Custard for Coolness

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 92, 15 October 1932, Page 9

Custard for Coolness

There is no sweet more suitable for hot weather catering than custard (states a correspondent). It is light, cool, and nourishing, and to avoid monotony can appear in many forms. A smooth, tKin custard is excellent for serving with stewed fruit; it is wanted for trifles; it makes .the basis for many ice-cream mixtures; and can bo used as sauce. It can be made' very easily with the various custard powders on the market,^t>ut if made with egg's needs more care. Beat the eggs very well to avoid white lumps, and slightly warm the milk before pouring it on the eggs. Mix well together. Cook in a double saucepan over a low fire, stirring all the time, and do not let the mixture boil. If it does boil it will curdle, and though it tastes as good, and is perfectly usable in icecream it doesn't look so nice for other purposes. An excess pf zeal often causes this curdling business.

Don't leave it in the saucepan over the boiling water when you have turned out the gas, or it will set in^a mould, like a caramel custard badly cooked. Sweetening and flavouring are import-' ant. ' You always need a little more sugar than you think, and more flavouring, as heat brings out the flavour, and cold reduces it. In addition to vanilla, almond, coffee, or chocolate you can use the liqueur 'essences, such as maraschino or Kirseh, and if the custard is for a trifle it will have more "kick" if you use rum and add it to the custard just before you pour it over the sponee cakes.

Baked custard can be varied with the addition of fresh or dried fruit, or mad.c into savoury custards with cooked fish, shrimps, or asparagus, using salt and pepper instead of sugar. Custard pie should be made in a very deep tin, and the crust baked first with rice or bread raspings in it to keep it down. A spoonful of jam beneath the custard makes a pleasant surprise, or it may bo made with coffee, coconut, sultanas, or currants added to it.