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Boiled Custard
One quart of milk, yolks of five eggs and the whites of seven (two for the meringue), six tablespoonfuls of sugar; flavor with vanilla; heat the milk almost to boiling; beat the yolks very light, then stir in the sugar. Add the milk as follows: Remove the milk from the fire; add a spoonful or two of hot milk to the eggs at a time; beat hard; add more and more milk as you mix; stir in five whites whipped solid; return to the fire and stir constantly until thick, but not until it breaks. Pour into glass cups; whip the whites of two eggs to a meringue with a heaping tablespoonful of sugar. When the custard is cold, pile a little of this upon the top of each cup. You may lay a little bright jelly upon each cup or a preserved cherry. .
A stirred custard, not a baked one — the whole dish turns on stopping the cooking before the eggs set hard. Everything else is a matter of translating a few old habits.
- "Until thick, but not until it breaks"This is the hinge. The custard is done at 170–180°F, when it coats a spoon and holds a line drawn through it with a finger. Past about 185°F the egg proteins tighten and the mixture curdles; a double boiler and an instant-read thermometer make the margin much wider than a direct flame does.
- TemperingThe instruction to add the hot milk a spoonful at a time is not fussiness. Pouring it in at once cooks the yolks into threads. Keep whisking as you add, and once a third of the milk is in you can pour the rest in a steady stream.
- The whipped whitesFolding five beaten whites into a stirred custard is unusual today and gives a light, almost foamy result closer to a floating-island base than to crème anglaise. They must go in off the heat and be stirred in gently, or the foam collapses and you are back to a plain custard.
- The uncooked meringueThe two whites piled on top are never heated. Raw egg white carries a small salmonella risk, which matters most for children, pregnant women, the elderly and anyone immunocompromised. Pasteurized whites, sold in cartons, whip adequately and remove the question.
- SugarSix tablespoonfuls to a quart of milk is about 1/3 cup plus two teaspoons, restrained by modern dessert standards; the meringue adds a heaping tablespoonful more, and the jelly or preserved cherry on top adds further sweetness.
- "Bright jelly"Probably a clear red jelly such as currant, which would show against the white meringue. Any clear jelly does the same work; a jam with visible fruit will not sit as neatly.
- Straining and chillingPour the finished custard through a fine sieve into the glasses to catch any bits of set egg, then cool it uncovered before refrigerating. It must be properly cold before the meringue goes on, as the recipe says, or the foam weeps.
- YieldA quart of milk with seven eggs fills six to eight small custard glasses.
Boiled custard is a misnomer that survived into the twentieth century out of habit: the mixture must never boil, and cookbooks of this period repeat the warning often. It belongs to the family of stirred egg-and-milk creams long established in English cookery — what a professional kitchen would call cr\'e anglaise — and glass cups, a meringue cap and a preserved cherry turned a cheap mixture of milk and eggs into something fit to set before guests. The arithmetic of the recipe is worth noting: it calls for five yolks but the whites of seven, so two extra eggs must be broken and two yolks are left over. In the American South the same dish, thinned and served in a glass to drink, became a holiday fixture and is still made that way.