Original White House Cookbook

To make custards look and taste better, duck’s eggs should be used when obtainable ; they add very much to the flavor and richness, and so many are not required as of ordinary eggs, four duck’s eggs to the pint of milk making a delicious custard. When desired extremely rich and good, cream should be substituted for the milk, and double the quantity of eggs used to those mentioned, omitting the whites. When making boiled custard, set the dish containing the custard into another and larger dish, partly filled with boiling water, placed over the fire. Let the cream or milk come almost to a boil before adding the eggs or thickening, then stir it briskly one way every moment until smooth and well cooked ; it must not boil or it will curdle. To bake a custard, the fire should be moderate and the dish well buttered. Everything in baked custard depends upon the regularly heated slow oven. If made with nicety it is the most delicate of all sweets ; if cooked till it wheys it is hardly eatable. Frozen eggs can be made quite as good as fresh ones if used as soon as thawed soft. Drop them into boiling water, letting them remain until the water is cold. They will be soft all through and beat up equal to those that have not been touched with the frost. Eggs should always be thoroughly well beaten separately, the yolks first, then the sugar added, beat again, then add the beaten whites with the flavoring, then the cooled scalded milk. The lighter the eggs are beaten, the thicker and richer the custard. (326) Eggs should always be broken into a cup, the whites and yolks separated, and they should always be strained. Breaking the eggs thus, the bad ones may be easily rejected without spoiling the others and so cause no waste. A meringue, or frosting for the top, requires about a tablespoonful of fine sugar to the beaten white of one egg ; to be placed on the top after the custard or pudding is baked, smoothed over with a broad-bladed knife dipped in cold water, and replaced in the oven to brown slightly. SOFT CARAMEL CUSTARD. One quart of milk, half a cupful of sugar, six eggs, half a teaspoonful of salt. Put the milk on to boil, reserving a cupful. Beat the eggs and add the cold milk to them. Stir the sugar in a small frying pan until it becomes liquid and just begins to smoke. Stir it into the boiling milk; then add the beaten eggs and cold milk and stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken. Set away to cool. Serve in glasses. BAKED CUSTARD. Beat five fresh eggs, the whites and yolks separately, the yolks with half a cup of sugar, the whites to a stiff froth ; then stir them gradually into a quart of sweet rich milk previously boiled and cooled ; flavor with extract of lemon or vanilla and half a teaspoonful of salt. Rub butter over the bottom and sides of a baking-dish or tin basin ; pour in the custard, grate a little nutmeg over and bake in a quick oven. It is better to set the dish in a shallow pan of hot water reaching nearly to the top, the water to be kept boiling until the custard is baked ; three-quarters of an hour is generally enough. Run a teaspoon handle into the middle of it ; if it comes out clean it is baked sufficiently. CUP CUSTARD.