is now deemed a mixture of milk and eggs thickened by heating. It is a basic item of western cooking and occurs in many dishes in either a dominant or subsidiary role. It may be baked (although current British usage will usually distinguish it as ‘baked’) or gently cooked (just short of boiling), but for that see custard sauce, below.
It derives from the French word croustade, denoting an uncovered pastry case or tart which was often, if not invariably, filled with what we call custard. Hence the container gave its name to the filling. Meanwhile, in France, there was the flan, again a pastry case, often filled with a custard base. Here too, the container lent its name to the contained, for the flan beloved of southern French and Spanish restaurants (crème caramel elsewhere) is innocent of pastry.
The French word for ‘custard’, in all its guises, is crème, and thus it is easy to forget the role that custard mixtures play in things as diverse as quiche Lorraine and éclairs. See also crème caramel and crème brûlée for connected subjects.
The use of custard-filled ‘pies’ or tarts was memorably extended in the 1920s, when the throwing of custard pies into the faces of characters in silent films became a standard Hollywood procedure. Lorna Woodsum Riley (1987) devoted a chapter of her appropriately titled Reel Meals to the subject, recalling that the comedienne Mabel Normand, around 1913, launched the first such missile, probably at Fatty Arbuckle; that Arbuckle himself developed into a champion pie-thrower (able to toss two at once in opposite directions); that the pâtisserie which supplied the pies to Keystone Studios soon developed a special ballistic version of the pie, with heavy-duty pastry and especially slurpy ‘custard’, demand for which from film-makers—who might stage scenes in which a thousand or more pies would be thrown—grew to such an extent that the pâtisserie was eventually making nothing else. Marion Mead (1996), writing about Buster Keaton, gives a precise recipe for custard pies for throwing. These are most certainly inedible. She also describes three different throwing techniques.
Two other medieval preparations, caudle and posset, have a history linked with that of custard, and in some instances have virtually been custards. Although in their plainest form they were drinks, they were often thickened to a fair degree of solidity.
One way of cooking custards was to bake them in a bread oven after the bread was taken out and when the oven was fairly cool, or in one of the small side ovens which became increasingly usual at the end of the Middle Ages. Another device used at this time, the chafing dish gently heated with a layer of hot coals under it, provided an ideal way of making custards. Sometimes the thick kind of medieval custard was further stiffened by adding breadcrumbs. This was done with both tart fillings and free-standing custards. Other ‘enforcements’, as the term was, were flour and finely pounded meat, for example pork flavoured with sage. There was at this time no clear distinction between savoury and sweet, and meat might coexist with quantities of sweet ingredients such as sugar and fruit, as well as almonds, herbs, and spices.
A gelling agent was sometimes added to custards for serving cold. Some old local British recipes make use of carrageen moss. Custards liquid enough to pour were also made, variously flavoured. These might be poured onto bread to make a ‘sop’, or onto poached eggs.
In the 16th century ‘fruit creams’ became popular. These were sweet, made with eggs, cream, and puréed fruit. Early types of fool were similar. During this time it became usual to make custards in dishes or individual cups rather than in a pastry case, though many types of custard tart continued to be popular.
Much later, when ice cream arrived in Britain, custard mixtures were used for it as well as straight cream ones, one reason being that a rich emulsion was less prone to form unwanted ice crystals during freezing.
Custard sauce is made from the same ingredients as custard, but is runnier. It is now very much more common than a true custard, at least in Britain. Indeed, the term ‘custard’ by itself usually refers to the sauce, as in ‘Prunes and Custard’ (to select a menu item which many people, although unjustly, regard as offputting—what could be better than prunes d'Agen with a well-made custard sauce?)
What is unclear is just when the transfer of custard to the sauceboat began to happen. There are various mid-19th-century recipes for rich custards including flavourings such as bitter almonds, chocolate, various liqueurs, and lemon zest, but they were served cold, probably alone. Mrs Beeton (1861) does, however, give a recipe for a ‘custard sauce for tarts or puddings’ of eggs and milk, so the transition had begun by the time she was writing.
What is abundantly clear is the importance in all this of the invention of custard powder. This product is not a dried form of real custard. It consists mainly of cornflour and sugar, coloured and flavoured, to which hot milk is added to make a sauce. It was invented by Alfred Bird, who opened a shop in Birmingham in 1837 under the sign ‘Alfred Bird F.C.S., Experimental Chemist’. Johnston (1977) says that:
it was not the pursuit of scientific knowledge which prompted him to devise a new custard based on cornflour rather than eggs, but rather his concern to find a compromise between his wife's partiality to custard and her allergy to eggs.
Demand for Bird's product increased steadily during the second half of the 19th century. Competitors, using formulae whose ingredients included arrowroot, sago flour, or potato starch, coloured with turmeric or chrome yellow, and flavoured with cassia or bitter almonds, also entered the market. Bird's, however, promoted their product with skilful salesmanship, and became so closely identified with custard powder that few competitors survived.
A principal factor in the success of custard powder was that, as it did not contain eggs, there was no longer any risk of the sauce curdling in unskilled hands. During the late 20th century, the old egg-based custard sauce has become a rarity.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Beeton, Isabella (1861), Beeton's Book of Household Management, facsimile of 1st edn, London: Chancellor (1982).
Johnston, James P. (1977), A Hundred Years Eating, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
Riley, Lorna Woodsum (1987), Reel Meals: Movie Lover's Cookbook, Lombard, Ill.: Wallace-Homestead.
