Tuscan Honeymoon Soup

I usually won't post a recipe unless someone requests it specifically, but I thought this one was unusual & interesting, and I couldn't find anything else like it on Zaar. It comes from "Flavors of Tuscany" by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. It is described in the book this way: "Traditionally this soup, with its odd mix of medieval spices, was an ancient restorative, intended to pick up the flagging spirits of the bride & groom the morning after their wedding."

• Ready In: 25 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 6  cups  chicken stock
• 1⁄2 cup  dry  vin santo or 1⁄2 cup  dry amontillado sherry wine
• 1  tablespoon honey
• 4  large  egg yolks
• 1  pinch ground cinnamon
• 1  pinch nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
• 4  tablespoons butter
• 1  pinch nutmeg (to garnish) (optional)
• 1  pinch sugar (to garnish) (optional)

Directions

1. Beat together the chicken stock, sherry, honey and egg yolks in a large bowl.
2. Strain through a fine sieve into a soup pot.
3. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg and set the pot over very low heat.
4. Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, add the butter a tablespoon at a time.
5. Keep stirring as the butter melts and dissolves into the soup, just as it would with a hollandaise sauce.
6. Continue stirring until the soup thickens.
7. DO NOT let it come to a boil or it will curdle.
8. When the soup is thick, pour into warm soup bowls and serve immediately, sprinkling the tops if you wish with a scrape of nutmeg and a few grains of sugar.
9. Cook time is an estimate as the recipe does not give it.