Tie together six or eight peach leaves, and boil them in a quart of
milk with a large stick of cinnamon broken up. If you cannot procure
peach leaves, substitute a handful of peach-kernels or bitter almonds,
or a vanilla bean split in pieces. When it has boiled hard, strain the
milk and set it away to cool. Beat very light eight eggs, and stir them
by degrees into the milk when it is quite cold, (if warm, the eggs will
curdle it, and cause whey at the bottom,) and add gradually a quarter
of a pound of sugar. Fill your cups with it; set them in a Dutch oven,
and pour round them boiling water sufficient to reach nearly to the
tops of the cups. Put hot coals under the oven and on the lid, (which
must be previously heated by standing it up before a hot fire,) and
bake the custards about fifteen minutes. Send them to table cold, with
nutmeg grated over each. Or you may bake the whole in one large dish.
SOFT CUSTARDS--Are made in the above manner, except that to a quart of
milk you must have twelve yolks of eggs, and no whites. You may devote
to this purpose the yolks that are left when you have used the whites
for cocoa-nut or almond puddings, or for lady cake or maccaroons.
BOILED CUSTARDS.--Beat eight eggs very light, omitting the whites of
four. Mix them gradually with a quart of cold milk and a quarter of a
pound of sugar. Put the mixture into a saucepan with a bunch of peach
leaves, or a handful of broken up peach-kernels or bitter almonds; the
yellow peel of a lemon, and a handful of broken cinnamon; or you may
boil in it a vanilla bean. Set it on hot coals, and simmer it slowly,
stirring it all the time. As soon as it comes to a boil, take it
immediately off the fire, or it will curdle and be lumpy. Then strain
it: add a table-spoonful of rose-water, and put it into glass cups. You
may lay in the bottom of each cup a maccaroon soaked in wine. Grate
nutmeg over the top, and send it to table cold. Eat it with tarts or
sweetmeats.
RICE CUSTARD.--Boil some rice in milk till it is quite dry; then put it
into small tea-cups, (pressing it down hard,) and when it is cold and
has taken the shape of the cups, turn it out into a deep dish, and pour
a boiled custard round it. Lay on the top of each lump of rice a piece
of preserved quince or peach, or a piece of fruit jelly. In boiling
the rice, you may mix with it raisins or currants; if so, omit the
sweetmeats on the top. Ground rice is best.
Another way of boiling custard is to put the mixture into a pitcher,
set it in a vessel of boiling water, place it on hot coals or in a
stove, and let it boil slowly, stirring it all the time.
SNOWBALL CUSTARD.--Make a boiled custard as in the preceding receipts;
and when it is done and quite cold, put it into a deep glass dish. Beat
to a stiff froth the four whites of eggs that have been omitted in the
custard, adding eight or ten drops of oil of lemon. Drop the froth
in balls on the top of the dish of custard, heaping and forming them
with a spoon into a regular size and shape. Do not let them touch each
other. You may lay a fresh rose leaf on the top of every one.
APPLE CUSTARD.--Pare, core, and quarter a dozen large juicy pippins.
Strew among them the yellow peel of a large lemon grated very fine; and
stew them till tender, in a very small portion of water. When done,
mash them smooth with the back of a spoon; (you must have a pint and a
half of the stewed apple;) mix a quarter of a pound of sugar with them,
and set them away till cold. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them
gradually into a quart of rich milk, alternately with the stewed apple.
Put the mixture into cups, or into a deep dish, and bake it about
twenty minutes. Send it to table cold, with nutmeg grated over the top.
LEMON CUSTARD.--Take four large ripe lemons, and roll them under your
hand on the table to increase the juice. Then squeeze them into a
bowl, and mix with the juice a very small tea-cup full of cold water.
Use none of the peel. Add gradually sufficient sugar to make it _very
sweet_. Beat twelve eggs till quite light, and then stir the lemon
juice gradually into them, beating very hard at the last. Put the
mixture into cups, and bake it ten minutes. When done, grate nutmeg
over the top of each, and set them among ice, or in a very cold place.
These custards being made without milk, can be prepared at a short
notice; they will be found very fine.
Orange custards may be made in the same manner.
GOOSEBERRY CUSTARD.--Top and tail two quarts of green gooseberries.
Stew them in a very little water; stirring and mashing them frequently.
When they have stewed till entirely to pieces, take them out, and with
a wooden spoon press the pulp through a cullender. Stir in (while the
pulp is hot) a table-spoonful of butter, and sufficient sugar to make
it very sweet. Beat six eggs very light. Simmer the gooseberry pulp
over a gentle fire, and gradually stir the beaten eggs into it. When it
comes to a boil, take it off immediately, stir it very hard, and set it
out to cool. Serve it up cold in glasses or custard cups, grating some
nutmeg over each.
ALMOND CUSTARD.--Scald and blanch half a pound of shelled sweet
almonds, and three ounces of shelled bitter almonds; throwing them
as you do them into a large bowl of cold water. Then pound them one
at a time in a mortar; pouring in frequently a little rose water to
prevent their oiling, and becoming dark-coloured and heavy. Melt a
quarter of a pound of loaf-sugar in a quart of cream or rich milk, and
stir in by degrees the pounded almonds. Beat ten eggs very light, and
stir them gradually into the mixture; adding a powdered nutmeg, and a
tea-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon mixed. Then put the whole
into a pitcher, and place it in a kettle or pan of boiling water, the
water coming up to the lower part of the neck of the pitcher. Set it
over hot coals, and let it boil (stirring it all the time) till it is
quite thick, but not till it curdles. Then take the pitcher out of the
water; pour the custard into a large bowl, and stir it till it cools.
Put it into glass cups, and send it to table cold. Sweeten some cream
or white of egg. Beat it to stiff froth and pile it on the top of the
custards.
BOILED COCOA-NUT CUSTARD.--To a pound of grated cocoa-nut allow a pint
of unskimmed milk, and six ounces of white sugar. Beat very light the
yolks of six eggs. Stir them gradually into the milk, alternately with
the cocoa-nut and sugar. Put the mixture into a pitcher; set it in a
vessel of boiling water; place it on hot coals, and simmer it till it
is very smooth and thick; stirring it all the time. As soon as it comes
to a hard boil, take it off the fire; pour it into a large bowl, and
set it out to cool. When cold, put it into glass cups. Beat to a stiff
froth the white of egg that was left, and pile it on the custards.
BAKED COCOA-NUT CUSTARD.--Grate as much cocoa-nut as will weigh a
pound. Mix half a pound of powdered white sugar with the milk of the
cocoa-nut, or with a pint of cream; adding two table-spoonfuls of rose
water. Then stir in gradually a pint of rich milk. Beat to a stiff
froth the whites of eight eggs, and stir them into the milk and sugar,
a little at a time, alternately with the grated cocoa-nut: add a
tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg and cinnamon. Then put the mixture into
cups, and bake them twenty minutes in a Dutch oven half filled with
boiling water. When cold, grate loaf-sugar over them.
CHOCOLATE CUSTARD.--Scrape fine a quarter of a pound of chocolate, and
pour on it a pint of boiling water. Cover it, and let it stand by the
fire till it has dissolved, stirring it twice. Beat eight eggs very
light, omitting the whites of two. Stir them by degrees into a quart of
cream or rich milk, alternately with the melted chocolate, and three
table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar. Put the mixture into cups,
and bake it about ten minutes. Send them to table cold, with sweetened
cream, or white of egg beaten to a stiff froth, and heaped on the top
of each custard. No chocolate is so good as Baker's prepared cocoa.
MACCAROON CUSTARDS.--These must be made in china custard cups. Put four
maccaroons into each cup, and pour on them three spoonfuls of white
wine. Mix together a pint of cream, and a pint of milk; and boil them
with a large stick of cinnamon broken up, and a small bunch of peach
leaves or a handful of broken bitter almonds. Then strain the milk;
stir in a quarter of a pound of white sugar, and set it away to cool.
Beat very light eight eggs, (omitting the whites of four,) and stir
them gradually into the cream and milk when quite cold. Fill your cups
with the mixture, (leaving the maccaroons at the bottom,) and set them
in a Dutch oven or iron baking pan, which must be half full of boiling
water. Heat the oven-lid first, by standing it up before a hot fire;
then put it on, spreading coals over the top. Place sufficient coals
under the oven, and bake the custards about ten minutes. When cold,
heap beaten white of egg on the top of each. These custards are very
fine.