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Orange Custard in Cups
Crack in a bowl two fresh eggs, add the yolks of two others, with three ounces sugar, six drops vanilla essence; thoroughly mix with a whisk for two minutes. Pour in one pint milk and three gills cream, adding the grated rind and juice of a juicy orange, and sharply whisk until well thickened. Press the preparation through a cheesecloth into six cups, place the cups in a pan and pour water in up to half the height of the cups. Set in a moderate oven for twenty-five minutes, remove and serve when cold.
A baked orange custard in the French petits pots style, written in the shorthand of a professional kitchen. Two lines need translating and one needs quiet correction.
- Gills and ouncesA gill is half a cup, so three gills of cream is 1 1/2 cups. Three ounces of sugar is a scant half cup, or about 6 tablespoons.
- "Sharply whisk until well thickened"Nothing thickens at this stage; the mixture stays pourable until it bakes. Read this as whisking briskly until the sugar dissolves and the eggs are fully dispersed, without beating in so much air that the surface bakes foamy.
- Oven heat"Moderate" in books of this period covers a range, roughly 325-375F, with no fixed standard. Custard sets more reliably at the lower end of that range; at 350F and above the outer edge can begin to curdle before the centre is done — watch it from about twenty minutes and pull the cups when the centres still wobble as a single mass.
- The orange juiceAcid plus milk plus heat is how you make curds. Add the juice and zest last, whisk it in quickly, and get the cups into the oven promptly rather than letting the mixture stand.
- StrainingThe cheesecloth catches the chalazae and the zest, which is the whole point of the smooth texture. A fine mesh sieve does the same work faster; press rather than let it drip so the orange oil in the zest carries through.
- The water bathBoiling water poured to half the height of the cups gives a gentler, more even set than cold. A folded towel or a sheet of parchment under the cups stops them rattling and insulates the bases.
- VanillaSix drops of essence is a very small quantity, on the order of 1/8 teaspoon of modern extract or less.
- Yield and servingSix custard cups of roughly 5 to 6 oz each, given the volume of liquid. Serve cold, as the recipe directs; the orange comes forward as they cool.
Baked custards in individual cups recall the French pots de crème, and this one keeps the professional proportions — whole eggs for structure, extra yolks for richness, cream cut with milk so the set stays delicate. The International Cook Book is generally credited to Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and the phrasing here is terse to the point of shorthand. Orange was one of the period's ways to lift a plain custard: citrus was available in eastern cities by the turn of the century, and grated rind was a common means of getting flavour from it.