Where can someone purchase fresh custard in New Hampshire (or the
surrounding area) in the United States? This is commonly available in
countries like England, and it seems pastry chefs can find custard as
needed. I'm interested in finding a good 'custard hookup.'

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Request for Question Clarification by tan-ga on 17 Jun 2002 15:46 PDT

I hate to show my ignorance, but is fresh custard different from baked custard?
Thanks!
Tan-ga

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Clarification of Question by scholarman-ga on 18 Jun 2002 05:54 PDT

Fresh custard comes in cartons (like cream), and is poured. It's not
baked, per se (though I'm not sure how it's prepared, when made fresh
as opposed to preparing powdered custard or untinning canned custard).
I assume it's a dairy product.

"Baked custard" tends to be custard that's been baked into another
product, like a custard pie.

Does that explain?

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Request for Question Clarification by tan-ga on 18 Jun 2002 09:14 PDT

Yes, very helpful, thank you.  
Tan-ga

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Clarification of Question by scholarman-ga on 18 Jun 2002 22:27 PDT

De nada.

I don't know if this is fresh or not, but it's worth a try...

Baynhams New England Mercantile  
Address: 180 Main St  
City/Prov: New London, NH USA .... 03257-4554  
County: Merrimack County, NH USA  
Lat/Long: 43.40742.....-71.97288  
Phone: 603-526-8070  

Good luck!
Tan-ga

As I understand it, you are looking for a custard pastry filling,
which (at least if you are going for the "real" thing) is a cooked
mixture of milk, eggs, sugar and possibly flavorings, typically
chilled before use. You can easily make it yourself (see any good
pastry cookbook). That guarantees freshness, since it does not have a
long shelf life. Sometimes the name "custard filling" is also applied
to a similar-looking filling that may contain no eggs and is thickened
with starch (usually corn starch) instead. It's also possible to buy
ready-made fillings. Where you get it depends on whether you're
looking for quantities for a family dessert or a bakery business. Or
if you're looking for "custard sauce" such as commonly used as a
dessert sauce in the UK, that's a little different--usually a thinner
pourable sauce thickened with corn starch.

Custard sauce, as you put it, is what I'm looking for. UK style
dessert topping/standalone dessert. As I said, it often comes in
cartons.

Although home made is best, if you really want that unique UK taste
you can order custard through www.expatessentials.co.uk or other
online services for British expatriates.  They have both custard
powder and ready to serve - not to mention Angel Delight.

Hello scholarman,

After doing an extensive search I ended up finding this page:

http://www.britsintheus.com/foods.htm

It has tons of links to British type food suppliers which are more
likely to carry the fresh custard you desire. I looked at a few of the
sites and found this site carries custard(although not in New
Hampshire - they are in Arizona):

Go there and type in a search for custard:

http://www.britishgourmet.com/

and you'll come up with Birds Custard Powder 10.5 oz for $4.00

This led me to do a search for 'custard powder', and that brought up
many relevant results. Here are a few top ones I found -

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/shopenglandonline/bircuspow21o.html
(unsure)

http://www.britsfood.com/pantry.html (Virginia)

I then tried to tie that into New Hampshire - came up with this:

http://www.britishdelights.com/trifle.htm (Massachussetts)


Hope that helps a bit -

sgtcory

If you have a friend who can shop for you in Canada, ask him or her to
look for President's Choice Devon Custard in a tin. It's wonderful
pourable custard - great for putting on rhubarb crisp, apple pie etc.
I've checked the President's Choice (PC) website and this is not yet
one of the products they have available for order online. They do have
a locator for stores which carry PC products at
http://www.presidentschoice.ca/ so you may find a store close enough
to you for shopping. For example, Provigo stores in Quebec carry many
PC products although they don't guarantee any one product will be
available in a particular store. Good luck - this is one of our
favourites!

Your question is still on my mind.  The other day I was looking
through the Vermont Country Store catalog and noticed that they have
clotted cream and Devon cream.  I know this is not what you are
looking for, but thought perhaps it might help you to feel more at
home.  Good luck.
Tan-ga

Here's the web page with the clotted cream from The Vermont Country
Store:

http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/prdSell.asp?ProdGroupID=230&DeptID=20078&CatID=20082

Tan-ga