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Floating Island
Make a custard of the yolks of six eggs, one quart milk, a small pinch of salt, sugar to taste; beat and strain yolks before adding to the milk; place custard in a large tin pan, and set in stove, stirring constantly until it boils, then remove, flavor with lemon or rose, and pour into a dish (a shallow, wide one is best), spread smoothly over the boiling hot custard the well-beaten whites, grating some loafsugar (some add grated cocoa-nut) on the top. Set the dish in a pan of ice-water and serve cold. Some prepare the whites by placing a table-spoon at a time on boiling water, lifting them out carefully, when cooked, with a skimmer and laying them gently on the float. This is the "old reliable recipe." -Mrs. W. W. W.
A stirred custard under a cap of beaten whites, from the era when the whites were often left essentially raw. The instructions are compressed; here is what they assume you already know.
- The hinge: do not let it boilA yolk-and-milk custard curdles somewhere around 180F, well below boiling. Despite the wording, cook it in a double boiler or a heavy pan over low heat, stirring, until it coats the back of a spoon, then pull it off. "Until it boils" is best read as loose period wording for the first thickening rather than a rolling boil.
- "Set in stove"This means on top of the range, not inside the oven; the recipe has you stirring constantly. The large tin pan is simply a wide vessel that heats quickly and lets you stir the whole surface.
- Raw whitesSpreading well-beaten whites over hot custard warms them slightly and no more. If that concerns you, use the recipe's own second method: drop the meringue a spoonful at a time onto barely simmering water, poach a minute or two per side, and lift them off with a skimmer. Pasteurized whites also whip adequately.
- Loaf sugarRefined sugar was sold as a hard cone and grated or nipped as needed. Grated loaf sugar is roughly today's superfine or caster sugar; a dusting is all that is wanted.
- Flavoring"Rose" means rosewater, half a teaspoon or so for a quart. Lemon means the zest or a few drops of extract, added off the heat -- boiling drives off the volatiles and lemon juice will curdle the milk.
- Sugar to tasteSix yolks to a quart of milk takes about half a cup of sugar for a dessert custard. Less makes it thin-tasting rather than lighter.
- CoolingThe recipe sets the dish in ice-water once the whites are on and tells you to serve it cold; the bath chills it for service and stops any residual cooking. Then refrigerate.
- YieldA quart of milk with six yolks serves six to eight in shallow bowls. Eat it the day it is made; the meringue weeps overnight.
Floating island -- oeufs à la neige or île flottante in French cookery -- crossed into English kitchens in the eighteenth century and was a fixture of American household books by the time The Dixie Cook Book appeared in the 1880s. It belongs to the family of dishes built on the simple economy of separating an egg: the yolks thicken a custard, the whites are whipped and float on top, so nothing is wasted. Early English versions were more elaborate, with sponge cake or jelly islands set adrift in a sea of cream, and the name survived even after the islands became plain meringue. The attribution to "Mrs. W. W. W." and the phrase "old reliable recipe" are characteristic of the community cookbook form, in which recipes were gathered from named local contributors and their authority came from the reputation of the cook rather than from any professional kitchen.