Custard Puddings.
Very much depends upon the baking in all puddings made with milk and eggs.
A custard pudding made with one egg, and slowly baked, will be much thicker and nicer than one made with more eggs, baked in too hot an oven.
A custard pudding baked too quickly or too long will have the eggs mixed with the farinaceous substance and the milk turned to whey, while one more carefully baked will have eggs and milk formed into a thick custard on the top.
Custard puddings and all other baked puddings which require to be cooked slowly, are best cooked in an earthen dish set in the oven in a pan of hot water, and baked only till the pudding is set. If it is desirable to use with eggs any ingredient which requires a lengthy cooking, it is much better to cook it partially before adding the eggs. Many custard desserts are much more dainty and more easily served when cooked in cups than when baked in a large dish. The blue willow pattern stoneware cups and the blue and white Japanese ware are very suitable for this purpose. When cooking, set the cups, allowing one for each person, in the oven in a dripping pan containing hot water, and bake. Serve without removing from the cups.
If desired to stir beaten eggs into heated milk, add a few spoonfuls of cold milk to the eggs, and pour the mixture, a little at a time, into the hot milk, taking care to stir it constantly.
A nice way to flavour custards and meringues for custard puddings is to beat fruit jelly with the whites of the eggs; red raspberry, quince, and pineapple jellies give especially nice flavours.