whats the history of Crème anglaise?

History

The Romans made Custard. In De Re Coquinaria, Marcus Gavius Apicius lists a recipe for Custard. It's completely recognizable as a Custard we would make, except for the absence of vanilla, which the Romans didn't have. (Apicius, though, does toss in a dash of ground pepper). Roman Custards were usually treated as a sweet.

In the Middle Ages, Custard was used as a filling for flans or pies. By the 1500s, instead of being used in pies, Custards were being made on their own in dishes, particularly fancy individual dishes that the burgeoning merchant class could afford.

Americans took a shine to Alfred Bird's Custard Powder as soon as it was available in America.

Language Notes

Though Custard doesn't have its own word in French (the word for cream, "crème", is used), it is use a lot in French dessert making. The French-Canadians in Quebec invented a word for it, "cossetarde".

The English word Custard comes from its Medieval use in pies -- from the word "croustade", meaning pastry or something with a crust. The Custards were a pie filling, just as Pumpkin Pie is still a pumpkin-flavoured Custard cooked in a pie shell. And though egg and milk custards were made and eaten on their own even in Roman times, the word "croustade" -- granted, a bit modified -- got applied to that cooked egg and milk mixture, whether in a pie or out of one.

http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/encycl...

Crème anglaise (French for "English cream") is a light pouring custard used as a dessert cream, or sauce. It is a mix of sugar, egg yolks and hot milk. It is often flavoured with vanilla.

The cream is made by whipping egg yolks and sugar together until the yolk is almost white; adding hot milk little by little; and cooking in a double boiler. The sauce is stirred with a spoon until it coats the back of a spoon, and then must be withdrawn from fire. If the sauce reaches too high a temperature, it will curdle. Cooking temperature should be between 69°C and 85°C; the higher the temperature, the thicker the resulting cream.

It can be poured as a sauce over cakes, fruits, etc. Alternately, it can be eaten as a dessert on its own, often in the presentation of Île flottante ("floating island"): the cream is poured into a bowl with a piece of cooked foamy egg whites (blancs en neige) on top. It can also be used as a base for desserts such as icecream or crème brûlée.

Larousse Gastronomique calls it 'crème à l'anglaise' and 'crème française'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creme_anglaise

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