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Virginia Caramel Custard
To make a baked custard, separate the whites and yolks of five eggs, beat the yolks well with a quarter of a pound of sugar, add the well-beaten whites and mix well with a quart of milk. Flavor and then pour into a buttered mold. Set immediately into a pan of boiling hot water, in a moderately hot oven. About half an hour will be required to set it firmly. When nicely browned and puffed up, touch the middle with a knife blade; if it cuts as smooth as around the sides it is done; take care not to overdo. Let custard stand until perfectly cold, turn out gently on a plate and dust thickly with sugar, place in upper part of a hot oven; the sugar soon melts and browns. Another way is to butter the mold carefully, sprinkle sugar over bottom and set on stove to brown (great care is necessary to prevent sticking), pour in custard and bake; when turned out the caramel will be on top.
A thinner custard may be made with a less number of eggs, but it can not be carameled unless baked in individual cups. Less eggs may also be used by substituting a portion of corn starch, boiled rice, gelatine or something else to give firmness, but the quality of custard will be impaired. And if more than one or two additional eggs are used the custard is spoiled. Baking too rap. idly, or too long, injures custard, hence do not scald milk and eggs before setting in oven, as many recommend. By baking in boiling water the temperature is regular, and scorching prevented. 1
A plain baked custard with two routes to a caramel finish: sugar burnt on top after unmolding, or sugar caramelized in the mold before the custard goes in. The book's own warnings about slow, even baking are the most useful thing in it.
- The hinge: low heat, water bath, no shortcutsEgg proteins set around 170-175F and curdle not far above it. The water bath keeps the custard from rising much above the temperature of the surrounding water rather than the oven's, which fits the author's insistence on not hurrying the bake and on not scalding the milk first.
- "Moderately hot oven"Read this as 325-350F. Anything hotter and the outside will be grainy and weeping before the centre sets.
- QuantitiesA quarter pound of sugar is a generous half cup (about 115 g). A quart of milk is 4 cups. Five eggs to a quart is a soft, spoonable ratio; separately, the recipe insists that more than one or two additional eggs spoils it.
- TimingHalf an hour is optimistic for a single quart-sized mold; 50 to 70 minutes is more usual, and less than that only for individual cups. Judge by the knife test the recipe gives, or an instant-read thermometer at 170-175F in the centre.
- The browned, puffed topA custard that puffs has been baked hot enough to be near its limit. Take it out while the centre still trembles slightly; carryover heat finishes it.
- Caramelizing the top'Upper part of a hot oven' relies on the top of a range oven being the hottest place; the nearest modern equivalent is a broiler. Dust the cold, unmolded custard evenly with granulated sugar and run it close under a hot broiler for a minute or two, or use a kitchen torch, which is easier to control.
- Caramelizing the moldFor the second method, use a metal mold, not glass or ceramic, and melt the sugar directly over the burner before pouring in the custard. The recipe does not explain what the 'great care' to prevent sticking consists of; letting the caramel cool and harden before adding the custard, and warming the mold briefly in hot water before turning out, both help.
- FlavoringThe recipe says only 'Flavor', without specifying. Vanilla, lemon or nutmeg would all be period-appropriate; adding it to the milk rather than the beaten eggs helps it disperse.
- YieldA quart of custard serves six to eight, or fills eight 6-ounce cups.
Baked caramel custard is the English-speaking kitchen's version of a dish that runs through Spanish flan, French crème caramel and Latin American flan de leche: sweetened eggs and milk set gently in a water bath, with burnt sugar for contrast. Recipes of this type appear in American cookbooks throughout the nineteenth century, usually under "custards" rather than as a named dessert. What sets this version apart from most is how much of it is argument rather than instruction: the writer is pushing back against the widespread advice to scald the milk and eggs before baking, and explaining the water bath as a matter of temperature control. That kind of reasoning is found in the better late-century books, where household cookery writing explains why a method worked instead of simply prescribing it.