In case it helps anyone: I didn’t warm my eggs or my water ahead of time–straight from fridge and cold (filtered, though I doubt it makes a difference) water from my filtered tap, so warm water and RT eggs probably work really well, but don’t seem to be a necessity. From previous failed tries using other recipes, I would venture to say that the steaming apparatus has to be right for your bowl size, both for safety and for cooking reasons. (I used a medium size Pyrex prep bowl for the egg mixture, and put that on top of one of those steamers that open like a flower, all inside a pot that was wide enough for the steamer and just deep enough to hold everything so I didn’t have to reach way down to get it out. I haven’t yet outfitted my kitchen with all the Asian steamwares.) But I’m not a food scientist, and as long as what I did this time keeps working, I’m not going to keep experimenting. Oh, and I also am too lazy to strain out the clearish/white bits that don’t mix with the water, so they settled to the bottom and were cooked like normal, but I expected them. Every other part of the custard was silky.

Now if only someone has a microwave version that yields similar results . . .