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Vanilla Custard Sauce, for Sweet Puddings
Beat an egg, and stir half a pint of milk into it. Add sugar to taste and six or seven drops of vanilla flavouring. The quantity should be regulated by the strength of the preparation. Put the mixture into a saucepan over a gentle fire, and stir one way till it begins to thicken, but it must not boil. Serve in a tureen with any kind of dry, boiled pudding. Time, about eight minutes to thicken the custard. Sufficient for five or six persons. Probable cost, 4d.
A thin pouring custard of the kind meant to be ladled over a steamed or boiled pudding, not a set custard. The whole thing hangs on keeping it below simmering point.
- The hinge: heat, not timeEgg and milk thicken at about 175-180F and scramble a few degrees above that. Ignore the eight minutes and watch the pan: pull it off the heat when the custard coats the back of a spoon and a drawn finger leaves a clear track. A heatproof bowl over barely simmering water gives you more margin than direct heat.
- Half a pintCassell's is a British book, so this is 10 fl oz imperial, about 1 1/4 US cups. One egg to that much milk makes a deliberately loose sauce; if you want it thicker, use two yolks rather than raising the heat.
- Vanilla flavouringVictorian vanilla essences varied widely in strength, which is why the recipe tells the cook to regulate the quantity. Six or seven drops of a modern extract is too little for this volume; start with 1/2 teaspoon. Alternatively, steep a split pod in the warm milk for ten minutes and remove it.
- "Stir one way"A common instruction of the era with no chemical basis. What matters is that you stir constantly and reach into the corners of the pan, where the egg sets first.
- InsuranceA pinch of cornflour whisked into the egg with the sugar raises the curdling point and is a common modern safeguard, though classic pouring custard uses none. If the sauce does catch, pour it straight through a fine sieve into a cold bowl and whisk hard.
- Sugar"To taste" here means roughly 2 to 3 teaspoons for this quantity, since the pudding it accompanies is already sweet.
- ServingThe recipe's tureen is a covered serving dish; in practice use a warmed sauce boat or jug. Serve within a few minutes; the sauce thickens as it cools and forms a skin, so cover it with cling film touching the surface if it must wait. Enough for five or six modest servings, as stated.
Pouring custard is the plainest member of a family the French codified as cr e;me anglaise — literally "English cream" — and the Victorian repertoire of boiled and steamed puddings was largely dry and demanded such a sauce. Vanilla was still a relative luxury in the later nineteenth century: pods came chiefly from Mexico and, by this period, from R e;union, and bottled essences of unpredictable strength were widely sold, which is why the recipe tells the cook to regulate the quantity by the strength of the preparation rather than trusting a fixed number of drops. The costing at 4d. is characteristic of the book, which gave a probable cost for most dishes.