Custard

Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk. Depending on how much egg or thickener is used, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce (crème anglaise), to a thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. Most common custards are used as desserts or dessert sauces and typically include sugar and vanilla. Custard bases may also be used for quiches and other savory foods. Sometimes flour, corn starch, or gelatin is added as in pastry cream or creme patissiere.

Custard is usually cooked in a double boiler (bain-marie), or heated very gently in a saucepan on a stove, though custard can also be steamed, baked in the oven with or without a water bath, or even cooked in a pressure cooker. Custard preparation is a delicate operation, because a temperature increase of 5–10 °F (3-6 °C) leads to overcooking and curdling. Generally, a fully cooked custard should not exceed 80 °C; it begins setting at 70 °C. A water bath slows heat transfer and makes it easier to remove the custard from the oven before it curdles.

Read more about Custard:  History, Custard Variations, Savoury Custards, Uses, Physical Properties

Famous quotes containing the word custard:

    God’s always got a custard pie up his sleeve.
    Margaret Forster, British screenwriter, Peter Nichols, and Silvio Narizzano. Georgy (Lynn Redgrave)

    The custard is setting; meanwhile
    I not only have my own history to worry about
    But am forced to fret over insufficient details related to large
    Unfinished concepts that can never bring themselves to the point
    Of being, with or without my help, if any were forthcoming.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)