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Custard Pudding, Boiled
INGREDIENTS for pudding sufficient for 6 persons.-1 pint of milk, 1 tablespoonful of flour, 4 eggs, flavouring to taste. AVERAGE COST, 7d.
Flavour the milk by infusing in it a little lemon-rind or cinnamon; whisk the eggs, stir the flour gradually to these, and pour bitter almonds, lemon, grated chocolate, or any flavouring ingredient that may be preferred. Line som round tartlet-pans with good puff-paste fill them with the custard, and bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes; then take them out of the pans; let them cool, and in the meantime whisk the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth; stir into this the pounded sugar, and spread smoothly over the tartlets a little of CUTLET, THE INVALID'S. this mixture. Put them in the oven again to set the icing, but be particular that they do not scorch; when the icing looks crisp, they are done. Arrange them, piled high in the centre, on a white napkin or paper.
TIME.-20 minutes to bake the tartlets; 5 minutes after being iced.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Note. The icing may be omitted on the top of the tartlets, and a spoonful of any kind of preserve put at the bottom of the custard instead: this varies both the flavour and appearance of this dish.
What survives here is a set of small custard tartlets in puff paste, finished with a meringue icing. The proportions given at the head (1 pint milk, 1 tablespoon flour, 4 eggs) are the working base for the filling.
- Moderate ovenRead "a moderate oven" as 350F/180C. The second firing, to set the icing, wants the same heat or slightly less; the warning against scorching is the real instruction, so watch from three minutes on.
- The pintBeeton's pint is the imperial 20 fl oz, about 2.5 US cups. With 4 eggs and a spoonful of flour that gives a soft, sliceable set rather than a firm one.
- Eggs, whole or separatedThe ingredient list calls for whisking whole eggs into the flour, but the icing then asks for the whites. In practice use the yolks plus one whole egg in the custard and reserve three whites for the meringue, or make the meringue from separate eggs.
- Infusing the milkBring the milk to a bare simmer with a strip of lemon rind or a piece of cinnamon stick, leave it off the heat for fifteen minutes, then strain before it meets the eggs. Pouring it in hot and fast will scramble them; temper it gradually.
- Bitter almondsWhere bitter almonds are named as a flavouring, use a commercial almond extract. Bitter almonds contain amygdalin, which releases cyanide; their sale for kitchen use is restricted in some countries, including the United States.
- Pounded sugarThat is caster or superfine sugar. Granulated will not dissolve into the whites in the time given and leaves the meringue weeping.
- The pastryPuff paste under a wet custard goes soft. Line the tins, chill them well, and give the cases five to eight minutes in the oven before filling if you want a crisp base.
- YieldThe filling quantity is stated as enough for six. The recipe gives no tin size or tartlet count, so the number will depend entirely on the pans used.
Baked custard in a pastry case is one of the oldest sweet forms in English cookery, descended from the medieval "custarde" or "crustade" u2014 a word that meant the crust as much as the filling. Beeton's household books were compiled for mistresses running a servant kitchen on a budget, which is why an average cost of 7d. sits beside the ingredients: the figure let a reader price a dish before ordering it. The finishing touch here, a meringue of the leftover whites crisped in the oven, is characteristic of Victorian thrift dressed as elegance, and the closing note — swap the icing for a spoonful of preserve — shows the same book's habit of getting two dishes out of one set of ingredients.