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Boiled Custard
1/2 teaspoon vanilla 2 tablespoons sugar 2 eggs or yolks of 3 eggs Put the milk on to heat in a double boiler. Beat the eggs thoroughly with the sugar; into them pour the hot milk, stirring to prevent lumps. Return all to the double boiler and cook until the custard coats the spoon, but no longer. If the mixture should curdle, set the boiler in a pan of cold water and beat with a wire egg-beater until smooth. When the steam passes off add the vanilla or other flavoring.
In the winter, when eggs are expensive, the custard may be made with one egg and one heaping teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in a little cold milk.
If desired, the whites of the eggs may be beaten separately and added to the custard after it is cold or beaten with sugar into a meringue. 3/4 cup rice RICE MERINGUE No. 1 1/4 pound butter 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1 quart milk Yolks of 4 eggs Little grated lemon rind Whites of 4 eggs 4 tablespoons granulated sugar Juice of 1 lemon Boil the rice in water; while hot add the butter; when cool add the sugar, milk, beaten yolks and lemon. Pour into a buttered pudding dish and cover with a meringue made of the whites of eggs and granulated sugar, flavored with lemon juice. Brown in a hot oven.
RICE MERINGUE No. 2 2 tablespoons rice 1 quart milk Yolks of 2 eggs 4 tablespoons sugar Pinch of salt Lemon or vanilla flavoring Whites of 2 eggs 2 tablespoons sugar Cook the rice in a little water; drain and add the yolks, sugar, salt and flavoring. Cover with meringue and brown in the oven.
A plain stirred custard — the base for floating island, trifle, and ice cream — thickened by egg alone. The ingredient list as printed omits the quantity of milk; two eggs or three yolks with two tablespoons of sugar is the standard proportion for one pint (2 cups), which is what the method assumes.
- The hinge"Cook until the custard coats the spoon, but no longer" is the whole recipe. That point is roughly 175-180F on a thermometer; past 185F the egg protein sets into curds and no amount of beating fully restores the texture.
- Double boilerKeep the water at a bare simmer and do not let the bowl touch it. A heavy saucepan over low heat works if you stir constantly and pull it off the moment it thickens, but the double boiler is the forgiving route.
- TemperingPouring the hot milk into the beaten eggs, rather than the reverse, is what keeps it smooth. Add the first cup slowly while whisking, then the rest can go in faster.
- Rescuing a curdled custardThe cold-water bath and wire beater do work on a lightly broken custard. A blender or immersion blender is more effective still; strain through a fine sieve afterward either way.
- The cornstarch versionOne egg plus a heaping teaspoon of cornstarch slaked in cold milk gives a sturdier, slightly opaque custard that tolerates more heat. Starch versions generally want more heat than the all-egg custard before the starch thickens fully and loses its raw taste, though the recipe as written still directs cooking only until it coats the spoon.
- Flavoring after the heatAdding vanilla once the steam has passed off is deliberate — alcohol-based extract loses much of its aroma in hot liquid. The same applies to almond extract or liqueurs.
- Yield and keepingA pint of milk gives about four small servings. Cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin, chill thoroughly, and use within three days.
Boiled custard is an old staple of the English-American sweet repertoire and, despite the name, should never boil -- the phrase is generally understood to distinguish it from a baked custard set in the oven rather than to describe the temperature. A foundation recipe of this sort supported floating island, trifle, tipsy cake, boiled custard sauce for steamed puddings, and the cooked base for hand-churned ice cream. The note about substituting cornstarch when eggs are dear reflects a genuine seasonality now largely invisible -- hens laid poorly in short winter daylight before electric lighting in poultry houses, and egg prices rose accordingly from late autumn through early spring.