Sauce Sabayonne

[glennbech]

I recently attended a cullinary course where we made a sauce sabayonne, which basicly is a nix of sugar, egg yolks and sweet white wine (If I got it correct).

Different combinations with additional ingredients exists, and we used a "Grand Mariner" liquer to add taste.

The mixture are whisked in a bowl over steaming water, and gets foamy and airy.

The sauce was used as a "bed" for blueberry-porched pears cut into decorative fans. The dessert looks awsome, I'll bring pictures the next time;

Questions ;

1) Any other combinations for this recipe than Grand Mariner?

2) My instructor insisted on us whisking the darn sauce until it was back to room temperature. At home I skipped this part, and the sauce split into liquid and foam (!!) Darn intructors always being right! Is this common?

Best regards

[Shalmanese]

I recently attended a cullinary course where we made a sauce sabayonne, which basicly is a nix of sugar, egg yolks and sweet white wine (If I got it correct).

Different combinations with additional ingredients exists, and we used a "Grand Mariner" liquer to add taste.

The mixture are whisked in a bowl over steaming water, and gets foamy and airy.

The sauce was used as a "bed" for blueberry-porched pears cut into decorative fans. The dessert looks awsome, I'll bring pictures the next time;

Questions ;

1) Any other combinations for this recipe than Grand Mariner?

2) My instructor insisted on us whisking the darn sauce until it was back to room temperature. At home I skipped this part, and the sauce split into liquid and foam (!!) Darn intructors always being right! Is this common?

Best regards

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1) Sure, a Sabayon is just an aerated custard. As long as you get the egg-liquid ratio right, you can add in anything you want. The Cooks Book has a recipe for Zabligione which is Sabayon combined with whipped cream which contains pineapple concentrate and Moscato Dessert Wine which is fabulous.

2) The crucial parts to making a Sabayon is to heat the custard up so that it thickens and then to keep it aerated until it cools down enough to support the foam structure. I've found the easiest way to do this is to just use a handheld beater and dunk it in ice water. It can't take more than 5 minutes this way. Alternatively, if you have a removable bowl stand mixer, you can just make the custard right in the mixer bowl and then set it mixing while you go away and do something else.

[Timh]

In addition to the excellent points just mentioned, savory sabayons are great as lighter sauces. I use them within the Italian cannon of sauces for a different approach.

[glennbech]

In addition to the excellent points just mentioned, savory sabayons are great as lighter sauces. I use them within the Italian cannon of sauces for a different approach.

←

That sounds excellent. Can you examplify? I'd love to try a savory sabayon .-)

[Timh]

Sure, a Marsala sabayon(w/ veal), and to a base made w/ white wine you can add a salsa verde produced as a reduction, then there's caper/lemon, or even just a red wine. Again the key as mentioned before is the liquid to egg ratio. Good luck.

edited to add; adding the whipped cream also stabilizes the sabayon so it will hold for a time. I liken it to a mouseline minus the butter.

Edited November 30, 2006 by Timh (log)

[tino27]

I am also a big fan of the sabayon sauce as a topping, both savory and sweet. I tend to switch out the white wine for whatever compliments the dish I am serving ... Frangelico, Amaretto, Grand Mariner, etc. Some Amaretto and ginger juice in place of the wine is a fantastic pairing and served over a nice earthy dessert like spiced cake would be quite nice.

When I first started making sabayon, I did have a couple that split as they cooled. I learned that out of the saucepan, they go into a bowl over ice to cool them quickly. The other trick was to give the sauce a gentle but thorough stir every couple of minutes or so. I haven't had one split on me yet since then.

I'm also a fan of the added whipped cream to gild the lily even more. It has the most amazing mouth feel -- so light and airy, but full of flavor. In fact, I've served it like this in a ice cream glass with some fresh macerated berries at dinner parties before to rave reviews.

[glennbech]

thank you for the inspiration guys, I feel a cooking session coming up this weekend :-)

[Shalmanese]

For savoury sabayons, do people put them under the broiler or blowtorch them to brown up the top?

[glennbech]

For savoury sabayons, do people put them under the broiler or blowtorch them to brown up the top?

←

At a cullinary course I recently attended, we did that with a dessert with a "sabayonne like sauce". Fridge cold cloud berries were topped with the sauce and put into the oven for a quick browning.

My personal opinion is that the taste became "eggy", like having an sweet omelet on top of your berries .-) Hower, I might have done something wrong .-)

[glennbech]

If anyone's interested, I've posted my recipe at recipegullet;

http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r1882.html

[Timh]

IMHO I feel a sabayon is too delicate to gratinee as there is no sugar, burning the egg is the only "browning effect" , and the flavor is of just that.