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Colonial Amercian Cooking: Recipes for Custards and Creams

© Pat Williams

This week will conclude Part II of easy-to-make Custards and introduce Creams. These authentic recipes are based on directions from Godey’s 1854 (February issue).

Common Baked Custard

• Mix a quart of new milk [suggest using whole milk or 2%] with eight well-beaten eggs
• Strain the mixtue through a fine sieve [this is not necessary if purchased milk is used]
• Sweeten it with from five to eight ounces of sugar, according to the taste
• Add a small pinch of salt [1/8 tsp], and pour the custard into a deep dish, with or without a lining or rim of paste
• Grate nutmeg or lemon rind over the top, and bake it in a very slow oven [325 degrees] from twenty to thirty minutes, or longer should it not be firm in the center

A custard, if well made, and properly baked, will be quite smooth when cut, without the honey-combed appearance which a hot oven gives; and there will be no whey in the dish.

Chocolate Custard

• Dissolve gently by the side of the fire an ounce and a half of the best chocolate in rather more than a wineglassful of wate
• Boil it until it is perfectly smooth [melt chocolate in top broiler]
• Mix with it a pint of milk well flavored with lemon-peel or vanilla, and two ounces of fine sugar, and when the whole boils, stir to it five well-beaten eggs that have been strained
• Put the custard into a jar or jug, set it into a pan of boiling water [top boiler], and stir it without ceasing until it is thick. Do not put it into glasses or a dish till nearly or quite cold [it can be immediately poured into custard cups or pudding glasses]

These, as well as all other custards, are infinitely finer when made with the yolks only of the eggs.

Rice Custard without Cream

Take one teaspoonful of rice flour [cornstarch can be used], a pint of new milk, the yolks of three eggs, sugar to your liking; mix the rice flour very smooth, and stir it, with the eggs, into the boiling milk. An excellent dish for children. 

A Finer Baked Custard

• Boil together gently, for five minutes, a pint and a half of new milk, a few grains of salt [1/8 tsp], the very thin rind of a lemon [or 1 tsp of lemon extract], and six ounces of loaf-sugar [granulated sugar]

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