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Apple Custard
Take four pounds of finely-flavoured apples, and stew them gently, till tender, with a pint and a half of water, one pound of sugar, and a little cinnamon. Strain the liquid, and stir into it, very gradually, eight well-beaten eggs. Put the mixture into a saucepan, and stir it until it thickens, which will be in about ten minutes. Pour into custard-glasses, and cover with sifted sugar. Probable cost, 1s. 6d. Sufficient for nine or ten glasses.
This is a stirred custard set with whole eggs in sweetened apple liquid rather than milk, so it behaves like a lemon curd or a zabaglione: gentle heat, constant motion, and a firm stop before it boils.
- The hinge: never let it boilEight eggs in the strained apple liquid will thicken somewhere around 175-180F. Above that the proteins seize and you get sweet scrambled egg suspended in apple juice, which no amount of whisking will bring back. A heatproof bowl over barely simmering water gives more control than the bare saucepan the original calls for, at the cost of a few extra minutes.
- Temper the eggs properly"Stir into it, very gradually" assumes the strained apple liquid has cooled somewhat. Pour a ladleful of the warm liquid into the beaten eggs while whisking, then return the lot to the pan; adding hot syrup straight to the eggs can curdle them.
- Quantities and yieldFour pounds of apples, 1.5 imperial pints (about 3 1/2 cups) water and a pound (about 2 cups) of sugar. The book's own note of nine or ten custard-glasses is plausible for small stemmed glasses of 4-5 fl oz; count on about six modern ramekins.
- SugarA pound of sugar to a pint and a half of water is a Victorian sweetness level. Two-thirds of that still sets and still tastes of apple, since it is the eggs and not the sugar doing the work.
- "Finely-flavoured apples"Means an aromatic cooking variety, not a bland dessert apple. Bramley, Gravenstein or Northern Spy give a liquid with enough acidity and perfume to survive being diluted and sweetened. No need to peel or core: everything is strained out.
- CinnamonUse a stick or two rather than ground, which will cloud the liquid and cannot be strained away. Fish it out before adding the eggs.
- Strain twiceOnce to separate the apple liquid from the pulp, and again through a fine sieve after the custard thickens, to catch any threads of set egg. The pulp left behind is apple sauce and worth keeping.
- Finishing"Sifted sugar" is caster or icing sugar dusted over the top. Chill the glasses for at least two hours; the custard is thin and slack when warm and firms noticeably as it cools.
The costing of 1s. 6d. is characteristic of Cassell's, which priced almost every recipe so that a household manager could compare dishes at a glance.