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Orange Custard
Make the same as Simple Lemon Custard No. 1, substituting orange rind for lemon. ORANGES WITH CUSTARD (So-called Soufflé) Peel, halve, core, and slice six oranges, placing a layer in the bottom of a glass dish. Over this sprinkle sugar thickly, then repeat process until all the orange has been used, then let stand for two hours. Make a soft-boiled custard of the yolks of three eggs beaten into a pint of boiling milk and stirred gently until the mixture thickens, not, however, allowing it to boil after adding eggs. Sugar this to taste and let stand until partially cool, when it should be poured over the fruit. Beat the whites of eggs to a stiff froth with a half-cup of sugar and pinch of salt and pile daintily on top.
Two things in one entry: a lemon-custard variation made with orange rind, and a layered dessert of macerated oranges under a soft custard and a raw meringue. The second is the one worth making, and it stands or falls on the custard.
- The cross-referenceThe first line sends you to Simple Lemon Custard No. 1 with orange rind swapped in. Use only the coloured zest, removed with a rasp or peeler; orange pith is thick and bitter enough to spoil the custard.
- The hinge: never let it boilA pint of milk with three yolks is a thin stirred custard that sets at around 175-180F. Take it off the heat the moment it coats the spoon; a few seconds past that and you have sweet scrambled egg. Straining it into a cold bowl as soon as it thickens is cheap insurance.
- Boiling milk, tempered"A pint of boiling milk" means scalded, not at a rolling boil. Pour it into the beaten yolks in a thin stream while whisking, then return the lot to low heat or a bowl over simmering water.
- The raw meringueThe whites are beaten with sugar and piled on top without ever being cooked or browned, so they are raw egg. Use pasteurized whites, or brown the meringue briefly under a hot grill, keeping the dish cold underneath.
- Preparing the oranges"Core" here most likely means cutting out the tough central pith after halving. Start with less sugar between the layers than "sprinkle thickly" suggests and taste after the two-hour maceration. Removing the segment membranes entirely gives a much better texture.
- Why the two hours matterThe standing time draws juice from the oranges and dissolves the sugar into a syrup. Drain off most of that syrup before adding the custard, or the custard will thin and separate in the glass.
- Assembly and servingPour the custard on when it is barely warm, not hot, so it sits on the fruit rather than sinking into it. Chill before adding the meringue. Six oranges and a pint of custard should serve about six.
- The name"So-called Soufflé" is the author's own disclaimer: nothing here is baked or leavened. It is closer to a trifle than to a soufflé in construction, and it will not hold more than a few hours before the meringue begins to weep.
The construction -- sugared fruit under a soft boiled custard under a cap of beaten whites -- belongs to the same family as trifle, floating island and the œufs à la neige of French cookery, all of which get their appeal from one set of eggs doing two jobs, yolks for the custard and whites for the froth. The parenthetical "so-called Soufflé" is a small period tell: soufflé was fashionable enough that the word was sometimes borrowed for dishes with a puffed white top, and this writer evidently felt the borrowing needed noting.