[Sca-cooks] Helen and the Egg Custard Pie

chawkswrth at aol.com chawkswrth at aol.com
Fri Apr 4 12:31:50 PDT 2008


Thank you. 

I am listening, and I think I will try this, this weekend!



Helen


-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Fri, 4 Apr 2008 8:31 am
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Helen and the Egg Custard Pie




All right, I did a little looking around per Johnnae's recommendation,  
nd it seems like most people view this Egg Custard Pie as a fairly  
tandard baked custard tart.
Standard restaurant-ey wisdom (such as it is) would be to blind-bake 2  
ine-inch (or maybe two eight-inch, if they're "deep-dish") for  
erhaps 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 350°F, and let them cool a  
ittle. Leave the oven on...
Slowly and gently scald a quart of milk, half-and-half, or cream (I  
ften use half-and-half for such jobs). It should have some bubbles  
oming to the surface around the edges, but not come to a boil.
While it's heating, beat six eggs _or_ twelve yolks in a large mixing  
owl (if you have a bowl with a pouring lip, even better) with 1/2 cup  
ugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract (or scald a real vanilla bean  
ith your milk/cream, or use vanilla sugar, or whatever). If you want  
o be really fastidious you can strain your eggs to remove the little  
helazae and membranes, but I don't. A pinch of salt here is optional,  
nd some people prefer a spice like nutmeg instead of vanilla.
Sloooooooowly pour your milk or cream in a thin stream with one hand,  
nto the yolks and sugar mixture, while beating constantly with the  
ther. You want to raise the temperature of all without cooking any of  
t. Yet.
Carefully pour your custard into your shells and bake (if things start  
o brown too quickly, you can lower the oven heat to 325°F, or use a  
ittle strip of foil to protect your crust edges from burning). It'll  
robably take anywhere from 25 to 40 minutes -- generally closer to 25  
- to bake. The trick is to watch them closely, at least until  
xperience shows you what little visual clues to look for. They should  
ot bake "until firm", as some recipes suggest: it's pretty much a  
uarantee of overcooking. What you're looking for is for the egg  
rotein to set into a matrix that holds all the liquid in in the form  
f a gel, so one of the great tricks is to tap your pie with your  
inger (don't move it all over creation or you'll spill it). Watch the  
hock wave ripply thing, and see if it just randomly sloshes liquid  
ll around, or if things sort of snap back into place. The difference  
etween liquid and gel is very subtle and can happen in seconds. Other  
ests include a toothpick or knife point, which should not really come  
ut clean, but with just a speck or two, rather than being coated with  
ustard. And then there's the old instant-read thermometer, which  
hould read 140°F. You may get a few little brown spots on top  
watching how they move when you tap it is one of my standard methods  
f testing doneness these days), and when you remove your tarts from  
he oven, they will have just _barely_ begun to puff up a little bit  
nside their shells: if you see that happening, be ready to take them  
ut on a moment's notice. If they puff up too much, they're  
vercooked, the tops become tough, and the custard becomes spongy,  
urdled, and wet instead of moist, and then the fat, sugar, and other  
lavorings sort of seep out of it, leaving behind an insipid, wet,  
pongy mass.
If it passes those tests and isn't solid in the middle, don't worry;  
t'll continue to cook as it cools, and it'll firm up.
Still, this is ultimately a judgement call that takes some experience  
o get right all the time...
HTH,
Adamantius



Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
hen we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
ellies."
           -- Rabbi Israel Salanter
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