1832 - Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats

Fine Custards

DDV CULINARY

A quart of milk or cream.

The yolks only, of sixteen eggs.

Six ounces of powdered white sugar.

Half an ounce of cinnamon, broken in small pieces.

A large handful of peach-leaves or half an ounce of peach kernels
or bitter almonds, broken in pieces.

A table-spoonful of rose-water.

A nutmeg.

Boil in the milk the cinnamon, and the peach-leaves, or peach-kernels.
When it has boiled, set it away to get cold.
As soon as it is cold, strain it through a sieve, to clear it from the cinnamon,
peach-leaves, &c. and stir into it gradually, the sugar, spice, and rose-water.

Beat the yolks of sixteen eggs very light, and stir them by degrees into the milk,
which must be quite cold or the eggs will make it curdle.
Put the custards into cups, and set them in a baking pan, half filled with water.
When baked, grate some nutmeg over each and ice them.
Make the icing of the whites of eight eggs, a large tea-spoonful of powdered loaf sugar,
and six drops of essence of lemon, beaten all together till it stands alone.
Pile up some of the icing on the top of each custard, heaping it high.
Put a spot of red nonpareils on the middle of the pile of icing.

If the weather be damp, or the eggs not new-laid, more than eight whites will be required for the icing.