A handbook of invalid cooking

by Mary A. Boland

1 Pint of milk.
2 Eggs.
1 Saltspoon of salt.
2 Tablespoons of sugar.
½ Square inch of cinnamon-bark.

Put the cinnamon and milk together in a saucepan, and set on the stove to heat. Break the eggs into a bowl, add the salt and sugar, and beat them until well mixed, but not light. When the milk boils, pour it on the beaten egg, stir slowly for a minute to dissolve the sugar, and then strain it into custard-cups. Place the cups in a deep iron baking-pan, and pour boiling water around, until it reaches almost to their tops. Bake in a hot oven twenty minutes.

The blue baking-cups which are small at the bottom and widen toward the top are good ones to use. They bear the fire well, and are pretty enough to serve.

By baking the custards in a dish of boiling water, the temperature cannot rise higher than 212° Fahr., and there is less danger of hardening the albumen in the more exposed portions before the middle is cooked enough, than if water is not used. The top is sacrificed—somewhat overcooked—for the sake of the pretty brown color which they should always have. Custards, when done, should be of a perfectly smooth, even, velvety consistence throughout, not curdled or wheyey.

To test them after they have been cooking twenty minutes, dip a pointed knife into water, and plunge it into the middle of the custard. If it comes out clean, the custard is done; if milky, it is not cooked enough, and should be put into the oven for five minutes longer. Do not try every one unless the cups are of different sizes, and make a small, narrow slit, so that their appearance will not be too much injured. This mixture may also be baked in a pudding-dish. Baked custards may be flavored with a variety of substances, among the best of which are grated nutmeg, almond extract, vanilla, and caramel.

To Make Caramel. Boil together one cup of sugar and one third of a cup of water until the color is a rich reddish brown, then add one cup of water, and bottle for use. Two tablespoons of this syrup will be required to flavor a pint of custard.

FRENCH CUSTARD

Make a custard mixture according to the above rule, omitting the cinnamon. Put into the bottom of the custard-cups in which it is to be baked, a teaspoon of raspberry jam. Then with a tunnel pour the custard in slowly. Bake twenty minutes. The jam, if firm, will not mix with the custard. It imparts a nice flavor to the whole, and is an interesting dish to many, who wonder how the jam can be kept from dissolving.

RENNET CUSTARD OR SLIP

Put into a glass pudding-dish a pint of milk, a tablespoon of sugar, and a teaspoon of rennet. Stir to dissolve the sugar, cover it and place it on the stove-hearth, or any warm place, to heat sufficiently for the rennet to act upon the casein of the milk—that is, to about 98° Fahr. As soon as it is "set," or becomes solid, remove to a cool place, so that the separation of the casein shall not go too far and whey appear. When it is cool, serve it in glass dishes. Rennet custard may be flavored with nutmeg grated over the surface, or by stirring in with the rennet a teaspoon of vanilla, or of rose-water, or a tablespoon of wine. When brandy is added, it is called junket.