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Eggs and Milk
Beat six eggs with two ounces of loaf sugar and a pint of milk; put the whole into a pie-dish, which set for three-quarters of an hour in a bain-marie (see BAIN-MARIE). When done, sprinkle it with powdered sugar, pass a red-hot shovel or salamander over the top, and serve either hot or cold.
This is a plain baked custard under an old name, and everything depends on keeping the heat gentle. Six eggs to a pint of milk is a firm, sliceable set rather than a pourable one.
- The hinge: never let the water boilA bain-marie here means a pie-dish standing in a pan of hot water so the custard never exceeds about 180F. If the surrounding water simmers, the egg protein tightens and squeezes out liquid, and you get a weeping, pitted curd instead of a smooth set. Keep the water hot but still, topping it up with more hot water if it drops.
- Oven settingThe recipe specifies only a bain-marie, not an oven. In a modern oven, 325F for about 45 minutes in a water bath reaching halfway up the dish is a reasonable equivalent. It is done when the edge is set and the centre still wobbles as one mass; it firms as it cools.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone and had to be crushed before use. Ordinary granulated sugar is the direct substitute: 2 oz is a generous quarter-cup, which makes a lightly sweetened custard by current tastes.
- Which pintThis is a British book, so the pint is the imperial 20 fl oz. Using a US 16 fl oz pint gives a noticeably stiffer, more eggy custard; add 4 fl oz more milk if you want the original texture.
- Beat, then strain"Beat" here means combine, not aerate. Whisk just until the yolks and whites are uniform, then pour through a sieve into the dish to catch stringy albumen, and skim off any foam so the surface bakes smooth.
- Salamander or shovelA salamander was an iron disc on a handle heated in the fire and held above food to glaze it; the red-hot shovel was the improvised version. An overhead broiler set high, or a small kitchen blowtorch, does the same job on the sugared top. Work quickly so the heat colours the sugar without warming the custard through.
- YieldEnough for four to six as a dessert from a dish of about a quart capacity. Chilled, it keeps two days covered in the refrigerator, though the caramelised top will soften.
Custard of this kind, egg and milk sweetened and set by gentle heat, is one of the oldest continuously made English sweets, and by the time Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery was compiled in the 1870s it was so routine that it could be filed under the flatly descriptive heading "Eggs and Milk". The dish is really a lesson in what heat does to egg, which is why the instruction is to cook it in a bain-marie rather than directly over the fire. The finishing touch, sugar glazed with a red-hot iron, makes it a relative of what is now sold as cr u00e8me br u00fbl u00e9e; the tool was called a salamander after the creature that folklore held could live in flame. The alternative offered here, a red-hot coal shovel, is a reminder of how much of period cookery depended on improvising with whatever iron was already in the fire.