Fare Exchange: Reader shares 100-year-old boiled custard recipe

Good morning, Fare friends. Of the many area restaurants that now offer outside dining, a reader today commends Lookout Mountain Pizza, worth a country drive out Lookout Mountain, around 30 minutes from downtown Chattanooga and very close to the oft-visited Canyon Grill.

Here’s the question: “Their arugula salad is light and tasty, served with lemon vinaigrette. Does the pizza company share that recipe, for the salad and for the dressing?” This reader would also be grateful for any arugula salad recipes.

Marianne has an answer to the man who waited too long to harvest his zucchini and yellow squash, and it’s seasoned with gratitude.

“You are so lucky to have these veggies. Enjoy them. What I would do is split them in half longways, scoop out all those large seeds, make my favorite meatloaf recipe, then stuff those zucchini or yellow squash boats with the meat mixture. Dilute a can or two of tomato sauce with water and pour this over the boats that are filled with meat, so that they are drenched with sauce and there is some in the bottom of the dish. Bake at 350 F for about 50 minutes, or if they are smaller, adjust the baking time. When they come out of the oven, top them with a mixture of cheese and cracker crumbs, put them back in the oven long enough to brown.”

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Joy Yates has a family history that includes what she learned in the kitchen.

She wrote, “Kingfish requested a boiled custard recipe, and I thought of my grandmother’s recipe that has been passed down to my mom and to me. The recipe has to be over 100 years old. I can remember as a kid watching my grandmother make the custard on her wood cook stove. She did make the custard in a double boiler — or two pans that would fit together to make the custard in a pan over simmering water.” Ms. Yates shared both the custard and the floating island from the kitchens of her childhood.

Grandma Ogle’s Boiled Custard

2 egg yolks (Reserve the egg whites to make the floating islands of egg whites for the top.)

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of nutmeg (optional)

For the Floating Islands

2 egg whites

A little sugar

Beat egg yolks slightly. Add milk, sugar and salt.

Cook mixture in a double boiler or above simmering water as described above if you don’t have a double boiler, stirring constantly until custard coats a metal spoon.

Cool. Add vanilla extract and, if desired, nutmeg.

Prepare floating islands of egg whites and place on top of custard.

Serve cold. (with whipped cream if desired).

To make the Floating Islands: Beat the egg whites with a little sugar and then, when the whites make peaks, put dollops of the egg whites on a pan of simmering hot water to float on the water to cook or poach. The egg whites cook as they float on the water.

When custard is cooled, remove the egg whites and place them on the custard.

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Anne E. Davis got the following summer delight from Southern Living, sure that it would be a main dish for her family, not a side. It’s one of a telling category of food: million-dollar dishes. A similar category: marry me dishes.

Million-Dollar Corn

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

1 cup baked cheddar crackers (such as Cheez-Its), coarsely crushed

4 slices thick-cut bacon (about 6 ounces), chopped

8 medium (8 1/2 ounces each) ears shucked yellow corn

1 cup chopped yellow onion (from 1 medium onion)

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided

1 (5.3-ounce) package garlic and fine herbs spreadable gourmet cheese (such as Boursin)

3 tablespoons heavy cream

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Gather all ingredients.

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large, high-sided skillet over medium. Add crushed crackers and cook, stirring often, until toasted, 3 to 5 minutes. Spoon into a medium heat-proof bowl and set aside. Wipe skillet clean.

Add bacon to skillet and heat over medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until fat has rendered and bacon is crispy, about 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to bowl with crackers and set aside. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat from the skillet.

While bacon cooks, remove kernels from corn cobs and place in a large bowl. Use the back of a chef’s knife to scrape corn milk from cobs into bowl with kernels; discard cobs.

Add 2 tablespoons of the remaining butter to skillet with bacon fat and heat over medium-high until melted. Add onion and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 6 minutes. Add corn kernels and corn milk, and remaining 1 teaspoon salt to skillet and cook, stirring often, until just crisp-tender, about 4 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in spreadable cheese, cream, sugar, and remaining 2 tablespoons butter until incorporated.

Add chives and pepper to bacon mixture and stir to combine. Sprinkle corn with bacon mixture and serve immediately.

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K.S.H. rediscovered this appetizer from her mother’s era, though not from her mom’s cookbook, and found it to be a 2026 favorite. It’s rich. Her source was Julia Reed from Southern Living.

Cheese Dreams

2 cups finely grated sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated from a block

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 large egg

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

Ground red pepper or hot sauce to taste

1 (16-ounce) package firm white sandwich bread slices, such as Pepperidge Farm white sandwich bread

Prepare cheese mixture: Preheat oven to 375 F. Beat cheese and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Beat in heavy cream and next five ingredients.

Prepare bread squares: Cut crusts from white bread slices; cut each slice into four squares. Spread cheese mixture on half of bread squares (about 1 teaspoon per square); top each with one remaining square. Spread remaining cheese mixture over top and sides of sandwiches. Place sandwiches, 1 inch apart, on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Bake at 375 F for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

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Rich: That’s us, all of us, to have good fresh food for the buying, and good taste to cultivate and share around the table. We will watch for you next week.

Requests

— Lookout Mountain Pizza vinaigrette

— Arugula salad recipes