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Fromage Cuit
Moisten eight or ten ounces of good cheese, broken into small bits, with half a pint of thick cream. Rub it smooth in a mortar, and add two eggs, with the white of one, both beaten together, and a pinch of cayenne. Bake in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes. Probable cost, 1s. 6d.
A baked cheese custard, closer to a crustless cheese soufflé pudding than to anything set in a mould. It stands or falls on not overbaking.
- Moderate ovenRead this as 350F (175C). At that heat a shallow dish of the mixture will be just set with a slight wobble at the centre in about fifteen minutes; in a deeper dish allow 25-30 minutes and expect some puffing.
- Half a pint of creamAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, so about 1 1/4 US cups. "Thick cream" means what is now sold as double or heavy cream, not clotted cream.
- The eggs"Two eggs, with the white of one" means two whole eggs plus one extra white — three whites and two yolks in total. Victorian eggs ran smaller than today's large ones, so slightly undersized eggs suit this better than jumbo.
- Choice of cheese"Good cheese" is unspecified; in an English book of this date a firm cheese such as farmhouse Cheddar or Cheshire, grated or crumbled, is the likely intention. Eight to ten ounces is 225-285 g, a high proportion to the cream, which is why the mixture bakes firm rather than pouring.
- Mortar, or notThe mortar work exists only to break the cheese down so it will disperse in the cream. A food processor does the same in seconds; alternatively grate the cheese finely and warm it gently in the cream until smooth, then cool a little before beating in the eggs.
- Do not let it boil or over-setIf the cheese-and-cream base is warmed, keep it below a simmer, and pull the dish from the oven while the centre still trembles. Pushed further, the cheese fat separates and the custard goes grainy and weeps.
- Dish and seasoningButter a shallow gratin dish or four to six ramekins; the mixture sticks readily. No salt is listed because the cheese supplies it — taste before baking rather than seasoning by habit.
- YieldEnough for four as a savoury course or two as a light supper with toast. Serve it straight from the oven; it slumps as it cools.
- The cost line1s. 6d. is eighteen old pence, the book's own guide to whether a dish was economical. It has no modern equivalent and can be ignored.
Cassell's uses French names freely for dishes that are, at bottom, English cheese cookery — this is the same family as Welsh rarebit and the various "cheese ramekins" and "cheese custards" that filled the savoury course of a late-Victorian dinner. The savoury was served after the sweet in British practice, a small hot, sharply seasoned mouthful before the dessert of fruit and nuts, and cheese beaten with cream and eggs was one of the standard forms it took. The cayenne is not decoration: pungency was thought essential to a savoury, and many cheese preparations in books of this period carry it. The mortar instruction is a reminder of what kitchen equipment meant before mechanical graters and processors were universal — pounding was the ordinary way to reduce any firm ingredient to a paste.