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Apple Custard
One pint of mashed stewed apples, one pint sweet milk, four eggs, one cup sugar and a little nutmeg; bake slowly. -Mrs. G. W. Hensel, Quarryville Pa.
A plain baked custard with stewed apple standing in for part of the dairy. The proportions are sound; what the original leaves out is the temperature, the water bath and any hint of doneness.
- "Bake slowly"A slow oven, roughly 300-325F. A custard baked much above 350F tends to curdle at the edges before the centre firms.
- Use a water bathSet the dish in a roasting pan and pour in boiling water to come halfway up the sides. It does much to decide whether the custard is silky or grainy; some period cookbooks specify it, others leave it unsaid.
- The apples"Stewed apples" here most likely means unsweetened apple cooked down with a little water and mashed, not spiced apple sauce, since the sugar is listed separately. Roughly 1 1/2 lb of tart apples should yield the pint called for. Drain off any free liquid or the custard will weep.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh unsoured milk, as distinct from the buttermilk or clabbered milk also kept in a nineteenth-century kitchen. Whole milk is the right substitution; half milk and half cream gives a richer set.
- SugarOne cup is generous by modern taste against a pint of apple. Two-thirds of a cup is closer to current practice, especially if the apples are sweet varieties.
- DonenessRoughly 45-60 minutes in a single large dish, 25-35 in individual cups. The custard is done when a knife slid in an inch from the edge comes out clean and the centre still trembles; it firms as it cools.
- NutmegGrating it over the surface just before baking rather than stirring it in gives a browned, fragrant top.
- YieldAbout six servings. Serve cool or lightly chilled; a baked custard eaten hot tastes flat.
Apple custard belongs to a long line of thrift dishes that stretch a few eggs and a pint of milk with whatever fruit the cellar held. Barrel apples kept well into spring, and stewing down the bruised ones was routine kitchen work; folding the pulp into a custard turned it into something fit for company. The Dixie Cook-Book carries credit lines suggesting it drew at least in part on reader contributions, and the credit here to Mrs. G. W. Hensel of Quarryville, Pennsylvania, is a reminder that the book's regional title covered a national correspondence. The instruction to "bake slowly" reflects a wood or coal range, where the cook judged heat by hand and put custards in as the fire fell rather than at a set temperature.