custard
(ˈkʌstəd)
[app. a perverted form of crustade, with which it is connected by the forms crustarde and custad(e. The fashion of the thing appears to have altered about 1600.]
1. † a. Formerly, a kind of open pie containing pieces of meat or fruit covered with a preparation of broth or milk, thickened with eggs, sweetened, and seasoned with spices, etc. = crustade. b. Now, a dish made with eggs beaten up and mixed with milk to a stiff consistency, sweetened, and baked; also a similar preparation served in a liquid form.
| [c 1390 Crustarde: see crustade.] c 1450 Two Cookery-bks. 74 Custarde..Custard lumbarde [Recipes identical with those on pp. 50, 51, for Crustade and Crustade lumbard]. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 802 Bakemete, or Custade Costable, when eggis & crayme be geson. 1530 Palsgr. 211/2 Custarde, dariolle [‘Darioles, small pasties filled with flesh, hearbes, and spices, mingled, and minced together’ (Cotgr.)]. a 1592 Greene Jas. IV (1861) 208 Cut it me like the battlements Of a custard, full of round holes. 1628 Earle Microcosm., Cook (Arb.) 47 Quaking Tarts, and quiuering Custards, and such milke sop Dishes. 1665 Phil. Trans. I. 118 White like the white of a Custard. 1688 R. Holme Armoury in Babees Bk. (1868) 211, Custard, open Pies, or without lids, filled with Eggs and Milk; called also Egg-Pie. 1740 Somerville Hobbinol iii. (1749) 158 The Custard's jelly'd Flood. 1864 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 231 To take always the new milk and the custard at twelve. 1887 R. N. Carey Uncle Max xv. 114 [Her] custards and flaky crust were famed in the village. |
2. attrib. and
Comb. a. = Custard-like, as
† custard-cap,
† custard-crown,
† custard-pate;
b. custard cup,
custard pudding;
custard-crammed adj.;
† custard-coffin, the ‘coffin’ or crust of a ‘custard’;
custard-cups, a local name (Shropshire) for the Willow-herb,
Epilobium hirsutum (
cf. codlins-and-cream);
custard pie, a pie containing custard; commonly used as a missile in broad comedy, hence used
attrib. or allusively to denote comedy of this type;
custard powder, a preparation in powder form for making custard by mixing it with milk;
custard tree, the tree bearing the custard-apple.
| 1676 D'Urfey Mad. Fickle i. i, You shall drink Bumpers out of your *Custard-Cap you Rogue. |
| 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iii. 82 It is [a] paltrie cap, A *custard coffen, a bauble, a silken pie. |
| 1671 F. Phillips Reg. Necess. 373 Not to bear Offices in their Parishes or *Custard-cram'd Companies. |
| 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1871) 29 The houses here have not such flat *custard-crowns at the top, as they have [at Cadiz]. |
| 1825 Columbian Centinel 5 Jan. 3/5 (Advt.), Dishes, Tureens, *Custard Cups. 1843 Dickens Christmas Carol iii. 95 A custard-cup without a handle. |
| a 1625 Beaum. & Fl. Bloody Bro. iii. ii, Do you hear? You *Custard Pate, we go to't for high Treason. |
| 1832 L. M. Child Frugal Housewife 68 It is a general rule to put eight eggs to a quart of milk, in making *custard pies. 1920 S. Lewis Main Street xvi. 198 Mr. Schnarken slipped a piece of custard pie into the clergyman's rear pocket. 1933 Punch 29 Nov. 609/3 [The show] is wanting in straight-cut wit, and it falls back too often on custard-pie. 1940 Graves & Hodge Long Week-End ix. 133 Charlie Chaplin..won enormous popularity..with his custard-pie comedies. |
| 1852 H. Beasley Druggist's Gen. Receipt Bk. (ed. 2) 268 *Custard Powder consists of sago meal, coloured with turmeric, and flavoured. 1951 Good Housek. Home Encycl. 433/2 Mock custards..can be made with cornflour or with the various proprietary custard powders on the market. |
| 1728 E. Smith Compleat Housewife 95 To make a *Custard Pudding. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 169 A boiled Custard Pudding. 1787 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ode upon Ode Wks. 1794 I. 382 Rich as..custard pudding at a city feast. 1808 T. Ashe Trav. x. 85 [Custard Island abounds] with the papaw, which is vulgarly known by the name of the Custard tree. |
Hence
ˈcustardly,
ˈcustardy adjs., of the nature of or resembling custard.
| 1870 J. Orton Andes & Amazons xix. (1877) 290 The rind..incloses a rich custardly pulp. Ibid. ii. xxxviii. 510 A rich custardy pulp. 1901 G. Meredith Let. 31 Dec. (1912) II. 522 The Madeira apples were custardy and curious. 1961 M. Beadle These Ruins are Inhabited (1963) iii. 39 Dinner..ends with something custardy. |
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custard cream n. (a) soft or pourable custard, often used as a sauce or filling for desserts (
cf. sense b);
(b) chiefly
Brit. a type of sandwich biscuit with a vanilla-flavoured cream filling.
| 1829 Mrs. Dalgairns Pract. Cookery 293 *Custard cream. Boil in half a pint of milk..and add to three pints of cream; stir into it the well-beaten yolks of eight eggs,..serve in a glass dish. 1916 Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 16 Dec. 4/2 Biscuits are not without their place in this large grocery... We mention the following:..Jam Roll, Custard Creams, [etc.]. 1980 N.Y. Times 20 June c22/4 Tarte Bressane with its eggy almond sweetened custard cream filling. 2000 J. Pemberton Forever & Ever Amen i. 9 They weren't in the mood for anything much, except a cup of tea perhaps, and some custard creams. |