No. 3155

Cream with Lemon Peel in Pots

Pots de Creme aux Zestes de Citron

Fill eight small cream pots, half with cream and half with raw milk. Beat up in a bowl eight whole eggs and six more yolks, add five ounces of powdered sugar, a bit of grated lemon peel and a grain of salt; dilute slowly with the cream and milk; strain the liquid twice through a sieve and with it fill a dozen cream pots; place them in a flat saucepan with hot water reaching to half their height, and heat the water until it reaches boiling point. Then immediately remove the saucepan to a very slow fire so that the water only simmers twenty-five to thirty minutes while covered. Leave them in this until the cream becomes nearly cold, having withdrawn it from the fire. Wipe off the pots and dress them on a dish.

← No. 3154 Cream with Cherries Cold Entremets — Creams, Jellies & Charlottes No. 3156 Crown a la Camper →

For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward baked custard, but the original measures its liquid by the serving pots and then contradicts itself on how many there are. A few notes make it reliable.

Measuring by the potThe volume is defined by the vessels: fill eight pots half with cream and half with milk, then pour that into the mixing bowl. Standard pots de creme hold roughly 3 to 4 fl oz, so eight of them come to somewhere between 3 and 4 cups of liquid, half cream and half whole milk.
Eight pots or twelveRanhofer measures liquid into eight pots and then tells you to fill a dozen. The eggs and sugar add considerable bulk, which may account for some or all of the difference; fill whatever pots you have to within a quarter inch of the rim.
Powdered sugarIn 1894 this means fine granulated sugar, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold under that name today. Five ounces is about 3/4 cup by weight of granulated.
Raw milkSimply fresh whole milk as opposed to scalded, condensed or evaporated. Use ordinary pasteurized whole milk; the custard is cooked through regardless.
The hinge: never let the water boilBring the water bath just to the boil to bring the pots up to temperature, then move it to the lowest possible heat so the water only shivers. Custard sets around 170-175F, and water at a rolling boil will curdle the edges into grainy scrambled egg before the centres set.
Oven alternativeThe same result comes from a roasting pan of hot water in a 325F oven, covered with foil, for 30 to 40 minutes. Judge by the wobble: a small area at the centre should still shift when the pot is nudged.
Straining twiceNot fussiness. It removes chalazae and any thread of set egg, and it keeps the grated zest from settling as visible specks. Zest the lemon directly into the sugar first and rub it in with your fingers to draw out the oil before adding the eggs.
CoolingLeaving the pots in the cooling water bath carries the residual heat gently and prevents cracking. Once at room temperature, refrigerate at least three hours; these are cold entremets and are served chilled, no sauce.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer spent more than thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially the working repertoire of that kitchen set down in a thousand pages. Pots de creme take their name from the vessels rather than the custard: small lidded porcelain cups, made in France from the eighteenth century onward and usually sold in sets on their own tray, designed so a delicate egg custard could be cooked and served in the same piece without ever being turned out. The technique is the same one behind creme brulee and the older English pot custards, and the distinction Ranhofer's book maintains between these pots, cooked gently in a water bath, and stirred creme anglaise is the whole difference between a custard set by eggs alone and one thickened over direct heat. That he specifies half cream and half milk, rather than the all-cream mixtures of later French practice, gives a lighter set appropriate to a dish arriving after a very long menu.