Custard

[ChrisGreaves]

Aaaaaaaargh!
For 50+ years, with my mother and following in her footsteps, I have made custard by bringing a saucepan of milk to the boil, gently, then tipping in the paste (custard powder, sugar, cold water) and then quickly bringing it back to the boil without burning it, many, many time successfully, I might add.
My mother made it that way for 50+ years because her mother made it that way for 50 years, back through all the generations that didn't have powdered milk, right?

Last weekend I experimented.
Three times.

• Bring a bowl of water to the boil in the microwave.
• Meanwhile make the paste of custard powder, sugar, powdered milk and a bit of cold water in a small bowl.
• Tap a spoon in the hot water to reduce the risk of exploding super-cooled water
• Tip the paste into the boiling water, rinse out the paste bowl in the water bowl.
• Stir vigorously for ten seconds.

Done.
Perfect every time.
(Add boiled rice, raisins etc as desired)

[Hey Jude]

ahhhh rice pudding I love, are you talking Bird's Custard?

My rice pudding is actually made using a double boiler which boils the rice in the milk; then
creme de leche cans are added along with the golden raisins, nutmeg, cinnamon, egg yolks; beaten
into the rice mixture; baked for 30 min then topped with the whipped egg whites and lightly browned
under the broiler :-) From my ancient Mennonite cookbooks from which I blended 3 recipes.

[JohnH]

Aaaaaaaargh!

• Bring a bowl of water to the boil in the microwave.
• Meanwhile make the paste of custard powder, sugar, powdered milk and a bit of cold water in a small bowl.
  Perfect every time.

So what is the advantage of this method?

For many years (not quite 50) I have made custard in a billy over an open fire or camping stove, where powdered milk is the only milk available. I mix up the milk powder, bring it to the boil then add the custard powder- water paste to that. (Microwave is not an option!)
Perfect (nearly) every every time.

[HansV]

Tap a spoon in the hot water to reduce the risk of exploding super-cooled water

Wouldn't that be super-heated water?

[ChrisGreaves]

So what is the advantage of this method? ... Perfect (nearly) every every time.

To me the advantage is that I don't need to spend 5 or 10 minutes stirring milk, and occasionally burning it (or having it boil over).
Adding the paste, containing the milk powder, to the at-boiling-point water yields instant custard, no burning, no boiling over and, to date (4 efforts and another due today) no probs.

[ChrisGreaves]

Tap a spoon in the hot water to reduce the risk of exploding super-cooled water

Wouldn't that be super-heated water?

Hi Hans, I thought of that, but I think super-cooled is correct.
I have brought the water to boiling-point, and the temperature has dropped, say, 1 degree. The water is unstable, which is why dropping an impurity causes it to erupt.
I think of super-heated in terms of steam (locomotives), where the steam is raised to many degrees above regular boiling point.
I think too that super-cooled liquids are those from which we rapidly precipitate crystal growth, and these are solutions which have been raised to a temperature to allow dissolution of a chemical, then gently cooled in an unstable state.

[HansV]

Ah, so if you bring water to boiling-point, let the temperature drop 1 degree and then drop an impurity into it, it'll turn to ice instantly...

[ChrisGreaves]

ahhhh rice pudding I love, are you talking Bird's Custard?

I dunno. Whatever has the lowest $/100g figure on the supermarket shelf.

... made using a double boiler which boils the rice in the milk;

Right. This is "rice pudding", though, which my mother made in a Pyrex^(TM) dish baked in the oven after the Sunday Roast had been removed.
Custard was always made by boiling milk in the pan on the stove top.

Custard and Rice were never mixed in our WASP household!

[ChrisGreaves]

Ah, so if you bring water to boiling-point, let the temperature drop 1 degree and then drop an impurity into it, it'll turn to ice instantly...

If you are in the correct region of space, yes, but here on earth at sea-level, STP et al. .....

[StuartR]

I'm very confused. I always make custard by beating heated milk/cream/sugar/vanilla into egg yolks.

[Hey Jude]

ahhhh rice pudding I love, are you talking Bird's Custard?

I dunno. Whatever has the lowest $/100g figure on the supermarket shelf.

... made using a double boiler which boils the rice in the milk;

Right. This is "rice pudding", though, which my mother made in a Pyrex^(TM) dish baked in the oven after the Sunday Roast had been removed.
Custard was always made by boiling milk in the pan on the stove top.

Custard and Rice were never mixed in our WASP household!

We always used the Pyrex double boiler for boiling/scalding milk so it never needed to be stirred for 10 minutes and you didn't end up with that nasty "skin." I was asking if you used Bird's Custard as your "powder" as that is what I grew up using--seeing I was born in a British territory
Mom always baked her custard in individual pyrex dishes in the oven just like you described--using the scalded milk from the double boiler. When I read about boiled milk, it reminded me of my favourite, rice pudding--which I'll take any day over custard--hence the overlap of methods. When Bird's wasn't available, we used the method Stuart described, with milk, cream, eggs, sugar, etc. The first step of scalding the milk on top of the stove was required for both rice pudding and oven-baked custard. At any rate, rice pudding will be on my Thanksgiving menu this year--must be sprinkled with dash of nutmeg too.

[ChrisGreaves]

I was asking if you used Bird's Custard as your "powder" as that is what I grew up using--seeing I was born in a British territory

HPIM3461 (Small).JPG

[Hey Jude]

yeppers that be the one lol

[ChrisGreaves]

yeppers that be the one lol

OkeyDokey.
Let me know when you want it back ....

[JohnH]

I'm very confused. I always make custard by beating heated milk/cream/sugar/vanilla into egg yolks.

Stuart you are confusing 'custard' and 'real custard'.
Custard is made with custard powder.
Real Custard is made the way you describe.

[StuartR]

...Stuart you are confusing 'custard' and 'real custard'...

I beg to differ, you sir are confusing 'custard' and 'artificial custard'.

[Hey Jude]

Are you aware that Mrs. Bird was allergic to eggs, and because of her love of custard, Mr. Bird--a chemist by profession--developed Bird's Custard Powder just so Mrs.Bird could have her custard and eat it too?????

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 89786.html

I had presumed it contained powdered eggs, but alas my presumption bespeaks an untruth. My granddaughter is allergic to milk and eggs, so this would be a viable alternative with her goat or soy milk as the replacement for dairy milk. Whether she would eat it is another challenge.

[HansV]

Mrs. Bird was allergic to eggs

What's in a name...

[ChrisGreaves]

allergic to milk and eggs,

See? You are well on your way to sourcing a powdered milk substitute

[ChrisGreaves]

Mrs. Bird was allergic to eggs

What's in a name...

How close are we to "cuckoo's milk"? I ask because last night I watched a documentary on the English Cuckoo.