Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Coffee Custard. — For six cups measure out four cupfuls of boiled milk; put it in a basin, with one cupful of very strong coffee; add five yolks of eggs and 1½ ozs. of pounded sugar ; mix well, and strain through a sieve or gravy-strainer. Fill the cups -with the mixture, skim off carefully all froth from the surface, put them into a flat stewpan, with boiling water to half the height of the cups ; put the stewpan, with live coals on its cover, on a very slow fire for fifteen minutes ; the water should only bubble slightly. When set, let the custards cool in the water. Vanilla and lemon custards may be made in the same way, using flavoring of vanilla or lemon instead of coffee. Custard Pudding. — Dissolve two even table-spoonfuls of corn-starch in half a teacupful of sweet milk ; boil two cups of milk, and just as it comes to a boil add the beaten yolks of four eggs, the dissolved corn- starch, with three and a half cupfuls of pulverized sugar ; ‘ flavor with the grated rind of two lemons, adding the juice also the last thing. Bake in puff paste on pieplates. When the pudding is nearly done, add a meringue on top. Floating Island. — One pint of sweet milk in a double boiler, the whites of four eggs, beaten stiff, added to the milk ; let them warm ; turn over with a spoon in pieces ; dip out and stir carefully into the milk the yolks of the eggs with four teaspoonfuls of sugar and any flavoring desired. Beat well together. Do not boil, but let it thicken. When cool, pour into a large, glass dish ; then put on the whites and sprinkle with white sugar. Frozen Custard. — One quart of rich milk, four eggs, one cupful of granulated sugar, and two teaspoonfuls of vanilla or bitter-almond extract. Beat the eggs and sugar to a cream and add the milk. Put all in a double boiler, and cook till the froth disappears from the top of the custard and it feels thick as you stir it. The eggs and sugar may be stirred into boiling-hot milk, which hastens the cooking, but it is more apt to curdle the custard than when cold milk is used. Set away to cool, then add flavoring, and freeze. Gooseberry Custard. — Boil a quart of gooseberries in half a pint of water. Add a piece of butter the size of a wal- Jelly Custard CUSTARDS Maraschino Flummery nut. Boil the gooseberries quickly, and, when soft, pulp them through a sieve. Add 34 lb. of sugar and the yolks of four eggs. Stir over the fire until thick, but the berries must not boil. Serve in a glass dish, or in custard-glasses. Time, boil till soft — about fifteen minutes. Jelly Custard. — Put a pint of new milk into a saucepan, sweeten and flavor according to taste, and when it is lukewarm pour it over the yolks of six well-beaten, fresh eggs. Stir it over the fire until it is thick, but it must not boil ; then add I oz. of dissolved gelatine. Soak half a dozen small moulds of different sizes in water, pour in the custard, and when firmly set turn out the moulds, arrange them prettily on a dish, and pour over them a syrup flavored with lemon peel and colored with two or three drops of cochineal. Time, half an hour to prepare.