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Tapioca Cream
1/4 cup pearl tapioca or 1 1/2 tablespoons minute tapioca 2 cups scalded milk 2 eggs 1/3 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla Pick over tapioca and soak one hour in cold water to cover, drain, add to milk, and cook in double boiler until tapioca is transparent. Add half the sugar to milk and remainder to egg yolks slightly beaten, and salt. Combine by pouring hot mixture slowly on egg mixture, return to double boiler, and cook until it thickens. Remove from range and add whites of eggs beaten stiff. Chill and flavor.
A standard boiled custard thickened with tapioca, from the era when pearl tapioca still needed soaking. The only real difficulty is the custard stage, which will curdle if pushed.
- Which tapiocaPearl tapioca is the large opaque bead that must be soaked an hour; "minute tapioca" was a pre-cooked, granulated product, and its modern counterpart is quick-cooking granulated tapioca, which needs no soaking. Small pearl tapioca is not the same thing and usually still wants soaking. Do not substitute tapioca flour or starch, which will not set the same way. "Pick over" means look for grit and stray husk, largely unnecessary with packaged product today.
- Scalded milkHeat the milk to about 180F, when a ring of small bubbles forms at the edge, and no further. Whole milk gives the intended body; skim milk yields a thin, watery cream.
- The hinge: temperingPouring the hot milk slowly onto the beaten yolks while stirring is what keeps the eggs from scrambling. Add perhaps a third of the hot milk in a thin stream first, then return everything to the double boiler.
- How thick is thickThe custard is done when it coats the back of a spoon and reads about 175-180F, roughly 5 to 10 minutes over simmering water. Water in the lower pan should steam, not boil hard against the upper pan.
- Folding the whitesBeat the whites to soft-stiff peaks and fold them in off the heat while the custard is still hot, so the custard's residual heat partly sets them. The result is the light, foamy top layer characteristic of the dish; the whites will not be fully cooked, so use pasteurized eggs if serving anyone vulnerable.
- Flavor lastThe instruction to "chill and flavor" puts the vanilla in after cooking rather than before. In practice stir it in as the custard cools, before it sets.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; two cups of milk plus the beaten whites will fill four small dishes. Chill at least two hours, covered, and eat within two days.