Custard Pie Recipe – Vintage – Jewish
Posted by Warren
Makes one 9-inch pie, single crust, custard filling
Aunt Babette’s Cook Book By Aunt Babette,1897
This Jewish custard pie recipe is made with non-kosher ingredients (Yes you read it right the first time). With this amount of eggs, this custard is rich and buttery. It seems nutmeg is common with custards.
Custard Pie Recipe
Aunt Babette’s Cook Book By Aunt Babette,1897
CUSTARD PIE.
Line your pie-plate with a rich crust. Beat up five eggs light with one-half cup of sugar, a pinch of salt, one pint of milk and grated nutmeg or grated lemon peel, and pour in shell and bake.
A Cookbook with vintage pie recipes
“Aunt Babette” was very popular, had many printings and was in print for more than 25 years. The recipes are American, English, French and German as well as Jewish. That the book is non-kosher is readily apparent by the many recipes for oysters, crab, ham, shrimp and lobster.
By the time Mrs. Babette wrote her cookbook, the Reform Movement within Judiasm was taking hold and her book, along with the others selected for this compilation were non Kosher, showing, perhaps, the growing assimilation of the Jewish community.
Custard Pie Recipe – Old Fashioned of 1897
—Ingredients and instructions are not the actual vintage recipe but is provided for reference purposes.
Pastry dough – single crust
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup ice cold water
1 teaspoon cold canola oil
Filling
1 1/2 pint milk (scalded)
heaping table-spoonful of sugar
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of salt
Directions
1. Prepare the pastry: Roll the pastry and line a 9-inch pie plate with the bottom crust. Roll out the remaining dough for the top crust. Chill the pastry and partial-bake.
2. Heat the milk until a thin skin appears on top of the liquid.
Milk or cream is the most common base for custards. Heavy cream makes a richer and more flavorable custard.
3. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
4. Mix the eggs, sugar, nutmeg and salt in a separate bowl. Do not over beat to the point air gets incorporated into the mixture. This will make your custard grainy.
5. Whisking the egg mixture constantly, slowly add about a third of the hot milk. This will temper the eggs. If this is done too quickly, the eggs will cook, and you will have scrambled eggs in your custard.
6. Now add the rest of the milk whisking slowly
7. Slowly pour the mixture into the cooled partially baked pie shell.
8. Cover edges of pie with foil or use a pie crust shield.
9. Set the pie on the lower center oven rack and bake for 20 minutes, turn the pie 180° degrees. Continue baking until the center is set, about another 20 minutes.
Overcooked custard
will have
a pronounced ???eggy??? flavor.
10. When ready the filling will be firm. The edges of the filling may puff up a little. You should not see much browning.
11. Shake the custard gently to check for doneness. When the custard ripples on the surface that move back and forth like jello it is properly done. You do not want waves of concentric, circular, rings when giving the shake test.
12. Transfer the pie to cool and set in refrigerator to chill.
Custard Pie Success
Custard pies are great for kids. The pie can be made in small pie pans of 5 inch or smaller. And what better way for them to get their daily nutrition.
