FermenteaWhere food goes to change
← Recipes

Crème anglaise

Loading ratings…

A thin, pourable custard sauce of egg yolks, sugar and hot milk or cream, cooked gently until it coats a spoon and no further.

Suggest a correction
Pale glossy crème anglaise pouring from a spoon into a white bowl

A sauce that stays liquid

Crème anglaise is custard without the set. The same egg-and-milk thickening that makes a baked custard firm is used here in a smaller amount, so the sauce stays pourable. Wikipedia describes custard as a family running from a thin pouring sauce, crème anglaise, to thick pastry cream, and notes that in French cookery custard technically means only the egg-thickened form.

Egg proteins coagulate as the sauce heats, and that coagulation is what thickens it. The sauce also thickens a little more as it cools, which is why the cook stops it slightly thinner than the final texture.

Sources for this section

The temperature window

Heat is the whole method. Valrhona puts the working range at 180 to 185 °F (82 to 84 °C), with constant stirring. Below the range the sauce has not thickened, and the account says it can still be fixed by checking the cooking temperature. Above 185 °F (84 °C) the lecithin in the yolks can clot and form lumps, so the cook must watch the thermometer and not the clock.

Wikipedia gives a general caution for custards: a temperature rise of 3 to 6 °C can overcook and curdle an egg custard, and excess heat causes syneresis, where the sauce weeps liquid. Stabilisers such as a little cornflour help to prevent curdling, according to the same source.

Sources for this section

Fixing a sauce that goes wrong

Valrhona's fixes are practical. Yolks mixed with sugar in advance are less heat-sensitive, and the account says not to blanch them. Lumps are whisked, strained or blended out. A sauce that is too thick but has not curdled is thinned with milk reheated to the same window. A sauce that has curdled is a different case, and the account's advice there is to add an extra yolk and start again.

Sources for this section

History

Custard is an old family of egg-thickened dishes. Crème anglaise is the thin, pourable end of that family. Wikipedia notes that the name 'custard' traces through French and Italian words for a tart crust, and that custards appear in The Forme of Cury under names such as Crustardes and Creme Boylede.

Ingredients

Scaling: source batch only

Egg yolksMix with the sugar in advance, ideally three to four hours ahead, according to Valrhona.
Amount not stated
Amount not stated in the sources
Sugar
Amount not stated
Amount not stated in the sources
Milk or creamHeated before it is added to the yolks; milk reheated to 180 to 185 °F (82 to 84 °C) is used to thin a sauce that is too thick.
Amount not stated
Amount not stated in the sources
Vanilla (optional)
Amount not stated
Optional flavouring; amount not stated

Method

  1. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together, ideally three to four hours before cooking.
  2. Heat the milk or cream and whisk it into the yolk mixture.
  3. Return the mixture to gentle heat and cook, stirring constantly, to 180 to 185 °F (82 to 84 °C).
  4. Test the sauce with the à la nappe method: draw a line across a spatula, and the sauce is ready when the line stays clear.
  5. Strain or blend to remove any lumps. Let it cool, when it thickens slightly.
  6. If the sauce is too thick but has not curdled, thin it with a little milk reheated to 180 to 185 °F (82 to 84 °C).

Conditions

Temperature82–84°C
Temperature controlMulti-stage

Places

France

Documented preparation · Country evidence

Wikipedia names crème anglaise as the thin pouring end of the custard range and notes that in French cookery custard means the egg-thickened version. The place is a naming association, not a documented origin.

See Franceon the mapLocation source 1 →

Related

More from France

  • Bagna cauda

    A warm dip of garlic, anchovy and olive oil, often enriched with butter, that Piedmont serves over a flame with raw and cooked vegetables and bread.

  • Bechamel sauce

    Bechamel is a white sauce of milk thickened with a butter and flour roux, one of the French mother sauces, and the base from which Mornay and other cheese and cream sauces are made.

  • Beurre blanc

    Beurre blanc is a warm emulsion of cold butter whisked into a reduction of white wine, vinegar or lemon juice and shallot, a sauce from the Loire Valley and its red-wine version, beurre rouge.

  • Demi-glace

    Demi-glace is a rich brown sauce of French cookery, classically made by reducing equal parts espagnole sauce and brown stock by half. It is used on its own or as a base for other sauces.

  • Espagnole sauce

    Espagnole is a brown mother sauce built on a dark roux, brown veal or beef stock and tomato, the base from which demi-glace and many brown sauces are made.

  • French mustard-forward mayonnaise

    An untested home mayonnaise development formula with more Dijon mustard and no added sugar. A current French-market Dijon mayonnaise informs its flavor direction; this is not that product’s formula.

  • Gooseberry sauce

    Gooseberry sauce is a soft, tart sauce of cooked green gooseberries, sharpened with wine or vinegar and lightly sweetened, traditionally served with mackerel.

  • Gribiche

    A cold French sauce of emulsified hard-boiled egg yolk and mustard, finished with chopped pickled cucumber, capers and herbs and julienned egg white.

Related in the family

  • Allioli (Catalan garlic emulsion)

    Traditional Catalan allioli is a dense emulsion of garlic, olive oil and salt made slowly in a mortar. This measured Barcelona-style version keeps egg-based garlic mayonnaise distinct.

  • Avocado-oil mayonnaise

    Avocado-oil mayonnaise is an ordinary egg-and-oil emulsion in which avocado oil supplies the oil phase. The oil changes flavour and colour, and it does not preserve the sauce.

  • Blue cheese dressing

    Blue cheese dressing is a creamy dressing built on crumbled blue cheese mashed into buttermilk, with sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar and seasoning, and kept cold for up to two weeks.

  • Bread sauce

    Bread sauce is a British sauce of milk infused with onion, clove and bay, thickened with stale breadcrumbs and finished with butter, served with roast chicken or turkey.

  • British-style tangy salad cream

    Starch-thickened salad-cream prototype with pasteurised yolk added after cooling; not a Heinz copy. Approximate yield 300 g.

  • Burger sauce

    Mayonnaise mixed with ketchup, drained pickle relish and yellow mustard makes a tangy, pickle-flecked sauce for burgers; these proportions are an untested starting point.

Middle Ages

  • Airag

    Airag is Mongolia’s fermented mare’s-milk drink, traditionally churned with saved starter in a reusable cowhide khokhuur.

  • Appam and hoppers

    Appam, or hoppers, are South Indian and Sri Lankan rice pancakes made from a fermented coconut-and-rice batter and cooked in a curved pan to a crisp lacy rim and a soft, spongy centre.

  • Auricularia tremellosa

    Auricularia tremellosa is a wood ear fungus of the genus that supplies most dried wood ear sold in China; its own food record is thin, and the culinary practice described here comes from the closely related wood ear species.

  • Ayran

    Ayran is Turkey’s cold, savoury yogurt drink: plain yogurt is loosened with water and lightly salted, then whisked smooth or aerated into a soft cap of foam.

  • Bakestone (Norway, Viking Age to Middle Ages)

    A thin stone griddle used over an open hearth. Norwegian archaeology documents the established tradition from the early Middle Ages; a Viking-period origin is only a cautious suggestion linked to Shetland.

  • Barley and oat porridge (Viking Age)

    Crushed or milled barley cooked in water until the starch softens and the mixture thickens, the plainest way a northern household turned stored grain into a meal, here with apple and hazelnut.

  • Black carrot

    Black carrot is the anthocyanin-pigmented Eastern carrot (Daucus carota var. atrorubens), the purple root that preceded orange types and still colours kanji and şalgam.

Community

No community contributions have been published for this entry yet.

Share what you made

Sign in to contribute. Published comments and photos are free to read.

Share a creation photoSuggest a correction

Sources