custard
/ˈkʌstəd
/noun [mass noun]
A dessert or sweet sauce made with milk and eggs, or milk and a proprietary powder.Rhubarb combines well with custard based desserts as well as a sauce or relish with rich meats and fish....
- In Britain they have often been used for flavouring custards and milk puddings.
- You can also infuse a pod in scalded cream or milk when making custard or ice-cream.
Origin
Late Middle English crustarde, custarde (denoting an open pie containing meat or fruit in a spiced or sweetened sauce thickened with eggs), from Old French crouste (see crust).
A custard was originally a pie. Spelled crustarde or custarde, this was an open pie that contained meat or fruit in a spiced or sweetened sauce thickened with eggs. Over time the name gradually came to be applied to the sauce rather than the pie itself. The origin of the word was Old French crouste ‘a crust’ from Latin crusta ‘rind, shell, crust’, which is also where our word crust (Middle English) comes from.