Home › The Principles of Cookery › CHEESE SOUFFLE (another way)
CHEESE SOUFFLE (another way)
Boil a quarter of a pint of milk, and stir into it till melted an ounce of butter. Pour it upon half a tea-cupful of fine bread-crumbs. Soak a few minutes, then add half a tea-cupful of grated cheese, the yolks of two eggs, and a little salt. Butter a souffle tin, and tie round it, to make the sides higher, a band of buttered paper. Just before putting the souffle into the oven, dash in the whites of three eggs which have been whisked to a firm froth. Bake in a quick oven till the centre is firm, and serve immediately.
A small, sturdy soufflé built on a bread-crumb panade rather than a flour roux, which makes it more forgiving than the modern flour-based version. The whole thing hinges on the last sentence: it must go to the table the moment it leaves the oven.
- Quantities in modern termsA quarter of a pint of milk is 5 fl oz, a generous half cup. The ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons. A Victorian teacupful is usually reckoned at about 5 fl oz, so half a teacupful is roughly a third of a cup — around 1 oz of dry crumbs and 1 to 1.5 oz of grated cheese.
- "A quick oven"Generally reckoned somewhere in the 400-450F range; 425F is a fair working figure. That is hot for a souffle by present-day habit, but with a shallow tin and this quantity it works: the outside sets while the centre stays creamy. If your tin is deep, 400F gives you more margin.
- The extra whiteThe recipe uses three whites to two yolks. The surplus white helps lift a mixture this heavy with crumbs and cheese, though no reason is given for it. Whisk to a firm peak that still folds, not to a dry, grainy foam.
- "Dash in"Read this as fold in, quickly and in two additions. Loosen the crumb base with a spoonful of the whites first, then fold in the rest with a light hand; the base should be warm but not hot when you do it.
- The paper collarA band of buttered parchment tied round the outside of the dish, standing an inch or two above the rim, lets the soufflé climb above the tin without spilling. It is still the right method. Butter the tin itself and the inside of the collar so nothing catches.
- The cheeseUse a dry, well-flavoured hard cheese — an aged Cheddar, Gruyère or Parmesan. Something young and wet will weep fat and slacken the mixture.
- Timing and donenessIn a 5- to 6-inch tin, 18 to 22 minutes. "Till the centre is firm" means it no longer wobbles as a liquid when the dish is nudged; take it out while the very middle is still soft, as it sets further on the way to the table.
- YieldA starter or light supper for two, three at a stretch. Double the quantities for a 1-quart dish and allow closer to 30 minutes.
Cassell's gives this cheese soufflé as "another way," and it is the frugal one: bread-crumbs standing in for the butter-and-flour panade of the grander French versions, using up the stale end of a loaf that no Victorian kitchen would have thrown out. The soufflé itself came to English cookery from France in the nineteenth century — the name is simply the past participle of souffler, to blow or puff — and by the 1890s it had settled into the British menu in two places: as a sweet entremets and, in savoury cheese form, as the last course of a dinner, where the modern habit is a savoury or cheese board. The paper collar tied round the dish raises the sides when a dish needs the height.