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Boiled Custard (II)
Mrs. R. M. Pickering.
One quart milk, eight eggs, one-half pound of sugar ; beat to a good froth the eggs and sugar. Put the milk in a tin pail and set it in boiling water; pour in the eggs and sugar and stir it until it thickens.
A stirred custard of the old school: no flour, no cornstarch, nothing but eggs to set it. The whole recipe hinges on keeping the milk below a simmer, since eight eggs in a quart of milk will curdle the instant the mixture approaches a boil.
- Never let it boilPull the custard when it coats a spoon and reads 170-175F on an instant-read thermometer. Past about 180F the egg protein squeezes out water and the custard turns grainy; at that point straining will rescue the texture only partly.
- The tin pail is a double boilerA metal pail set in a pot of boiling water is exactly a bain-marie. Use a stainless bowl or the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water, and keep the bottom clear of the water so the custard heats gently and evenly.
- Half a pound of sugarThat is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar, a generous but not unusual sweetness for a period boiled custard, which was as often drunk from glasses as eaten as a dessert cream.
- Eight eggs is right for the periodEgg sizes were not standardised in the nineteenth century and are often said to have run smaller than a modern large egg. With today's large eggs you may prefer six or seven; eight will give a very thick custard, closer to a pouring cream than a drinking one.
- Temper the eggsThe recipe does not say how hot the milk is when the eggs go in, and pouring beaten eggs into already-hot milk works only if you do it slowly. Whisk a ladleful of the hot milk into the egg-and-sugar froth first, then return the whole to the pail, or the eggs may scramble on contact.
- Strain and flavorPour the finished custard through a fine sieve to catch any set threads of egg. The original gives no flavoring; a teaspoon of vanilla, a strip of lemon peel steeped in the milk, or grated nutmeg on top were all standard at the time.
- Yield and servingRoughly six cups. Serve cold in glasses or cups, or use it warm as a sauce over stewed fruit or plain cake. It thickens further as it chills; refrigerate promptly and use within two days.
Boiled custard occupies an odd place in American cookbooks: despite the name it is never boiled, and despite being a dessert it was as often drunk as spooned. In the South especially it was a holiday beverage, poured into glasses, sometimes spiked, and treated as the temperate cousin of eggnog; elsewhere it served as the sauce ladled over pudding, pie or fruit. Its presence twice over in a book like this one reflects how basic the formula was to a home kitchen. The reliance on a tin pail set in boiling water is a reminder that the double boiler was, for many households, improvised rather than bought, and the recipe's attribution to a named contributor suggests a community cookbook rather than one written by a single author.