CHOCOLATE CUSTARD

1/4 lb. baking chocolate
1 pint water
8 egg yolks beaten with 6 egg whites
1 qt. cream or whole milk
3 tbs. sugar, granulated or confectioners
Sweetened whipped cream or egg whites, to top

Scrape fine a quarter of a pound of chocolate, and pour on it a pint of boiling water. Cover it, and let it stand by the fire till it has dissolved, stirring it twice. Beat eight eggs very light, omitting the whites of two. Stir them by degrees into a quart of cream or rich milk, alternately with the melted chocolate, and three table-spoonfuls of powdered white sugar. Put the mixture into cups, and bake it about ten minutes. Send them to table cold, with sweetened cream, or white of egg beaten to a stiff froth, and heaped on the top of each custard. No chocolate is so good as Baker's prepared cocoa.

From Miss Leslie's Directions for Cookery by Eliza Leslie, Philadelphia, 1851.

Comment: Chocolate in this period was normally sold much like sugar was, in large solid blocks in stores from which the merchant would chop or hack off a piece if the customer did not wish to purchase the whole thing. "Rich milk" was what would today be called whole milk, from which none of the cream had been removed.

We do not know if the mention of "Baker's prepared cocoa" was an unsolicited testimonial of personal appreciation or an early form of what is now called a "product placement ad" for which the grateful company provided the author with a (monetary) expression of gratitude. In either case the "Baker's Chocolate" products found in stores today is made by the corporate descendant of the same company Miss Leslie was so fond of. And no, they have not paid us anything for this mention of their company.

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