Thank you, eggies, for your thickening power.
A reader, Pam, “delurked” yesterday to ask for clarification about putting together a custard. When to use butter; when not to use butter. She also said (tongue in cheek, I hope) that she was afraid that I would tap my foot disapprovingly and ask her why she hadn’t been paying attention all along. Well, fear not, Pam. I have decided that I am just not that person. A few months ago, before I started this wee blog and before I started truly understanding the level of hesitancy out there when it comes to cooking, I made the conscious decision not to be the food snob who rolls their eyes at folks who think foie gras sounds “icky,” or to smugly smirk when someone tells me that their favorite restaurant is Chili’s. I have given myself the job of demystifying recipes, not denigrating those who try to follow them.
In my current kitchen view, a recipe is a list of ingredients that has been stapled to a description of the technique/techniques for combining said ingredients. So, to avoid confusion, I thought I’d give you a bit of a technique primer.
Puddings and Custards
Custards are thickened with the power of eggs. Some use yolks, some use whole eggs, some use a mixture of yolks and eggs. Regardless, unless it contains eggs, it’s not technically a custard. Since eggs are so versatile, there are lots of ways to cook them. On their own, scrambled, poached, coddled, fried, baked, hard cooked all come to mind. But when used as one ingredient in a custard, the way the eggs set up determines the style of the custard. If you stir and cook a custard to its maximum thickness on the stove top, it’s called a stirred custard. If you pour the custard into a mold of some sort and then bake it, it’s called a baked or “still” custard. And, in the US, if the custard contains starch, we call it pudding. In France, a starch based custard is pastry cream or crème pâtissière. Still custards are generally the most firm, followed by starch-thickened custards and stirred custards.
The first thing you need to figure out is if the custard has starch in it. Any ingredients like flour, corn starch, arrowroot, etc are starches and lend their thickening power to the custard. If the ingredient list does contain starch, understand that you will have to fully cook the custard on the stove. This means that you must bring it to a boil and stir it like a crazy person for about 30 seconds. This is because most starches aren’t completely activated–swollen up and gelatinized–until they reach boiling temperature. If your recipe calls for starch, make sure you bring it to a boil. If you’ve ever made pudding that tastes kind of chalky, it’s because you didn’t get it hot enough.
If the ingredient list doesn’t contain starch, the next step is to see decide if the custard is a stirred custard or a baked/still custard. If you’re making crème brûlée, you’ll be baking the custard in the oven, so it’s a still custard. If you’re making egg nog or Creme Anglaise or ice cream base, the custard will be fully cooked on the stove top, so it’s a stirred custard. The procedure for each will be almost identical, but you won’t continue to cook a base for a still custard after you temper in the eggs.
Custards with starch (American-style pudding)
- Whisk together dairy and half the sugar in a sauce pan.
- Whisk together the eggs/yolks with the rest of the sugar, salt and dry ingredients, including the starch. If the ingredient list doesn’t contain salt, ignore it and add some anyway. Some recipes won’t contain eggs. That’s fine, but you can always add in a yolk or two for richness.
- Bring dairy mixture up to just below a boil.
- Add hot dairy, a bit at a time, to the egg mixture, whisking madly. This brings the temperature of the eggs up gradually and prevents you from scrambling your eggs.
- Pour everything back into the pot. Over medium heat, whisk madly until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for about 30 seconds.
- Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer. If the recipe calls for butter, chopped chocolate and/or an extract or liqueur, add it/them now and whisk in until smooth.
Custards without starch (this goes for curds, too–curds are just citrus based custard, as opposed to dairy-based)
- Whisk together dairy and half the sugar in a sauce pan.
- Whisk together eggs/yolks with the rest of the sugar and the salt. If your ingredient list doesn’t contain salt, add it anyway.
- Bring dairy (or citrus) mixture up to just below a boil.
- Add hot dairy/citrus, a bit at a time, to the egg mixture. Gee, doesn’t all of this sound oddly familiar?
- At this point, if you’re making a still custard, as for crème brûlée or flan, just strain the mixture, pan it up and bake in a water bath at about 275F. If you’re making a stirred custard, keep going:
- Pour the egg mixture back into the pot. Over medium-lowish heat, stir the custard/curd until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. This happens at around 160F. At this point, you’ll want to cool the custard quickly so it won’t curdle. You can strain it into a metal bowl set in an ice bath and whisk, or you can hold out a portion of the dairy to add back in at the end of cooking. Your choice, but strain the mixture either way.
- If you’re making curd, whisk in the butter after straining.
Double Boiler method
You can make a custard or curd in a double boiler. If you want to use the double boiler method, add everything except the butter to the top pan/metal bowl. Keep water at a gentle simmer, and whisk constantly until the custard/curd has thickened. Strain and stir/whisk in butter. I wouldn’t bother using a double boiler with a starch-thickened custard, though. The starch helps prevent curdling, so you should be fine cooking over direct heat. The double boiler method is good for custards that you want to thicken but not boil.
Okay, pop quiz. I give you an ingredient list, you give me the method you’d use to put it together.
Exhibit A (Anglaise)
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup white sugar
pinch of salt
Exhibit B (Chocolate Pudding)
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar
3 tablespoons (30 grams) cornstarch
1/3 cup (30 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups (600 ml) whole milk
1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy whipping cream
4 large egg yolks
4 ounces (120 grams) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon (14 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature (cut into small pieces)
Exhibit C (Flan)
2 cups heavy cream
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
3 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
Pinch salt
Exhibit D
Okay, this one isn’t an exhibit, really, It’s a question: Which of the three recipes might you want to use a double boiler for? Why?
You all did very well today. Don’t forget to pick up your custard-genius certificate on your way out.
Elle says
What an informative post! I know where to look if I’m having custard troubles.
Katherine says
This was a fantastic post. I’m really shy about baking and making custards. I am getting a little braver but after reading this post, I feel I have learned so much. I am printing this up to I can keep it as a reference. Thank you SOOOOOOO much!
Drew @ Cook Like Your Grandmother says
Jenni, please email me, I’ve got an idea to share with you.
groovyoldlady says
Mmmmm. Chili’s!
😉
Marc @ NoRecipes says
Great post! The implied snobbery is why I take issue with the term “Foodie”. Although I haven’t been in years, there was a time when Chili’s was my favourite restaurant… It was a great alternative to dorm food and was just around the corner… I can’t believe I just admitted that!
onlinepastrychef says
Don’t worry, Marc! Your secret is safe with me. Um, us…. 😉 Yes, it’s funny, as I’ve gotten more and more into the teaching aspect of cooking (mostly via this blog), I’ve had less and less patience with food snobbery. I think food snobbery is one of the barriers that makes home cooks feel intimidated, and I just really don’t want to be a part of that.
onlinepastrychef says
Oh, yes, we have ways of making you talk, Marc! 😆
Tangled Noodle says
I made a pudding yesterday – too bad I didn’t wait just one more day (I’ll post about it soon). I was going to use your chocolate pudding recipe from a few posts ago but didn’t for reasons that will be made clear in said future blog entry. In the meantime, I’m saving this page for all my future custard and pudding needs! 😎
Tangled Noodle says
Oh! And my two cents on food snobbery: I really have felt more at ease attempting new techniques because of how you’ve presented them in a straightforward manner, free of the sense of ‘haughtiness’ of some cookbooks and magazines that seem to convey the message, “Try this – if you dare, incompetent fool!”
When it comes to food, my attitude is that there is no such thing as bad food – as long as someone, somewhere finds any value in a particular item and enjoys the act of eating, then it’s all good.
Natasha - 5 Star Foodie says
I haven’t really made puddings or custards so this is very informative! Thanks!
dianne says
i am so relieved that you don’t smugly smirk, because i am quite fond of Chili’s chicken fajitas … and thank you for not tapping your foot at me – i am a slow learner … but there is NO WAY that i am going to publish my answers to today’s quiz … i would rather remain silent and thought a fool than to open my mouth and remove all doubt (who said that? Abraham Lincoln??)
mikky says
thanks for sharing this… 🙂
lynn says
i’d like to tell you that i love your blog. i got to know your blog thru petitechef and i’m linking yours to mine, i hope you don’t mind…and probably you could do the same? you’re very informative keep it up!
Chef E says
I get the same thing, because I have worked as a chef, they feel they cannot live up to my standards…do I have standards :)?
Thank you for this, even chefs have to revisit things they do not really focus on, or haven’t visited in a while, so thank you ma’am! Right now I am a ‘still custard’ from my long day…
Daily Spud says
I now feel prepared to do battle with custard and puddin’ and even crème pâtissière. Yay me!
Sophie says
MMMM…Thanks so much for your wonderful & interesting tips!! Now, how can we fail?
P.L.W. says
Whew. I read this too late. I have trouble making lemon meringue pie which is trouble because it is my husband’s absolute favorite. It is the lemon pudding part of the pie. I just made one (for his birthday, no less!) and it is more like lemon meringue soup. It is already cooked, sadly. Very sadly. Is there anything AT ALL I can do to fix the lemon part? I will deconstruct the pie if necessary. When I put the lemon custard part in the oven, it was only a trifle soft and I thought it would thicken a bit in the oven. NOT. Please help. I am desperate. Is there anything AT ALL I can do to fix the lemon part?
Trish
onlinepastrychef says
Hi, Trish:) Without seeing your recipe, I can only make some general suggestions. If the lemon filling is thickened with cornstarch, you can always mix another tablespoon of cornstarch into a tablespoon each of lemon juice and water, pour everything back into a pan and bring back to a boil. Strain and pour back into the pie shell. The addition of more starch should help to firm things up.
You could also try blooming 3/4 teaspoons of unflavored gelatin per cup of filling in a mixture of lemon juice and water (again, 2 Tablespoons should be sufficient). Once the gelatin is all swelled up, melt it over low heat until it is clear. Then, pour your filling into a pan, heat until warm and then whisk in the gelatin mixture. Strain and pour back into the crust. Refrigerate to set up.
I hope that helps. And, if all else fails, deconstructing is good, too:) If you get a sec, send me your recipe and technique so maybe I can be more helpful. Good luck, Trish!
P.L.W. says
Dear Jennie,
P.L.W. says
Dear Jenni,
It worked like a charm!! This is a good thing because my husband said he was going to throw it out. Phooey. Now we are both happy. When I get a minute I will send you the recipe for the custard part of the pie and you can see what’s up.
Thanks a million!
P.L.W. says
Here is the lemon custard:
6 egg yolks
1c sugar
1/4C cornstarch
1/8t salt
1 1/2C cold water
1T lemon zest
1/2C lemon juice
2T unsalted butter
I think the devil is in the cooking of the custard. Here are the directions:
Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and water in large, non-reactive saucepan. Bring to simmer over medium heat, whisking occasionally at beginning and more frequently as mixture begins to thicken. When mixture starts to simmer and turn translucent, whisk in egg yolks, two at a time. Whisk in zest, then lemon juice and then butter. Bring mixture to a good simmer, whisking constantly.
Here are my issues:
*How cold is cold water? Why cold?
*Why the yolks straight into the pan and not the reverse or some sort of tempering?
*NOWHERE does the recipe say the consistency expected of the filling, nor does it give a time range for cooking.
Hence, SOUP.
The filling tastes good, but I have never had it come out right, so any suggestions are welcome.
Thank you so much for your help.
Chris says
You have to cook it until you observe it thickening. Stirring speeds it up, and allows you to use higher heat. Stir quickly once it starts to thicken, moving around the whole bottom of the pot. As for the eggs, they should be added at the beginning before it is hot.
Jennifer Field says
Hey, Chris. Stirring doesn’t necessarily speed things up, but it does help the mixture to thicken more evenly without burning on the bottom. But yes, absolutely you can use a higher heat as long as you are stirring quickly and continuously. I usually add the eggs or yolks in at the beginning with everything, but it is not incorrect to temper them in if you’d rather. It adds an extra step to a stirred custard, but it’s also the old-school way to make pastry cream, whisking eggs with half the sugar and the starch and then tempering before completing the custard.
P.L.W. says
P.S. the recipe is from American Classics by Cook’s Illustrated, usually a pretty reliable source.
Niko says
OK, so I’m making what’s probably my millionth pumpkin pie and I forgot to tare the scale when adding the pumpkin. I know, generally, that two eggs will thicken about 4 cups of liquid/other ingredients (for one 9″ pie filling). I now have about 33.5 ounces of filling. Will the two eggs be enough to firm up the filling if I bake it a little longer? Or would it be prudent to add another yolk (which I don’t want to do because I hate “eggy” tasting custards), or a bit of starch?
Jennifer Field says
If you don’t like eggy custards, I think I’d go the starch route for some insurance. Try a tablespoon along with the two eggs and just make sure the I ternal temp reaches 167F to make sure the starch gelatinizes fully.
Mary says
What does the phrase “set up” mean? Especially at the molecular,or chemistry, level
Jennifer Field says
Hey, Mary. When a custard “sets,” it means that the proteins denature and as the custard cools, it firms up. Stirred custards (like puddings) set while being stirred as the temperature goes up, and “still custards,” or ones baked in the oven, set up as the temp increases in the oven. The more slowly you can do this (the lower the temp you cook them at), the creamier your set will be. With stirred custards, which often contain starch as well, can be cooked at higher temperatures and still be creamy since the starch keeps the proteins from denaturing/setting up too firmly so you don’t end up with sweet scrambled eggs. Set is just a visual indicator or verification that the proteins have denatured or unraveled. I hope that helps.
Chris says
Is there any reason to temper the eggs if making basic custard? I was under the impression tempering was only need when adding eggs to a hot mixture like chicken stock for instance or hot vanilla-infused milk. If you mix the eggs with milk and then heat, you are already heating gradually.
Jennifer Field says
I would say that tempering is kind of a check for people who may not be as diligent as they should be in stirring constantly. But yes, you are correct, that if you add the eggs at the beginning, you’re heating them gradually. And as long as you keep the mixture moving continuously throughout the cooking process, there should be no problem. As a failsafe, I always strain my stirred custards–from Anglaise to plain old pudding–as the last step.
Christine Segatti says
Hi, Jenni, if you’re still “out there.” I have a question for you: I made a stove-top, eggless “custard” recipe from the NYT. I erred by adding lemon juice at the same time I combined the milk and sugar. Am wondering if I totally blew it or if it can be salvaged.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Jennifer Field says
Hey, Christine! I guess this is a lemon pudding? So a starch-thickened, eggless pudding. I would think the starch would mitigate any curdling, but probably after it gelatinizes. My guess is it will be okay, especially if it’s a lemon pudding. If you’re trying to make a plain pudding into a lemon pudding, then maybe not. If it has curdled, you could potentially save it with mad whisking and then straining through a fine mesh strainer. Then check for texture. If it’s “curdy,” you may have to start again, but the pudding won’t be “bad,” per se. Just have an off texture. Hope that helps!