No. 3531

Sabayon a la Canetti

Break twelve raw egg-yolks in a deep saucepan with five ounces of sugar; whip the yolks and sugar together with a wooden beater or small wire whisk, rotating either one or the other between both hands; add slowly four gills of good white wine, then a stick of vanilla, the peel of half a lemon and a little cinnamon. Place the saucepan either on a very slow fire or in a bain-marie until the preparation becomes quite frothy and firm; remove it from the fire, lay it on ice and continue the beating process. When very cold suppress the peel and vanilla and stir in one quart of whipped cream (No. 50) and half a gill of kirsch. Serve this preparation in high glasses, paper cases, or else silver souffle casseroles.

← No. 3530 Young America Sherbet Ices & Ice Creams No. 3532 Sabayon a la Denari →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold sabayon lightened with whipped cream — closer to a frozen-style dessert in a glass than to the warm zabaglione served over fruit. The critical stretch is the cooking of the yolks, which is where the whole thing is won or lost.

The hinge: heat controlOver a bain-marie, whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and holds a ribbon, around 160-170F. Above about 180F the yolks curdle and no amount of beating will bring them back; if the base looks grainy at the edges, lift the bowl off the water immediately.
Gills and ouncesA gill is half a cup, so four gills of white wine is 2 cups and half a gill of kirsch is 1/4 cup. Five ounces of sugar is by weight, roughly 3/4 cup granulated.
A stick of vanillaThat is a whole vanilla bean, split. Extract is not a substitute here — it is being infused into a wine syrup and then removed, so use the bean or omit the vanilla.
"Suppress"Ranhofer's translated shorthand for remove or discard. Fish out the lemon peel and the vanilla stick before the cream goes in; the recipe says nothing about retrieving the cinnamon.
Chilling before the creamThe base must be genuinely cold — set the pan in an ice bath and keep beating as it cools. Folding whipped cream into a warm sabayon deflates both, and the mixture will separate into a wine puddle under a foam.
The wineThe recipe asks only for "good white wine," i.e. a still white rather than a fortified one; a Marsala or sweet Muscat would push it towards cloying alongside the five ounces of sugar.
Beating equipmentThe rotated wooden beater and hand whisk can be replaced with a hand mixer, but keep the speed moderate over heat so you can feel the mixture thicken rather than merely aerate.
Yield and vesselsTwelve yolks plus a quart of whipped cream makes a great deal — figure 12 to 16 servings in tall glasses. A "silver souffle casserole" is a serving dish, not something that goes into the oven; the dessert is served cold and never baked.

A Little History

Sabayon is the French spelling of the Italian zabaglione, a whipped custard of egg yolks, sugar and fortified wine generally traced to Piedmont and traditionally made with Marsala. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, gives several versions in The Epicurean (1894) and files them among the ices and ice creams rather than the hot puddings, which tells you how his kitchen used them: chilled, folded with whipped cream, and sent out in stemmed glasses or paper cases. Names like "a la Canetti" and "a la Denari" read as dedications, but who was intended is not recorded here.