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Classic Methods: Custard Method
Appears in
Published 2008
This method is solely used for recipes that contain eggs and no stabilizers or non-egg/powdered emulsifiers. Don’t forget that egg yolks are the simplest and most common form of emulsifier. They have been used for many years and yield excellent results, but care must be taken not to overcook the base, which will result in over-coagulated eggs (chunky-coarse texture), but also not to undercook the base, since eggs can be a potentially hazardous food if undercooked.
- Place milk or milk and heavy cream mixture in a saucepot along with half the sugar. If there are any flavors that need to be steeped, such as vanilla pods, this is when they are added. (For specific instructions on how to incorporate other flavors, see “Flavors”).
- Place the saucepot over high heat and stir for 1 minute to dissolve some, but not all, of the sugar. The undissolved sugar will settle to the bottom of the saucepot to prevent the milk and heavy cream from scorching.
- While this mix comes to a boil, place the egg yolks and the remainder of the sugar in a bowl. Whisk until it becomes a uniform mass.
- Once the liquid comes to a boil, slowly pour half of it into the egg yolk–sugar mix while whisking constantly. This process is called tempering. If you added the eggs right into the boiling liquid, the high heat would coagulate them instantly and you would have scrambled eggs. Tempering allows a slow and steady temperature increase in the eggs.
- Once half of the liquid has been tempered with the egg yolk–sugar mix, pour the contents of the bowl back into the pot while whisking constantly and turn the heat down to medium or medium low.
- Stir constantly with the whisk until the mixture reaches 77°C / 170°F. This will carry over to 85°C / 185°F, which is the temperature for pasteurization. At this temperature the mixture reaches a consistency called nappe, or “coat.” The proper nappe consistency occurs when the egg proteins have coagulated enough to be sufficiently thick to coat the back of a wooden spoon. A thermometer is a wiser gauge, though, because it is an almost immediate indicator that the nappe stage has been reached. If you take the time to check if your spoon is coated, you will have to put the whisk down, grab a wooden spoon, dip it, check the nappe, and assess, and in the meantime the base, even though you may have turned the heat off, is getting hotter from the residual heat in the pot. This could very well overcook the base that is in direct contact with the bottom of the pot.
- Turn the heat off and strain the base through a fine-mesh strainer into an appropriate container and place over an ice bath (see ice baths).
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