A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [183]
—Mrs. Edith Phillips Russell, Beaverdam Club
* * *
AUNT EMMA’S BOURBON CUSTARD
MAKES 8 TO 10 SERVINGS
I love Tidewater Virginia, particularly that woodsy stretch undulating along the north bank of the James River (Route 5) between Richmond and Williamsburg. There are half a dozen imposing plantations here in FFV (First Family of Virginia) country, one of which (Berkeley, built in 1726) was the birthplace of one American president (William Henry Harrison) and the ancestral home of a second (Ohio-born Benjamin Harrison). Here, too, is Sherwood Forest, the home of President John Tyler. When I was a food editor at The Ladies’ Home Journal, I covered Tyler’s granddaughter’s debut. Two decades later, I returned to Sherwood Forest to interview Payne Tyler, the wife of Tyler grandson Harrison Ruffin Tyler, for a Bon Appétit article on James River plantation recipes. This unusual bourbon custard appeared in that article. The recipe, Payne told me, is one from her South Carolina family; she grew up at Mulberry Hill Plantation in Edgefield County near Aiken. The recipe was her Aunt Emma’s. It seems that Aunt Emma’s mother-in-law, Effie, could only make one thing: angel food cake, which called for a dozen egg whites. According to Payne, Aunt Emma thought that there must be a way to use up the twelve egg yolks, so she created this bourbon custard. “It’s just like eating silk,” Payne says.
4 cups (1 quart) heavy cream
1 cup sugar
12 jumbo egg yolks, lightly beaten
½ cup fine bourbon
1. Preheat the oven to 325° F. Butter a 2-quart casserole and set aside.
2. Bring the cream and sugar to a simmer in a large, heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
3. Whisk 1 cup of the hot cream mixture into the beaten egg yolks, then stir back into the saucepan and cook and stir for about a minute or just until the mixture begins to thicken. Do not boil or the custard may curdle. Strain the custard into a large heatproof bowl and mix in the bourbon.
4. Pour the custard into the casserole and set in a large shallow baking pan. Slide onto the middle oven shelf, then pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the casserole.
5. Bake the custard for 1 to 1¼ hours until lightly browned; the custard may not be completely set.
6. Transfer the custard to a wire rack and cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for several hours or until softly set.
I know folks all have a tizzy about it, but I like a little bourbon of an evening. It helps me sleep.
—LILLIAN CARTER
* * *
Heirloom Recipe
BONNEY-CLABBER OR LOPPERED MILK
I reprint here an old dessert just as it appears in From North Carolina Kitchens: Favorite Recipes Old and New, an uncopyrighted collection of recipes from the state’s Home Demonstration Club women published in the 1950s. Set a china, or glass dish of skimmed milk away in a warm place, covered. When it turns—i.e. becomes a smooth, firm, but not tough cake, like blanc-mange—serve in the same dish. Cut out carefully with a large spoon, and put in saucers, with cream, powdered sugar, and nutmeg to taste. It is better, if set on the ice for an hour before it is brought to table. Do not let it stand until the whey separates from the curd.
Few people know how delicious this healthful and cheap dessert can be if eaten before it becomes tart and tough; with a liberal allowance of cream and sugar. There are not many jellies and creams superior to it.
—Pasquotank County, North Carolina
* * *
Only a Southerner knows that “gimme some sugar” doesn’t mean “pass the sugar bowl.”
—ANONYMOUS
PORT WINE JELLY
MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS
This is such an old-fashioned recipe that few people bother to make it any more. And that’s a shame because it’s both simple and sophisticated. I first tasted wine jelly one Sunday lunch when I was no more than ten. It had been made by the wife of one of my father