Recipe Box Adventure!

I have always been fascinated by old recipes. I collect antiques and am always scouring the shops looking for old recipe books. I always hunt for a recipe box which actually contains the recipes from the home cook. In all my travels, and all of the recipe boxes that I have looked at, I have never found one that had the recipes contained within. On a recent trip to Texas, I found such a box! It was made in Japan (has the sticker on it) but was sold to its owner in Bruners San Antonio Corpus for $1.00. There was a label in the box written by the shop keeper which said “Purchased in 1950”. It is jam packed with recipes and I decided that it would be fun to include you, my readers, as we explore this recipe box together.

I am also a home cook who has a passion for cooking, food and all things yummy. So, I thought, why not combine my love of cooking, old recipes and exploration in this blog that I could share with my friends?

I’m not sure how many recipes are actually contained in the box, but it could be a couple of hundred which will keep us entertained for many days to come.

Together we will pull one recipe at a time and I will attempt to cook it. I have to admit, I’m not much of a baker but will give it my very best effort. I hope that in exploring these recipes we can keep history alive and cookin’!

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Recipe Box- Recipe  #8

Custard Pie:

Pastry for 1 crust for 9 inch pie
3 Eggs
6 Tbsp Sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 Cups hot milk
1 tsp vanilla
Nutmeg

Bake 40 minutes at 425 degrees

Hello Recipe Box lovers!!  Another snowy weekend which is a perfect time for blogging!
Will it ever end???  Nothing to do but resign myself to at least a few more days of winter.

This recipe came out of the box next.  Custard Pie.  I've never made a custard pie but have enjoyed eating them!  I love custard.  Any kind of custard, puddings, etc. 
Not much to this recipe.  Simple, easy, right??  Okay...here we go...
Included ceramic chicken, not sure why.

As you can see, I decided to change it up a bit this time and not use a frozen pie crust.  I'm going out on a limb and using a refrigerated pie crust dough.  Don't laugh.
Good old Pillsbury.  Gotta love it!  And, I actually found my glass pie dish.  Yes, I really do have a pie dish-
Explored and found my pyrex pie dish!!

I just never use it.  Baking not my thing, remember?  So, after dusting it off, I'm ready to go.
Easy as Pie!

Because there are no directions in this recipe, I'm going to have to wing it.  I guess I will mix all ingredients together with my mixer.  I also preheated my oven to 425.

I decided to first make the hot milk.  Again, directions would be helpful as winging it while baking isn't a great idea.  I put the milk into a sauce pan and am slowly heating it.  I would think one of the things to watch for is scalded milk, right?  We don't want scalded milk. 

I heated the milk on medium heat for approx 5 minutes.  Kept stirring it and testing to see how hot it was. 
Look for a ring of bubbles around the milk but keep stirring!

I'm mixing up all of the other ingredients in a large mixing bowl- using my hand mixer.  So happy to be able to use that good vanilla again.

I'm also adding the milk a little at a time to the egg mixture.  One thing that I do know, from other meals that I've made, that it is very important to add the milk slowly because other wise you will have scrambled eggs on your hands! 

Look at how foamy it is!  Is that what it is supposed to look like?  I'm getting nervous that I've done something wrong.

Poured it carefully into the pie crust.  Now, the trick is to get it into the oven without spilling it everywhere! 

Success!  It's now in the oven. 

So, while the custard pie is cooking, I decided to research custard origins.  As it turns out, custard has a wonderful history going back to ancient times.  Check out this cool food timeline for more information:

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodpuddings.html

So interesting, isn't it??

Custards and puddings have had a long history in our country.  From the early settlers enjoying Persimmon Pudding to Plum Pudding, Pots de Creme and Creme Brulee.  I actually have a recipe which was used by Julien who was Thomas Jefferson's French cook in Washington.  It is for Creme Brulee and sounds tremendous!  There is a note which says that - before broilers (in ovens) came into general use, the crust was glazed by passing a hot shovel or salamander over it!  I'd be happy to share that recipe with you if you would like to challenge yourself! 

Also, refined white sugar was a scarce commodity during the Pioneer days, so custards were made using honey. (Yum, I bet that would be tasty!)

Time to check on the pie! 
Filling looks good- pie crust looks sad in parts!

Finished product!  I remembered to test it by sticking a knife in it.  If the knife comes back clean, then the custard is done.  AND, it was 40 minutes just like the recipe said.
I thought that this was the best recipe in the recipe box so far.  The custard was sublime.  Not too sweet and I could taste the vanilla and the nutmeg.  But, remember, I love custard.  Hubbie doesn't really like the texture of custard and really didn't care for it.  (Although, he politely ate the whole piece)
I would, for sure, make this again...maybe just for myself.  I will chastise myself, however, for not attempting a proper pie crust because this filling deserves a really good homemade crust.  Finally, a recipe box recipe which will be saved for keeps!  See you soon my friends as we keep exploring this recipe box together!.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)