[kuhs-terd] 
| a dessert made of eggs, sugar, and milk, either baked, boiled, or frozen. |
| cus·tard (kŭs'tərd) n. A dish consisting of milk, eggs, flavoring, and sometimes sugar, boiled or baked until set. [Middle English crustade, custard, a pie with a crust, probably from Old Provençal croustado; see croustade.] cus'tard·y adj. |
custard
mixture of eggs, milk, sugar, and flavourings which attains its consistency by the coagulation of the egg protein by heat. Baked custard contains whole eggs, which cause the dish to solidify to a gel. Flan, or creme caramel, is a custard baked in a dish coated with caramelized sugar that forms a sauce when the custard is unmolded. For creme brulee, the baked custard is sprinkled with sugar that is caramelized under a broiler or with a hot iron called a salamander. The sugar forms a thin, crisp shell over the custard.
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