The pastry kitchen

German pastry cooks have a phrase for the moment a custard is ready, and it names a test rather than a temperature. A pan of milk, yolks and sugar is stirred over gentle heat until the mixture clings to the back of a wooden spoon. Blow across the spoon and the thickened film ripples into curved folds, like the petals of a rose: that is the signal to take it off the heat before the yolks scramble. The whole operation is called zur Rose abziehen, and recipes use it without explanation — die Vanillesoße zur Rose abziehen. English says ‘cook to coating consistency’ and leaves the flower out. The verb is separable, so in a sentence the rose stands in the middle: Sie zieht die Creme zur Rose ab. Much of this list works the same way. Der Ballen names a sugar stage by what a drop does in cold water, and die Tour is one fold of butter and dough, counted by hand.