Fanny Longfellow's "Burnt Cream"

Duration:

8 minutes, 4 seconds

Ranger Kate makes "Burnt Cream" (more familiar today as crème brûlée) from Fanny Longfellow's recipe book.

Frances Elizabeth Appleton Longfellow Papers, Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS

The Historic Recipe

This recipe comes from a manuscript book of lists of household goods & recipes kept by Fanny Longfellow from around her marriage in 1843 to 1858. The volume today is part of her papers at Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS.

The original recipe, in Fanny Longfellow's handwriting, reads:

Boil 1 qt new milk with the rind of 2 lemons and a little white sugar. As soon as cool mix in 2 table spoons full of fine flour and four beaten eggs. Set it on the fire stirring all the time till it is as thick as custard; then pour it into a flat pudding dish; strew brown sugar all over the top, & salamander it very brown with a red hot shovel.

The recipe is recognizable as the custard base for a crème brûlée. It deviates significantly in the last step - "salamander it very brown" - resulting in the "burnt" or "brûlée" appearance of the cream. The Longfellows' cook would have used a salamander - a metal tool with a flat disc and long handle - heated "red hot" on the stove or in a fire to finish the dish.

Burnt Cream

A rich custard with a carmelized top.

Ingredients:

• 1 quart milk
• 2 lemons, zested
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 4 eggs
• brown sugar, for topping

Instructions:

Boil milk with the lemon zest and white sugar. As soon as cool, mix in flour and four beaten eggs. Set it on the fire stirring all the time till it is as thick as custard; then pour it into a flat pudding dish, and strew brown sugar all over the top. Carmelize the sugar: use a kitchen blowtorch, put the oven-safe dish under a hot broiler, or - if you happen to have a salamander - use it "red hot" to make the sugar topping "very brown."