On Food and Cooking

softened again by placing the dish in a
shallow pan of hot water for a minute or two
before unmolding.
Crème brûlée (“burned cream”) is also a
custard topped with caramel, but here the
caramel should be hard enough to shatter
when rapped with a spoon. The trick is to
harden and brown the sugar topping without
overcooking the custard. The standard modern
method is to bake the custard and then chill it
for several hours, so that the subsequent
caramelizing step won’t overcook the egg
proteins. The hard crust is then made by
coating the custard surface with granulated
sugar, and then melting and browning the
sugar, either with a propane torch or by
placing the dish right under the broiler. The
dishes are sometimes immersed in an ice-
water bath to protect the custard from a
second cooking. From the time of its
invention in the 17th century until early in the
20th, crème brûlée was a stirred cream,