[Sca-cooks] Custard

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Fri Mar 28 21:05:22 PDT 2008


On Mar 28, 2008, at 11:12 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Adamantius commented:
>> << While we're on the subject, Mrs. Beeton maintained that only
>> goose or
> duck eggs went into a really proper custard. I don't know that I
> agree, but it seems to be what she thought. >>>
>
> Mighty hard to find duck or especially goose eggs these days. And I
> don't live close enough to Phlip to get any from her. :-) (Phlip, are
> you back home yet?)  I guess the next time I look through the Asian
> groceries I'm going to have to look for fresh duck eggs, just so I
> can see if they taste different to me than chicken eggs.

They very likely will. As has been said, they seem to have both a  
higher fat content and a higher mineral content, so they're probably  
richer, but if you're just working on a recipe with six yolks, say,  
six duck egg yolks is probably more yolk than six hen's egg yolks.

> <<< I actually got to dredge up the old restaurant formula (6 eggs  
> or 12
> yolks, 1 quart liquid, half-cup sugar plus optional flavoring) to
> coach someone over the phone yesterday, someone who had never made
> custard and who scarcely knew what to look for, through a successful
> custard tart. That was kinda fun. I was getting calls every five
> minutes: "It's been in the oven fifteen minutes and it hasn't set.
> What did I do wrong??? What can I do about it??? Heeeeeelp!!!" >>>
>
> So what *is* the secret? I baked a custard tart for the pot luck at
> our Yule Revel last December and ended up baking it for at least
> twice the time the recipe stated because the center upper portion
> wouldn't firm up.

<snip>

> <<<<Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 02:08:39 EST
> From: korrin.daardain at juno.com (Korrin S DaArdain)
> Subject: SC - Recipes x3
>
> M'Lords and M'Ladys,
>         I thought people might enjoy these.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>         Custard with Dates and Raisins, Spiced
>         From "The Tudor Kitchen's Cookery Book" Hampton Court Palace;
> Printed in The Oregonian Newspaper Food Day Mar 10, 1998.

<snip again>

>         Filling:
>         2 cups whipping cream
>         3 tb sugar
>         2 tb butter
>         3 cloves
>         1/2 ts ground mace
>         1 pinch saffron
>         3 egg yolks

I can't say precisely how much difference it would make, but I note  
that the version you were using relies on approximately half as much  
egg protein to thicken a similar amount of liquid as the proportions I  
gave... while I'm sure that is still doable, it's a bit harder to get  
predictable results for the inexperienced when doing it this way, I'd  
suspect.

Adamantius






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




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