And there I was, reading the directions and they started with, “on the cob”. WHAT? I have to go out and buy fresh corn at this time of year to make Custard? You;ve got to be kidding, says I and then.,,,,I saw the picture with four little circles on it. A Cob must be a Stove in the UK.!! So what is the mix to milk ratio.....uh, let’s see now........ Let’s go back a couple of years. I love custard and have made hundreds of gallons of the stuff but for home use, I just don’t want to crack and separate a bunch of eggs any longer. So I looked up “instant custard” on Amazon and although I knew that Jello used to make a mix, they apparently no longer do. Okay, so what is Bird’s? A UK product that all the reviews are head over heels about and at the time took about 2 months to get. To heck with it, says I. Back to a few days ago, I noticed on Amazon that could get Bird’s Custard in 3 days so yes, I bought some and today it got here. Sunday USPS deliveries are so delightful. Good payback for screwing up my other deliveries. I digress. Back to the beginning now. It’s pretty easy. A pint of milk to two tablespoons of mix and two tablespoons of sugar (more or less) and maybe a drop or two of vanilla extract or vanilla bean like in Creme’ Brulet. Pretty much it’s a follow the easy directions and remember the cob means stove in England, After it thickened and refrigerated for a while it thickened a little more. Taste wise, it could go on anything from cake to broiled bass. Texture wise, it needs work but I think all I have to do is up the mix ratio and all will be well., To be sure, it’s probably one of England’s best kept secrets because for my tastes, I’m just not the biggest fan of British food.
No sugar but the mix does contain cornstarch, salt and flavoring. (whatever that means) It calls for two tablespoons of sugar or sugar substitute per 1 pint of milk but I imagine that even brown sugar would work well also. Yvonne took what I made last night and added some rice and nutmeg to it and we had an excellent rice pudding.
Eggs, sugar, cornstarch (flour) , and vanilla flavoring will make the same thing; probably a lot cheaper.
It would and it is probably better. That said, I have cracked and separated more eggs than most people see in a lifetime. I have made gallons of Hollondaise, Bernaise, Mayonaise, Custard, Brulet, Meringue, Alfredo and the list goes on and on so with the exception of cracking a couple of eggs to go with a steak, I’m pretty much cracked out. Unless of course my wife asked me to make one of those sauces, desserts or toppings. I have learned throughout my life that as a husband, there are limits to saying no.
I would have guessed it contained mostly powdered eggs and powdered milk. Strange. Custard pie is really good. Haven't had any for years.
We used to call that Poor Man's Pie because poor assy farmers always had milk, eggs, sugar, and flour. The Watkin's man came around selling vanilla flavoring cheap so we always had that.
Yet, take a somewhat refined custard and call it a flan or creme brulet and people pay major bucks for it.
Because Birds is from the UK, I have learned yet another word I was not familiar with, I was doing a little research about thickening the mix a little more without changing the flavor. Notably, any custard can be thickened by either adding another whole egg or corn starch but I just wanted to check to make sure the mix would accept those two alternatives,. Note on the egg thing: extra whole egg for thickening, extra egg yolk for more creaminess. So, here I am reading along and one suggestion was to “bung it on the cob” some more. Now THAT’S creepy said I until I looked up the word and found that yup, it’s primarily British for doing something again quickly. I guess that meant to place the custard back onto the stove and heat it so more whilst stirring constantly. So, if at any time you need to heat something up quickly you can just bung it on the cob and hope no one hears you say it whilst doing it. 2nd note: I changed the recipe and I used an extra tbsp of mix per pint and a tbsp of cornstarch and bingo.....a nice thick custard. 3rd note: Come to find out, Birds custard is pretty famous in India among the Hindis. A majority of Hindis are vegan and Birds is without a doubt, vegan. Without the additional eggs of course.