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.

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.)