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Custard, Lemon, Without Milk or Cream
Put three ounces of loaf sugar, the thin rind and strained juice of two lemons, and a pint of hot water into a basin. Let it stand for three-quarters of an hour, or until the flavour of the lemon-rind is extracted. Thoroughly beat the yolks of four eggs. Mix them with the water, etc., first straining it, and put it on the fire to thicken for ten minutes. It must not boil. Serve in custard-glasses. Probable cost, 8d. Sufficient for a pint of custard.
A lemon custard built on water rather than dairy, thickened by egg yolk alone. It is more fragile than a milk custard because the lemon juice is acidic, so temperature control is the whole job.
- The hinge: gentle heatAcid lowers the temperature at which egg proteins set, so a lemon custard curdles more readily than a milk one. Use a double boiler or a heavy pan over the lowest heat, stir constantly, and pull it off at 175-180F, when it coats the back of a spoon.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar sold in a hard cone and broken off as needed. Three ounces of ordinary granulated sugar, about 6 to 7 tablespoons, is a direct equivalent.
- Thin rind"Thin" is the instruction that matters: pare the zest with a peeler or knife, taking no white pith, which turns the infusion bitter over three-quarters of an hour.
- Straining, twiceStraining -- Strain the lemon water before adding the yolks to remove rind and pulp, as the recipe directs. Straining the finished custard into the glasses to catch any threads of set egg is a further precaution, not something the recipe asks for.
- Ten minutesTreat that as a rough guide rather than a rule. Over a water bath it may take fifteen minutes or more; over direct heat it can thicken in five. Judge by the spoon, not the clock.
- Adding the yolksThe water is hot, so temper it into the beaten yolks in a thin stream while whisking rather than tipping the yolks into the pan, or the outer edges will scramble on contact.
- Yield and servingOne pint, which fills four to six small custard glasses. It sets softer than a baked custard; the recipe does not say whether it was served warm or cold.
- Probable cost, 8dCassell's costed nearly every recipe in pence for household budgeting. The figure is of no practical use now beyond showing this was a cheap sweet, the point of leaving out cream.
Milkless custards appear in Victorian cookery books for reasons that were practical rather than dietary: cream was expensive, and milk in towns was of uncertain quality and soured fast in warm weather. Water-based lemon custards also had the advantage of tasting sharply of fruit, where milk mutes citrus. Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery, a vast alphabetical compendium aimed at the middle-class household, characteristically gives several versions of a dish side by side with costs attached, so a cook could pick according to the state of the larder and the housekeeping money. This one belongs to the same family as lemon curd, differing mainly in the absence of butter and the far greater proportion of liquid.