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Spanish Custards

A historical recipe from The English Housekeeper, by Anne Cobbett (1851).

A historical recipe

The English Housekeeper: Or, Manual of Domestic Management Containing advice on the conduct of household affairs and practical instructions concerning the store-room, the pantry, the larder, the kitchen, the cellar, the dairy; the whole being intended for the use of young ladies who undertake the superintendence of their own housekeeping, by Anne Cobbett (1851). Project Gutenberg eBook #55314.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards. Its words name: a substance or vessel no longer considered safe. Check current food-safety guidance before following this.

Source and licence

From The English Housekeeper, by Anne Cobbett (1851). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #55314 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55314). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

Read the original Public domain in the USA

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.

Spain. Associated with Spain by a demonym leading its title: Spanish (confidence 0.55). "Associated with" means only that the evidence named here links this recipe to that place. A recipe isn't labelled as representing an entire country because a source associates it with one, and regional origins are kept where the source gives them.

  • Additives or old utensils. The text names something no longer considered safe in food or for cooking in, such as lead, alum, borax, bitter almonds or copper pans. Don't use it.

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Ingredients

Method

  1. Set 1½ pint of thin cream over the fire, leaving out a tea-cupful;
  2. put in 6 or 8 bitter almonds, and ¼ oz.
  3. isinglass dissolved in a basin with boiling water enough to cover it;
  4. simmer for three-quarters of an hour, or till the isinglass is dissolved;
  5. mix smoothly into the cold cream a table-spoonful of ground rice, pour it into the hot cream, stirring all the time, and simmer it gently till it thickens sufficiently.
  6. Flavour with 2 table-spoonsful of orange flower, or rose water, or what you like;
  7. strain through a coarse hair sieve, and stir till nearly cold, when pour it into cups dipped in cold water.
  8. Let these stand in a cool place;
  9. when firm, turn them out on a dish, stick them with blanched almonds sliced, and garnish with preserved cucumber, citron, or other preserve;
  10. when about to serve, pour a little cold cream into the dish.--Or: boil a pint of cream with a stick of cinnamon, let it cool, strain it, add 3 table-spoonsful of rice flour, the whites of 3 eggs well beaten, sugar, and a little rose water;
  11. set it over the fire, and simmer till as thick as hasty pudding;
  12. wet a mould with rose water, pour the custard in;
  13. when cold, turn it out.