Such a simple name for something that is extremely complex.
Take the food itself it's described as a variety of culinary preparations based on
milk or
cream cooked with
egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also
flour,
corn starch, or
gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring
sauce (
crème anglaise) to the thick pastry cream (
crème pâtissière) used to fill
éclairs. The most common custards are used in
desserts or
dessert sauces and typically include
sugar and
vanilla, however
savory custards are also found, e.g., in
quiche.
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 3–6 °C (5–10 °F) leads to overcooking and
curdling. Generally, a fully cooked custard should not exceed 80 °C (~175 °F); it begins setting at 70 °C (~160 °F).
[1] A water bath slows heat transfer and makes it easier to remove the custard from the oven before it curdles.
[2] Adding a small amount of cornflour to the egg-sugar mixture stabilises the resulting custard, allowing it to be cooked in a single pan as well as in a double-boiler. A
sous-vide water bath may be used to precisely control temperature.
History........
Mixtures of milk and eggs thickened by heat have long been part of European cuisine, since at least Ancient Rome. Custards baked in pastry (
custard tarts) were very popular in the
Middle Ages, and are the origin of the English word 'custard': the French term '
croustade' originally referred to the
crust of a tart,
[3] and is derived from the Italian word
crostata, and ultimately the Latin
crustāre.
[4]
Examples include
Crustardes of flessh and
Crustade, in the 14th century English collection
The Forme of Cury. These recipes include solid ingredients such as meat, fish, and fruit bound by the custard.
[5][6] Stirred custards cooked in pots are also found under the names
Creme Boylede and
Creme boiled.
[6]
In modern times, the name 'custard' is sometimes applied to starch-thickened preparations like
blancmange and
Bird's Custard powder.
Variations........
While
custard may refer to a wide variety of thickened dishes, technically (and in
French cookery) the word "custard" (
crème or more precisely
crème moulée,
[kʁɛm mule]) refers only to an egg-thickened custard.
When
starch is added, the result is called
pastry cream (
French:
crème pâtissière, pronounced
[kʁɛm pɑtisjɛːʁ]) or confectioners' custard, made with a combination of milk or cream,
egg yolks, fine sugar, flour or some other starch, and usually a flavoring such as vanilla, chocolate, or lemon.
Crème pâtissière is a key ingredient in many French desserts including
mille-feuille (or Napoleons) and filled tarts. It is also used in Italian pastry and sometimes in
Boston cream pie. The thickening of the custard is caused by the combination of egg and starch.
Corn flour or
flour thicken at 100 °C (212˚F) and as such many recipes instruct the pastry cream to be boiled. In a traditional custard such as a
crème anglaise, where egg is used alone as a thickener, boiling results in the over cooking and subsequent 'curdling' of the custard; however, in a pastry cream, starch prevents this. Once cooled, the amount of starch in pastry cream 'sets' the cream and requires it to be beaten or whipped before use.
When
gelatin is added, it is known as
crème anglaise collée (
[kʁɛm ɑ̃ɡlɛz kɔle]). When gelatin is added and
whipped cream is folded in, and it sets in a mold, it is
bavarois. When starch is used alone as a thickener (without eggs), the result is a
blancmange. In the United Kingdom,
custard has various traditional recipes some thickened principally with cornflour (cornstarch) rather than the egg component, others involving regular flour; see
custard powder.
After the custard has thickened, it may be mixed with other ingredients: mixed with stiffly beaten
egg whites and
gelatin, it is
chiboust cream; mixed with
whipped cream, it is
crème légère,
[kʁɛm leʒɛːʁ]. Beating in softened butter produces
German buttercream or
crème mousseline.
A
quiche is a savoury custard tart. Some kinds of
timbale or vegetable loaf are made of a custard base mixed with chopped savoury ingredients.
Custard royale is a thick custard cut into decorative shapes and used to garnish
soup,
stew or
broth. In German it is known as Eierstich and is used as a garnish in German Wedding Soup (Hochzeitssuppe).
[7] Chawanmushi is a
Japanese savoury custard, steamed and served in a small bowl or on a saucer.
Chinese steamed egg is a similar but larger savoury egg dish.
Bougatsa is a Greek breakfast
pastry whose sweet version consists of
semolina phyllo.
Custard may also be used as a top layer in
gratins, such as the
South African bobotie and many
Balkan versions of
moussaka.
In Peru,
leche asada 'baked milk' is custard baked in individual molds.
[8] It is considered a restaurant dish.
[9]
Given the complexity and variations of the food itself it's not surprising that custard vapes vary hugely from cream heavy, vanilla packed, thick with pastry, even bordering eggy, and sometimes starchy.
Childhood memories of what is a custard is different from people to people, region region, and country to country, multiplying to endless variations to what should be a relatively simple and straightforward flavour to recreate.
It's because of the endless possibilities of custard in a vape and so many individual perspectives of the profile there will always be room for another custard recipe
