French Custards or Creams

Ingredients

• a quart of new milk
• the yolks of twelve fresh eggs
• six to eight ounces of sugar
• a grain or two of salt
• equal parts of milk and cream of ten only
• half a pod of vanilla

Method

1. 1

   Boil milk with sugar and salt.

2. 2

   Stir into beaten egg yolks.

3. 3

   Butter a dish, pour in custard, and simmer in a water bath for 1 to 1.5 hours until firm.

4. 4

   Serve cold with macaroons or ratafias.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 6 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Modern cookery, in all its branches (1884) by Eliza Acton, page 424. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

FRENCH CUSTARDS OR CREAMS. To a quart of new milk allow the yolks of twelve fresh eggs, but to equal parts of milk and cream of ten only. From six to eight ounces of sugar will sweeten the custard sufficiently for general taste, but more can be added at will ; boil this for a few minutes gently in the milk with a grain or two of salt, and stir the mixture briskly to the eggs, as soon as it is taken from the fire. Butter a round deep dish, pour in the custard, and place it in a pan of water at the point of boiling, taking care that it shall not reach to within an inch of the edge ; let it just simmer, and no more, from an hour to an hour and a half: when quite firm in the middle, it will be done. A very few live embers should be kept on the lid of the stewpan to prevent the steam falling from it into the custard. When none is at hand of a form to allow of this, it is better to use a charcoal fire, and to lay an oven-leaf, or tin, over the pan, and the embers in the centre. The small French furnace, shown in Chapter XXI I L, is exceedingly convenient for preparations of this kind ; and there is always more or less of difficulty in keeping a coal fire entirely free from smoke for any length of time. Serve the custard cold, with chopped macaroons, or ratafias, laid thickly round the edge so as to form a border an inch deep. A few petals of fresh orange- blossoms infused in the milk will give it a most agreeable flavour, very superior to that derived from the distilled water. Half a pod of vanilla

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.