2 tablespoonfuls of tapioca.
Yolks of two eggs.
½ cup of sugar.
1 quart of milk.
Put the tapioca into a small half-cup of water and let it stand one hour. Then drain it and put it in the milk in the double saucepan, and cook and stir it till the tapioca looks clear, like glass. Beat the eggs and mix the sugar with them, and beat again till both are light, and put them with the milk and tapioca and cook three minutes, stirring all the time. Then take it off the fire and add a saltspoonful of salt and a half-teaspoonful of vanilla, and let it get perfectly cold.
FLOATING ISLAND
1 pint of milk.
3 eggs.
⅓ cup of sugar.
Put the milk on the stove to heat in a good-sized pan. Beat the whites of the eggs very stiff, and as soon as the milk scalds—that is, gets a little wrinkled on top—drop spoonfuls of the egg on to it in little islands; let them stand there to cook just one minute, and then with the skimmer take them off and lay them on a plate. Put the milk where it will keep hot, but not boil, while you beat the yolks of the eggs stiff, mixing in the sugar and beating that, too. Pour the milk into the bowl of egg, a little at a time, beating all the while, and then put it in the double boiler and cook till it is as thick as cream. Take it off the fire, stir in a saltspoonful of salt and half a teaspoonful of vanilla, and set it away to cool. When it is dinner-time, strain the custard into a pretty dish and slip the whites off on top, one by one. If you like, you can dot them over with very tiny specks of red jelly.
CAKE AND CUSTARD
Make a plain boiled custard, just as before, with—
1 pint of milk.
Yolks of three eggs.
⅓ cup of sugar.
1 saltspoonful of salt.
½ teaspoonful of vanilla.
Beat the eggs and sugar, add the hot milk, and cook till creamy; put in the salt and vanilla, and cool. Then cut stale cake into strips, or split ladyfingers into halves, and spread with jam. Put them on the sides and bottom of a flat glass dish, and gently pour the custard over.