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Virginia Cherry Custard
With red morello, or black cherries. Butter the bottom of a four-quart milk-pan, place in it two quarts of pitted cherries and their juice and one pound of sugar and bake in a slow oven till the cherries will adhere to the pan and not mix with the custard. Make a plain egg custard of one quart of milk and 12 yolks and four ounces of sugar, pour on top of the cherries and bake. Serve cold with cream.
A two-stage bake: the cherries are first cooked down into a sweet, almost jammy layer that will hold its place, then a rich yolk custard goes on top. The whole point of the first bake is stated in the recipe itself, and it is worth reading twice.
- The hinge: bake the cherries dry enough"till the cherries will adhere to the pan and not mix with the custard" is the instruction that decides whether this works. The fruit layer must lose most of its free liquid and set into a thick compote, or the custard poured over it will thin out, weep and never set. The recipe gives no time; judge by consistency rather than clock.
- Oven temperatures"Slow oven" in books of this period is usually reckoned somewhere in the region of 275-325F. Use the same gentle heat for the custard stage: a baked custard goes grainy if it is pushed too hot, so err low.
- The milk-panA four-quart milk-pan was a wide, shallow tin or earthenware pan. A 9x13 inch baking dish or a wide 3-4 quart gratin dish gives a similar broad, shallow proportion; a deep dish will not let the fruit reduce.
- CherriesMorello are sour cherries, though the recipe offers black (sweet) cherries as an alternative at the same pound of sugar. With sweet cherries you may want less sugar and a little lemon juice. Frozen pitted sour cherries can be used, bearing in mind the extra liquid to be driven off in the first bake.
- The custardOne quart milk to twelve yolks and four ounces (about half a cup) of sugar is a very rich, deliberately eggless-white custard. Whisk the yolks and sugar, warm the milk, temper it in, and strain before pouring so no chalazae or bits of cooked yolk show up in the set surface.
- Water bathThe recipe says nothing about one, but in a modern oven, setting the dish in a larger roasting pan with an inch of hot water for the custard stage guards against the edges scrambling.
- Doneness and coolingThe custard is done when the outer two inches are set and the centre still moves as one piece when nudged. It firms as it cools. The recipe says only to serve it cold, so chill it thoroughly.
- YieldNo yield is given. A dish this size serves 10-12, spooned out in squares with cold pouring cream.
- The leftover whitesTwelve whites are a real by-product. They keep about a week refrigerated and freeze well.
Morello is a sour cooking cherry, ripening in early summer, and one that keeps and travels badly; sour cherries were commonly put up as preserves or brandied fruit. The technique of pre-baking fruit until it sets and then pouring a custard over it appears in various forms across English and American fruit-and-custard puddings.