ISSUE 41, THANKSGIVING, Part 5: Spinach Custard
Spinach Custard
On Thanksgiving Day in 1900 the Richmond Times posted several Thanksgiving Meals with various kinds of focus (vegetable, inexpensive, New England, Pennsylvania, Very Elaborate). The South Bill of Fare had the expected Oysters, Roasted Turkey, Chesnutt Stuffing, Cranberry Jelly, Sweet Potato fritters—and the unexpected things-ginger sherbet, deviled spaghetti, pumpkin pie (yankee pie). The one unexpected item for me was “Custard and Spinach Blocks.” Having had many a spinach quiche over the holiday season, I began to wonder how this purer dish, lacking the cheese, would work. The more I thought about it, the more I became fascinated with the possibilities.
I’ve reproduced the minimalist version, excerpted from the New Orleans Item from 1928 below. This version was found in numbers of newspaper women’s sections between the World Wars, tweaked with powdered mustard, salt, chives.
But the version that rung my chime comes from the September 7 1930 Arkansas Gazette. It derives its body from pureed cooked rice!
Spinach Custard
1 pound of spinach
½ cup pureed rice
2 eggs beaten separately
Salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg
1 ½ cups cream
1 cup milk
Boil the rice to a jelly. Pass it through a colander and then put it through a sieve until it is thoroughly smooth. Wash and cook spinach. Chop it and pass it through a sieve. Take a cup of the mashed spinach and one-half cup of the pureed rice and stir them together. Beat in the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Beat the egg yolks, one at a time, and add one-half cup cream. Beat the whites thoroughly and add them. Put the mixture into buttered dariole molds. Set them in a pan with water up to one-half the height of the mold and bake them till the custard is set—about 25 minutes. Take them out and serve them with a cream sauce to which add either diced hard boiled eggs or sliced mushrooms.