Sugar Savvy

The cover to “The Farmer’s Wife Comfort Food Cookbook” reminds me of the type of home and family Norman Rockwell made famous, where the wife is in the kitchen, the husband is relaxing with a pipe and the paper, and Johnny and Jane are carelessly playing outside. It’s no wonder that the recipes inside are all about being part of that same view of wholesome American life. In fact, each one is a republished recipe from the early days of “The Farmer’s Wife” magazine.

Flipping through you’ll notice that all of the recipes come from the early 1900s and have been republished in their original form. At times you’ll have strange measuring notes mentioned like “teacup” and “gill.” But don’t worry, the introduction to the cookbook goes well in-depth into the recipe changes and notations you need to watch out for. So while in a novel you might skip the intro and jump right into the story, this is certainly one where a little author explanation is a must.

The recipe I finally settled on was for a basic custard that came to me all the way from the year “1937,” which read as follows:

• 8 egg yolks
• 2/3 c. sugar
• sprinkle salt
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract
• 3 c. milk
• 1/4 c. milk

Beat yolks, add sugar. Mix in rest of ingredients. Pour into a buttered baking dish. Set in pan of hot water. Bake for 50 minutes in a slow oven (about 325F). Remove pan from water. Cool and chill. I often baked this custard along with my angel food, since both require the same oven.

To be honest I haven’t had custard in years, and any memory I had of its taste or consistency had been forever lost. Nonetheless the recipe looked simple enough for me not to screw up, and it didn’t deal with using bacon fat, an ingredient you will come to notice in many a recipe throughout the book.

The result of my mixing and stirring is what you see here.

It smelled like cake batter with a similar consistency. I was pretty optimistic. Who doesn’t like cake batter? Forty five minutes later this is what came out of the oven.

Since my experience with custard is far from extensive, I was concerned that it was too watery in the center. The outer edges were more jello like, but when I shook the pan the center would sway back and forth. I hoped an overnight in the fridge would do it some good so I set that in motion.

The next day the custard of my labor was taste tested by myself, the custard-newbie, and by other people in my household with more experience. To me it tasted of melted vanilla ice cream and the others shared a similar reaction. As for its thickness it perhaps could have done with some more cooking, but overall I had successfully made custard!

I’d give it another try in the future. Maybe making the banana custard listed under the recipe I chose, and even making the angel food cake recipe at the same time, something the recipe itself recommended.