Food 23 May 2005 12:47 am
The super-secret custard recipe?
The things you find when you’re cleaning out your old files. Today I found what I think is a special custard recipe.
One good thing about my ex-boyfriend Jay (and there were a few) was that he made a damn fine custard. When a van knocked me out of a crosswalk, he brought me a whole vat of the stuff. Best breakfast food ever. Goes well with Vicodin and cartoons.
Jay’s custard recipe was a closely-held secret, passed on from his friend Jon. (Custard-making: a manly art?) But one day when I was housesitting for him, I ran across a Post-It with a recipe on it. And since I have become one grumpy ex-girlfriend — life wasn’t all custard, friends — here it is.
5 egg yolks
4 whole eggs
1 1/2 cup sugarMix these ingredients.
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups half-and-half
3 tsp vanillaHeat just until boiling. Mix with the egg-sugar mixture.
Cook in water bath for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Test with fork.
I’m pretty sure there ought to be a pinch of salt in this, though. And if I’m going to take on that saturated fat, I figure, I might as well make the most of it and use a real vanilla bean. And of course you’d temper the mixture and do all the usual custard things.
on 23 May 2005 at 5:06 pm 1.TamIAm said …
What does it mean to temper the mixture? I might try this, though I think it might be beyond my cooking capacity so far.
on 23 May 2005 at 5:39 pm 2.Ted said …
Yes, for those of us who are not Wise in the Ways of Custard, could you elaborate on “the usual custard things”?
on 23 May 2005 at 6:41 pm 3.Cam Sculpin said …
Well, I’m kind of talking through my hat because I have never actually made custard! I have been strictly an observer. I hope to convince Josh that this custard is best made by men whose names start with J. It’s traditional!
That said, there’s a problem with custard: you want to avoid making scrambled eggs. Imagine what would happen if you added all the scalding-hot dairy to the eggs. The eggs would cook!
To get around this, you bring the eggs up to temperature more gradually by adding a little hot cream at a time and whisking well to incorporate. After the eggs are heated up, you can add them to the milk.
Some other “usual custard things”: after you whisk the eggs and cream together, you may want to strain the mixture, just to get out any annoying little bits of cooked egg and also to get the chalazae, which some people dislike.
If you find you have a problem with the custards overcooking, you’ll probably want to do as old-fashioned custardmakers did and put the custard cups on a rack in the waterbath. If you want to be historically accurate, there are actual custard racks in junk shops and antique stores. Ah, specialization. Or you can rest the custard cups on a folded-up dishtowel.
And Ming Tsai recommends letting the mixture sit overnight before baking, to develop vanilla flavor. (He adds ginger. Yum.)
on 24 Sep 2007 at 5:45 am 4.Kurt said …
A Cordon Bleu graduate told me that the secret to making good custard is to keep the eggs out over night and only mix them in when they are at room temperature.
And then I add a little Triple Sec to the mix, do the usual cooking, refrigerate it, pile on the sugar and scorch the hell out of it with my blow torch. That’s Creme Brule my style. The French don’t flavor up the custard.
Don’t whisk it. That creates bubbles. And strain it through a fine strainer as you pour the stuff into the remekins, Corningware or whatever. The mixture has chunks in it regardless of how good you are.
Temperature is critical. Use an oven thermometer or a laser one that instantly reads out the temp when you shoot it with the ruby light. They’re cheap now and a lot of fun.
Don’t watch the stuff cook. Just pray until the timer goes off.
on 21 Jun 2008 at 3:36 pm 5.Secret Author Recipes. | 7Wins.eu said …
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