Burnt Custard

History

The earliest documented appearance of this Burnt Custard is in Mary Randolph's The Virginia House-Wife, first published in 1824, widely regarded as the first regional American cookbook. As printed, it is a boiled custard of milk and the yolks of eight eggs, sweetened, poured over slices of savoy (sponge) cake in a deep dish; the whites are whipped to a froth and laid on top, dusted with sugar, and browned by holding a salamander over the surface 'until it is a light brown,' then garnished with raspberry marmalade or other preserved fruit. The 'burnt' of the name refers to this browned meringue top, not a separate caramel layer. The dish comes out of Mary Randolph's Richmond, Virginia household; as with the rest of the book, much of the labor in her kitchen was done by enslaved Black women, whose work and skill stood behind these recipes. The record does not document where, when, or by whom this particular custard originated, nor that it carried any specific social meaning.

Ingredients

• 1 quart milk
• 8 eggs, yolks only
• sugar
• savoy cake, sliced
• 8 eggs, whites only
• raspberry marmalade or preserved fruit

Instructions

1. Boil a quart of milk and allow it to cool completely. Mix the yolks of eight eggs into the cold milk. Stir the mixture together over the fire for a few minutes. Sweeten it to your taste.
2. Place slices of savoy cake in the bottom of a deep dish and pour the custard over them.
3. Whip the whites of the eggs to a strong froth and lay it lightly on top of the custard. Sift sugar over the meringue.
4. Hold a salamander (or use a hot iron) over the top until it turns a light brown. Garnish the top with raspberry marmalade or any kind of preserved fruit.