Home › The Principles of Cookery › Egg Souffle, with Cheese
Egg Souffle, with Cheese
Break the yolks of four eggs into a small basin, add two table-spoonfuls of cream, one ounce of Parmesan cheese, four ounces of melted butter, salt and cayenne to taste; mix well together, and finally add the whipped whites of the four eggs. Butter a fire-proof dish, and pour the mixture into it, allowing plenty of room for it to rise. Shake some grated cheese over the top, and bake in a moderate oven for about fifteen minutes. Probable cost, 1s. 9d.
A flourless cheese soufflé — no béchamel base, just yolks, cream, cheese and a great deal of butter lightened with beaten whites. It rises fast, falls fast, and wants to go straight from oven to table.
- The hingeFold the whipped whites in with a spatula and stop while streaks are still visible. With no flour or starch to stabilise it, this batter has nothing but the egg foam holding it up; overmixing collapses it and you get a rich baked scramble instead.
- Moderate oven350°F (175°C). Fifteen minutes suits a shallow dish; the centre should still be slightly loose when it comes out.
- The butterFour ounces (1 stick, 115 g) to four yolks is very rich even by Victorian standards, and hot melted butter can begin to cook the yolks. Let it cool to barely warm before mixing, and consider halving it if you want the soufflé to rise cleanly rather than sit.
- ParmesanOne ounce grated is roughly a third of a cup, loosely packed. Buy a piece and grate it — pre-grated Parmesan is dried out and often contains anti-caking starch, which changes the texture.
- CreamVictorian cream was unstandardised and generally richer than modern single cream; double cream (about 48 per cent fat) or heavy cream (about 36 per cent) is the closer substitute. Single cream or half-and-half will thin the mixture noticeably.
- Fire-proof dishAny oven-safe ceramic, glass or enamelled dish. Butter it thoroughly right up the sides so the mixture can climb, and fill it no more than two-thirds full.
- CayenneA pinch, no more — two or three shakes for the whole dish. It is there as a background heat behind the cheese, in the same role mustard or nutmeg plays in a modern cheese soufflé.
- Yield and servingTwo as a light main, three or four as a savoury course. Serve immediately; it will begin to sink within a couple of minutes of leaving the oven.
Cheese soufflés reached British cookery books through French practice. This version is made without a flour panade, relying entirely on the foam of beaten egg white to raise the dish. The costing of 1s. 9d. is a characteristic Cassell's touch, aimed at the mistress of a household budgeting a servant's marketing; it places the dish well above an everyday supper and squarely in the category of a savoury for a dinner with company.