15 minutes before turning out, or it will slump.
The sabayonHalf a pound of sugar to eight yolks and half a pint of Madeira is a large batch, enough to coat the pudding and fill a sauceboat. Whisk over water that is steaming, not boiling, and take it off at about 160-165F, when it holds a brief ribbon; it will not wait, so make it as the pudding comes out.
YieldA 2-quart mold serves 10 to 12 at the end of a long menu.

A Little History

Cabinet pudding is generally traced to England in the nineteenth century — a molded, custard-soaked cake pudding that also travelled under the names chancellor's pudding and diplomat pudding, the last of which survives in French kitchens as pouding diplomate, usually served cold. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894, keeps a whole run of these puddings, numbered in sequence, each differentiated by its garnish or sauce: à la Royale, with sabayon, and so on down the page. The sabayon itself is the French spelling of the Italian zabaglione, traditionally beaten with Marsala; here the recipe simply calls for Madeira or other wine.