Month: May 2024

Old-Fashioned Raisin Custard

Raisin Custard

I love old-fashioned baked custards so decided to try a hundred-year-old recipe for Raisin Custard. The raisins are on the bottom of the custard. I want to say that they sank to the bottom, but I think that the recipe author intended for there to be plain custard on the top and a raisin-custard mixture on the bottom.

The Raisin Custard was very delicate, but the recipe didn’t call for any sugar, so the custard was not sweet (though the raisins added a bit of sweetness when I got to the bottom).

Here’s the original recipe:

recipe for Raisin Custard
Modern Priscilla Cook Book (1924)

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Raisin Custard

  • Servings: 4 - 6
  • Difficulty: moderate
  • Print

2 eggs

2 cups milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2/3 cup raisins, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 325° F. Put eggs in mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add milk, salt, and nutmeg; beat until thoroughly combined. Pour mixture into custard cups. Place the custard cups in a pan with hot water that comes to about an inch below the top of the cups ( 4 – 6 custard cups will be needed. The number of custard cups needed will vary depending upon the size of the custard cups.) Bake for 60-90 minutes or until a knife inserted in center of the custard comes out clean.  May be served warm or cold.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

1924 Directions for Cooking Hot Cereals

Table About Cooking Hot Cereals
Source: Low Cost Cooking by Florence Nesbitt (1924)

Here’s some excerpts from a hundred-year-old cookbook  about how to cook hot cereals:

Cooking Breakfast Cereals

Cereals are made from hard grains and contain much starch, so require long cooking to make them easily digested. Do not be deceived by directions on the box which say that the contents can be cooked in 15 or 20 minutes. This is never long enough to cook thoroughly and make them fit food for young children.

When the coal range is used, a very convenient way to cook the cereal is to start it cooking at supper time and leave closely covered on the back of the range all night. In the morning it will be found to be well done.

All of the cereals named above may be served hot as mush with cream or milk with or without sugar. Mush may also be served with syrup instead of milk. Cornmeal mush is much liked in this way.

Low Cost Cooking by Florence Nesbitt (1924)