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M. a. T (Two teacups of sugar one)
Two teacups of sugar, one teacup of butter, ; stir to a cream; beat two eggs very light, and stir all together; add one teacup of wine; mix and set on top of tea kettle of boiling water. It must not be put on the stove, nor boil.
This is a wine sauce for a boiled or steamed pudding, thickened with egg over hot water rather than baked. The whole recipe hinges on the last line: heat it gently and never let it come to a boil, or the eggs will scramble and the sauce will break.
- The teacupA period teacup is not a modern measuring cup. It is usually reckoned at somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of a cup, though nineteenth-century usage varied; on a three-quarter reading that gives 1 1/2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup butter, 3/4 cup wine. The ratio matters more than the absolute amount.
- The kettle as double boiler"Set on top of tea kettle of boiling water" is an improvised bain-marie: the bowl sits in the steam, not the water, and the burner is under the kettle rather than the sauce. Use a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and keep the bowl clear of the surface.
- Whisk without stoppingWhisk continuously from the moment the bowl goes over the heat until the sauce coats a spoon; with this quantity expect several minutes. If you see the first sign of graininess, lift the bowl off.
- DonenessThe sauce is done at about 160-170F on an instant-read thermometer, which is also the point at which the egg is properly cooked. Above about 180F it curdles.
- The wineIn period dessert sauces "wine" commonly meant a fortified wine: sherry, Madeira or port. Dry table wine will read thin and sour against this much sugar.
- Butter and sugarCream softened butter with the sugar until light before the eggs go in, as directed.
- Yield and servingRoughly two to three cups, enough for eight to ten servings. Spoon it warm over plum pudding, cottage pudding, or any steamed batter pudding; it thickens further as it cools and does not reheat well over direct heat.
A wine sauce of this kind was a familiar partner to the boiled and steamed puddings of Victorian dinners: sugar, butter, egg and fortified wine, warmed just enough to thicken. The technique is close kin to sabayon and zabaglione, which use yolk, sugar and wine without butter, and the caution against putting it "on the stove" suggests a cook borrowing the steam from a kettle already on the boil for tea.