SC - Feast Fees in Ansteorra

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Par Leijonhufvud wrote:
> 
> ObCooks: Anyone got any good advice on cooking "creme boylede". I've
> made it twice, the time I made it over a campfire it turned out divine,
> but the time I made it in the kitchen it had a bit of the "scrambled
> eggs" texture. Is there som trick apart from never letting it boil or
> even get too close to boiling?

IIRC, this is a stirred custard along the lines of Creme Anglaise? Milk
or cream "boiled" with egg yolks? Books are all over after yesterday's CheeseFest.

One trick which may or may not be represented by the original recipe,
which, as I say, I don't have handy, is to heat your cream separately
from the eggs, which you can have beaten in another bowl on the side
awaiting the hot cream. When the cream is more or less scalding hot, add
a little bit of it at a time to your eggs and beat it in. This gradually
raises the temperature of the egg proteins and doesn't shock them into
total, immediate coagulation. When you've added all the cream to the
eggs, you can put it back on the fire to finish cooking, and the
remaining cooking time will be brief. An ordinary stirred custard is
done when it coats the back of the spoon.

You also might want to keep a record of attempts to do  this dish and
look at your proportions of egg to other liquid. Classically custards
require six eggs or twelve yolks to thicken a quart (figure a litre
isn't far off) of liquid, but you probably want something a little
thicker. You can experiment with this, but you'll eventually reach the
point where thre are so many eggs in proportion to other liquids that
they'll have little alternative to scrambling.

Now, if my recollection of this recipe is completely off base, and I've
just made an ass of myself, maybe someone could post the original?  

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com