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Caramel Custard Meringue
2 quarts of milk, or part cream. 3/4 pound of sugar. 18 eggs. 2 teaspoonfuls of almond extract.
Four ounces of the sugar is to make the caramel, which must not be black like that used for coloring. Put the sugar in a little brass kettle and set it on the fire without water. It will melt and turn brown. When it looks like golden syrup pour in a quart of the milk and let boil till the caramel is dissolved. Separate enough of the eggs to get out ten or twelve whites for the meringue. Beat the others into the remaining quart of milk, add the sugar and flavor, mix in the caramel milk and bake till barely set in the middle. If not wanted meringued use fewer eggs. It is less necessary to meringued this than chocolate custard, which does not look well without. We have had charlottes and apple cakes hot and variously made, the next is of the sort of articles that are better than they look. It is rich enough to be eaten cold.
A large baked custard for a crowd, built on dry caramel rather than caramel sauce poured in a mould. The proportions are generous by modern standards and the whole thing scales down cleanly by half.
- The hinge: adding milk to hot caramelMolten sugar is well above the boiling point of milk, so the quart will erupt in steam when it hits the pan. Warm the milk first, add it in a thin stream with the pan pulled to the side of the heat, and stand back; then return it to a gentle boil to dissolve the hardened caramel.
- The caramel colourStop when it is the colour of golden syrup to light amber, as instructed. "Black like that used for coloring" means burnt-sugar colouring, which is bitter and will carry that bitterness through two quarts of custard.
- Brass kettleUse a heavy stainless or tin-lined pan instead. Dry sugar is not the problem, but unlined brass and raw copper can leach into hot liquids and there is no reason to risk it here. Brass kettles were commonly used for sugar work; the recipe itself gives no reason for the choice.
- Sugar splitThree-quarters of a pound is about 1 2/3 cups. Four ounces (roughly 1/2 cup plus a spoonful) goes to the caramel, leaving 8 oz, about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons, for the custard itself. The recipe allows no sugar for the meringue; that has to be added on top.
- EggsEggs of this period generally ran smaller than a modern large egg. Separating 10 to 12 whites for the meringue leaves 10 to 12 yolks, which go into the custard along with the 6 to 8 whole eggs remaining. The line "if not wanted meringued use fewer eggs" means what it says: with no meringue to make, fewer eggs are needed in total.
- Oven and water bathThe recipe gives no temperature. A moderate oven, around 325F, with the dish standing in a pan of hot water reaching halfway up, suits a custard of this size, though the water bath is a modern addition rather than anything the text asks for. "Barely set in the middle" means the centre still trembles when nudged; a custard this large and deep may take an hour and a quarter or more, and it goes on setting as it cools. Pushed further, it curdles and weeps.
- The meringueAllow about 1 oz sugar (2 tablespoons) per white, beaten to firm peaks, spread to the edges of the dish so it seals, and coloured 8 to 10 minutes at 325F or a few minutes under a hot broiler. Meringue on a still-warm custard beads less.
- YieldTwo quarts of milk with this many eggs fills a deep 9x13 dish or two 9-inch dishes and serves roughly 12 to 16. The text says it is rich enough to be eaten cold; if serving it cold, chill it several hours before cutting.
- The stray sentences at the endThe last two sentences are the compiler talking to his readers about the order of the book, not part of the method. Ignore them.
The American Pastry Cook belongs to the run of trade manuals written for men working hotel and bakery pastry departments, where quantities were quoted by the quart and eggs by the dozen and a recipe assumed a standing oven and a supply of separated whites for meringue and macaroons. Caramel custard here is the sugar-first, dry-caramel method: sugar melted alone until it browns, then let down with milk, which gives a deeper burnt-sugar note than the caramel-lined mould of a French cr",4me renvers",4e or a Spanish flan. Almond extract as the flavouring is very much of the period, when almond, rose and lemon are often said to have stood in for the vanilla that was still comparatively costly. The remark that this is one of the things "better than they look" is a working pastry cook's judgement: a browned custard is a dull colour, and meringue was, by tradition at least, the fix reached for when a dish tasted better than it presented, which is also why he notes that chocolate custard needs it more.