[Sca-cooks] "Custard" Crust?

[Johnna Holloway]

OED says--- custard-coffin, the `coffin' or crust of a `custard'
1596 Shaks. Tam. Shr. iv. iii. 82 It is [a] paltrie cap, A *custard
coffen, a bauble, a silken pie.

Otherwise under custard
a. Formerly, a kind of open pie containing pieces of meat or fruit
covered with a preparation of broth or milk, thickened with eggs,
sweetened, and seasoned with spices, etc. = crustade

and crustade means

A sort of rich pie, made of flesh, eggs, herbs, spices, etc. enclosed in
a crust.

    * ? C. 1390 Form of Cury No. 154 Crustardes of Flessh.

    * ? C. 1390 Form of Cury No. 156 Crustardes of Fysshe.

    * C. 1420 Liber Cocorum 40 Crustate of flesshe.

    * C. 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 452 Let bake hom as
      thow woldes bake flaunes, or crustades.

Johnnae

kingstaste at mindspring.com wrote:

>I just saw a factoid on "Good Eats" that said before 1600, the word
>"custard" refered to the crust and not the filling.  I've never seen this,
>does anybody recognize this referenc?
>Christianna