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Dutch Oven Custard | |||
| Articles | This recipe is reconstructed
from one in The Cookbook of Sabina Welsersin., one of my favorite period
cookbooks. In that manuscript it is recipe 178 and simply titled "Another
Tart". Hardly descriptive. It caught my eye when planning our first
demo as the instructions call for a technique clearly related to modern
Dutch oven cookery of placing heat above and below the pot. Nowhere in the
original
recipe does it mention using this as a filling for a tart but that is
not outside the realm of possibilities. It is one we regularly use at
our live cookery demos and was chosen because the method described is one
used in modern Dutch Oven Cookery.
Our custard recipe comes from , The Cookbook of Sabina Welserin. (At left- stirring the custard at a previous demo.)
Combine sugar and spices and set aside. (This step keeps the spices from clumping up when added to the liquids.) Beat eggs. And add milk and sugar/spice mixture and mix well. Melt butter in your dutch oven or casserole dish (Needs to be 3 and 1/2 quart Minimum.) When butter is quite bubbly, but not browned, pour in batter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly to scrap bits of cooked custard off bottom of pot. When cooked bits seem to be about half of total volume, cover and heap coals on lid. Should be as much heat above as below. Or slip into oven preheated to 350 degrees, bake till set (time will vary due to how much cooking occurred on top of stove, but at least 20 minutes in most cases) sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top to taste. This dish has a sort of pebbly texture, sort of a cross between fine scrambled eggs and a smooth custard and there will be a good amount of clear liquid around the edges of the pot. More liquid will form as it cools. 178 Another tart Take four glasses of milk, twelve eggs and seven ounces of sugar and one half ounce of ginger and some ground cinnamon. One must afterwards beat everything together, then put a little fat into a pan and put the batter into it and stir it around, until it begins to thicken. Then put the cover on the pot and hot coals over it. And there should be no more heat on top of it than under it, or else the batter will be bubbly. And when you see that it begins to set up, sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar on top. Original Recipe taken from Valoise Armstrong's Translation of The Cookbook Of Sabina Welserin, 1553 which can be accessed at http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html |
We served this at our Junefaire Feast For a more detailed explanation of the feast see Story of the Feast, Junefaire 2006 in the Article section Other Recipes from the Cookbook of Sabina Welserin Other Desserts (Sweet dishes that would serve)
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