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Apples (souffle of) in Rice
Put into a saucepan a quart of new milk, a cupful of rice, the rind of half a lemon, a piece of butter the size of a nut, and sugar to taste. Let it simmer very gently until the milk is absorbed and the rice quite tender. Beat it well for four or five minutes; brush the edges of a good-sized dish with white of egg to make the rice adhere, then lay it round in a border about four inches wide. Take a breakfast-cupful of apple jam, and mix with it a piece of butter, melted, the size of an egg, and the well-beaten yolks of three eggs. Stir this over the fire gently for a few minutes, then add the whites of four eggs whisked to a froth. Fill the dish and bake in a good oven until the souffle rises. Serve immediately. Time to bake, about half an hour. Sufficient for six persons. Probable cost, 1s. 8d.
A rice border filled with an apple souffle mixture — an assembled dish that rewards timing more than technique. The rice can be made hours ahead; the souffle cannot.
- Oven temperatureThe book never gives a figure; "a good oven" is best read as something in the region of 375-400F. Souffles want steady heat from below, so bake on a low shelf and do not open the door in the first twenty minutes.
- Quantities in plain termsAn imperial quart of new milk is about 40 fl oz, call it 5 US cups; "new milk" means fresh milk, and whole milk is the nearest modern equivalent. A breakfast-cupful is generous -- reckon 8-10 fl oz of apple jam. Butter "the size of a nut" is a small knob, up to about 1/2 oz; "the size of an egg" is about 2 oz / 4 tablespoons.
- The hinge: fold, do not stirThe four whisked whites go in after the apple-and-yolk mixture has come off the heat; let it cool somewhat first. Fold them in with a spatula rather than beating them in, or the souffle will not rise, and a very hot base risks setting the whites before the dish reaches the oven.
- Rice consistencySimmer until the grains are soft and the mixture is thick enough to hold a spoon upright — pudding rice or short-grain absorbs best. The five minutes of beating is what makes it stiff and sticky enough to stand in a four-inch border; it is not optional.
- Egg white as glueBrushing the dish rim with raw white is a period trick to anchor the rice. It works, and the white cooks through in the oven. A shallow 2-quart gratin or pie dish suits the shape better than a tall souffle mould.
- Lemon rindPare it in a wide strip with no pith and remove it before beating the rice. Zest left in will sting the delicate apple flavour.
- Apple jamNot the same as modern apple jelly. Use a thick, opaque apple butter or a stiff sweetened apple purée; a runny jam will slacken the mixture and the souffle will weep.
- ServingSix portions, and it must go straight from the oven to the table. It will begin sinking within two or three minutes, as the original implies.
Cassell's entry teaches two lessons at once: how to build a rice border, and how to raise a fruit souffle inside it. The rice border was a workhorse of Victorian and Edwardian service — a bordure de riz, borrowed from French kitchens, that turned a cheap starch into a serving vessel and let a small quantity of expensive fruit or cream sit at the centre of a large dish. The costing of 1s. 8d. for six is the point of the exercise: eggs, milk and rice were the affordable framework, and preserved apple carried the flavour of a fruit long out of season. Souffles of this kind, thickened with yolks and lifted with whites but given body by jam rather than a flour panada, appear throughout late nineteenth-century English cookery books.