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Egg Custard for Decorating
Separate yolks from whites of two eggs. Beat yolks slightly, add two tablespoons milk and few grains salt. Strain into a buttered cup, put a a saucepan, surround with boiling water to one-half depth of cup, cover, put on back of range, and steam until custard is firm. whites slightly, add few grains salt, and cook as yolks. Cool, turn from cups, cut in thin slices, then in desired shapes.
This is a garnish, not a dessert: two firm, unsweetened baked-steamed custards, one yellow and one white, cut into rounds, diamonds or crescents to float on clear soup or set into aspic. The printed text has a typesetting slip or two — read "put in a saucepan" and "Beat whites slightly" — but the method is complete.
- The hinge: gentle heatThe recipe says to surround the cup with boiling water, but the pan then goes to the back of the range, where the water falls below a simmer. Kept at a hard boil the custard is likely to pass the setting point and turn grainy, and grainy custard will not slice cleanly.
- "Back of the range"On a coal range that was the coolest zone, well below boiling. On a modern hob, use the lowest burner setting, lid on, and check that the water is barely trembling. A low oven with the cups in a water bath will also work.
- TimingNo time is given because ranges varied. Expect about 15-20 minutes for the yolk custard in a small cup and slightly less for the whites. It is done when the center no longer wobbles as a mass and a knife tip comes out clean.
- Strain both mixturesThe instruction to strain applies to the whites as much as the yolks. Unstrained whites keep their ropy chalazae and the slices tear at the edges instead of cutting sharp.
- Cups and depthUse small ramekins or custard cups, buttered, and keep the layer shallow — half an inch or so. A deep custard cooks unevenly and the slices come out thicker than a soup garnish wants.
- Cool completely before cuttingWarm custard tears. Chill the turned-out blocks at least an hour, then slice thin with a wet knife and stamp shapes with the small end of a piping tip or a truffle cutter.
- Seasoning"Few grains salt" means a pinch, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. Season lightly; the soup it garnishes carries the flavor.
This is the Anglo-American form of what French kitchens call a royale — a savory custard steamed firm, cooled, and cut into shapes to float in clear soup. Its whole reason for existing is the nineteenth-century clear consommé: a plate of transparent broth was a display of a cook's skill, and the garnish was there to be seen: yellow diamonds from the yolks, white crescents from the whites, sometimes with green from spinach-tinted custard alongside. Such preparations are often described as a component technique a cook learned once and then deployed wherever a dish needed dressing, including molded aspics and salads. The economy of it is characteristic of the period as well: two eggs, split and used separately, produce two colors at no extra cost.