One of the biggest challenges about cooking stuff you've never cooked before is figuring out the intent of the recipe -- how to translate some random words into what you see, hear, smell and feel.
For the pots de creme, it's a pretty basic recipe. The one I used had half and half, sugar, eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla. It's a simple custard. Whisk together the eggs and sugar, heat the milk, mix the heated milk into the egg/sugar mixture, add the vanilla. Fill the dessert cups, put in a water bath, bake.
Here's where you learn the true value of your recipe writer, though. I had done everything to this point following the recipe from The Professional Pastry Chef. It says to cook until the custard is set. Ok, great. I've never made these before. What does "set" look like? How do you know?
When cooking a quiche (another custard), if you shake it and you see ripples, not done. If the whole custard seems to shake together, it's done. Knowing what this looks like is something that's hard to convey without seeing it. But for a pot de creme? Who knows what "set" looks like!
So I consulted another nearby reference, the Bouchon cookbook (from Thomas Keller, of French Laundry fame). In that recipe for pots de creme, it explained that when set, it will still jiggle slightly like gelatin. Now this, I can visualize.
And now I know what it looks like, so next time I'll know.