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Apple Souffle
Reduce half a dozen apples to a pulp, sweeten and flavour them nicely, and place them in the middle of a large dish. When cool, pour over them a good custard, made with half a pint of cream, the yolks of four eggs, sugar, and flavouring. Whisk the whites to a solid froth, place it in rock-like pieces over the custard, and sift a dessert-spoonful of white sugar over it. Put it in the oven till the icing is lightly browned, and serve cold. Probable cost, 1s. 10d. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A meringue-topped apple and custard dish rather than a soufflé in the modern sense; nothing rises. The work is in the custard, which must thicken without curdling.
- The hinge: the custardFour yolks to half a pint of cream makes a stirred custard, not a baked one. Cook it in a bowl over barely simmering water, stirring, until it coats the back of a spoon at about 175-180F; it will curdle if allowed to get much hotter.
- Half a pintAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, so roughly 1¼ US cups of cream. Single or light cream behaves better here than double, which can turn grainy.
- Half a dozen applesAbout 2 lb of a cooking variety such as Bramley, Granny Smith or a firm russet. Cook down covered with a spoonful of water until collapsed, then beat smooth and let the pulp cool completely before the custard goes on, or the two will bleed together.
- FlavouringLemon rind, or a strip of peel infused in the cream, was a common choice for custards of this kind, with lemon or a little cinnamon in the apples. Vanilla works too, whether as a pod or a bought essence.
- Dessert-spoonfulTwo teaspoons. Caster or superfine sugar sifted over the meringue helps it crisp and brown evenly; granulated sits in beads.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given because the point is colour, not cooking. A hot oven around 425F for 4-6 minutes browns the peaks without slumping the meringue or warming the custard through; a slower 325F for 15 minutes gives a drier, more stable top.
- The meringueFour whites whisked to stiff peaks with no sugar beaten in will weep as they stand. A tablespoon or two of sugar whisked in at the end gives the "rock-like pieces" enough body to hold their shape until serving.
- ServingFour or five, as stated, in a wide shallow dish. It is served cold and does not keep; assemble the same day, and refrigerate once cool.
Victorian cookery used soufflé loosely, and this is one of the looser uses: no baked batter, no rise, simply whisked whites piled over a custard and coloured in the oven. It belongs to the same family as apple snow, floating island and the "whips" and "trifles" that filled the sweet course of a middle-class English dinner, all of them ways of turning a few eggs and a cheap autumn fruit into something that looked expensive. Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, generally traced to the 1870s and reissued for decades after, gave costs for nearly every entry — 1s. 10d. here.