Egg Custard FAIL - please advise?

[KilroyJC]

Since we got chickens back in May, we have plenty of eggs.

The cost per egg based on expenses is finally below $5/egg.

I decided to make some egg custard, and went with a very basic recipe of 1 gallon milk, one dozen eggs, two cups of sugar, and some vanilla extract.

Cooked it up as per instructions (simmer on stove for 30 minutes) and ladled it into a bunch of five-oz cups, and put them in the fridge overnight.

They did not set.

SO, I cracked another dozen eggs, beat in a 1/4 cup of flour and two tablespoons of cornstarch, emptied all the cups into a pot and added the additional eggs, repeated cooking, and ladled into cups and put them into the fridge overnight.

Woke up this morning and they still didn’t set!

Today, I will pick up some dark rum, strain/funnel the liquid into some bottles and add rum, and make eggnog for the winter, because I am not going to waste a gallon of milk and two dozen eggs.

Any culinary experts have any ideas why the custard never thickened?

Thanks.

 

[tacticalturnip]

I'm curious as to the answers you'll get; I've never made custard but one day I'll give it a shot, I just fear I'd be the only one to eat it.

 

[KilroyJC]

I'm curious as to the answers you'll get; I've never made custard but one day I'll give it a shot, I just fear I'd be the only one to eat it.

I also posted this on another blog I follow (InstaPundit ) and I got the detailed explanation:

”

George Turner an hour ago
A custard needs to low boil at least three minutes or the alpha-amylase will turn the starch you added back into sugar, resulting in sweet eggnog. This happens over time, as the starch conversion takes time, especially at fridge temperatures.
Alpha-amylase is the enzyme that breaks down the starches found in barley malt and turns them into fermentable sugars. It basically rips starch molecules into hunks of smaller starches, until it gets to the larger sugars. The enzyme also found in abundance in human mouths, as we ended up with a whole lot of duplicate genes for it, whereas other primates only have a couple. This indicates we've been surviving on starches for a long long time.
Anyway, alpha-amylase achieves a peak activity at about 155F, so a lot of pre-thermometer beer lore is centered around clever ways to hit that temperature for mashing, such as adding X units of boiling water to Y units of wort, in sometimes elaborate sequences, with pretty precise time intervals. There's also a beta-amylase enzyme that breaks down starches by nibbling sugars off the ends, and beta has a slightly different temperature for optimal activity, so by being really precise with the temperatures, the brewer can adjust they type of sugars that come from the grain, and thus residual sweetness, mouth feel, and some other factors that separate a really good European beer from Coors Light.
Anyway, alpha-amylase keeps on working at lower temperatures, which is why your saliva is full of it. To keep it from continuing to convert all the starches in a malt into sugars, which would screw up a lot of great beers, the mashing the temperature is raised to 167 F and held there for a few minutes, which denatures the amylase enzyme. A brief temperature excursion won't denature it all.
And so it is with your custard. Eggs have a lot of amylase enzyme in them, and your added starch is a starch, the very thing amylase enzyme destroys, whether quickly at 155 F or slowly at cooler temperatures. So you have to kill the amylase with a good but low boil that keeps the custard above 167 F for three or more minutes.
If you didn't do that, you can just reboil your custard, and add more starch because the starch you'd added got turned into a variety of sugars.”

so, basically, I need to use a thermometer.

 

[Torvy]

Sometimes cooking instructions seem easy, but the details matter. The writer knows what they meant, but often the writer assumes facts not in evidence.

I finally got pretty good at boiled eggs. My wife 'followed' my instructions but ended up with way undercooked eggs. A minute here or there can make a big difference.

Your thermometer should help. In some cases, changes in barometric pressure and humidity can tip the scales on things like that, too. Enjoy the eggnog and the journey.

 

[KilroyJC]

Sometimes cooking instructions seem easy, but the details matter. The writer knows what they meant, but often the writer assumes facts not in evidence.

I finally got pretty good at boiled eggs. My wife 'followed' my instructions but ended up with way undercooked eggs. A minute here or there can make a big difference.

Your thermometer should help. In some cases, changes in barometric pressure and humidity can tip the scales on things like that, too. Enjoy the eggnog and the journey.

Every day should be a learning experience

 

[3Ts]

While we're on the subject of eggs and the importance of directions and time. I've been doing hard boiled eggs like Mom told me to which was in a pan of boiling water with 1 week old eggs. Still had a problem peeling them and some times the yolk would have a green ring or the very center wasn't cooked. I finally came across a video on how to cook them properly. Turns out you don't want them in the water because the shells are porous and something happens to make the membrane stick to the egg during cooking. What needs to be done is steam them for 15 minutes, then an ice bath for 15 minutes and they come out beautiful and are easy to peel and the egg white remains intact. Just a small change makes all the difference in the world.

 

[Torvy]

While we're on the subject of eggs and the importance of directions and time. I've been doing hard boiled eggs like Mom told me to which was in a pan of boiling water with 1 week old eggs. Still had a problem peeling them and some times the yolk would have a green ring or the very center wasn't cooked. I finally came across a video on how to cook them properly. Turns out you don't want them in the water because the shells are porous and something happens to make the membrane stick to the egg during cooking. What needs to be done is steam them for 15 minutes, then an ice bath for 15 minutes and they come out beautiful and are easy to peel and the egg white remains intact. Just a small change makes all the difference in the world.

Or just add a teaspoon of vinegar to the water. Mom always overcooked things.

 

[lman]

We boil eggs in the Instant Pot. The shells fall off.

 

[KilroyJC]

Or just add a teaspoon of vinegar to the water. Mom always overcooked things.

I always added around a half-cup and some salt, too. I fill the pot halfway with cold water,put the eggs in the pot, and bring to a boil. When it gets to a full boil, it gets turned off, and fifteen minutes later the eggs go into ice water until dead cold.

unless the eggs are too fresh, they are usually easy to peel, and are cooked perfectly.

I would like to try this tip I recently saw for peeling: put 3-5 eggs in a glass Jar with 2 oz water, close the jar, and shake gently for 30 seconds. Apparently, once you get a couple cracks in the shell, the water can work it’s way underneath and help separate the shell and membrane from the whites.

 

[Torvy]

In my experience, cracked eggs leak albumin and do not make the best boiled eggs.