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Parmesan Fondue
Mix an ounce of flour with a little cold water to a smooth paste, and stir into it half a pint of boiling milk. Season the mixture with a little pepper and salt, and half a tea-spoonful of made mustard, and add one ounce of fresh butter and three ounces of grated Parmesan; then put it aside to cool. Have ready a well-oiled mould, sufficiently large to allow for rising. Beat the yolks of three eggs, and stir them into the batter, and at the last moment add the whites of the eggs, which should have been whisked to a solid froth. Bake in a quick oven. When set, the fondue is done enough, and must be served immediately. Time, from half to three quarters of an hour. Probable cost, 10d. (See also CHEESE FONDUE.)
This is a cheese soufflé under an older name: a béchamel-style base stiffened with flour, enriched with Parmesan and yolks, then lifted by whipped whites. Two things decide the outcome — how cool the base is when the whites go in, and getting it to the table the moment it sets.
- Cool the base properlyThe instruction to "put it aside to cool" is the hinge of the recipe. If the cheese base is still hot when the beaten whites are folded in, they collapse and the fondue bakes dense. It should be lukewarm at most, and the whites folded in with a spatula rather than stirred.
- Half a pintAn English half pint is 10 fl oz, about 1 1/4 US cups. With 1 oz flour and 1 oz butter that gives a very thick base, which is what carries the whites.
- A quick ovenUsually taken to mean a hot oven, roughly 400-450F (200-230C); the book itself gives no temperature. In a modern oven a dish this size may well be set inside the stated time of half to three quarters of an hour, so start checking early.
- Made mustardMustard already mixed to a paste with liquid, whether bought ready-made or mixed at home from powder, rather than dry powder stirred in. English mustard suits the dish, and half a teaspoon is enough to sharpen the cheese without reading as mustard.
- The mouldThe recipe specifies "well-oiled"; butter gives better flavour and better grip for the rising mixture. A straight-sided 1-pint dish, buttered and dusted with a little grated Parmesan, suits it. Fill no more than three-quarters to allow for the rise the recipe warns about.
- ParmesanThree ounces of Parmesan is assertive and salty, so go carefully with the added salt. Grate it finely so it melts into the base rather than settling as grains.
- Serve immediatelyMeant literally. A soufflé of this size begins to sink within two or three minutes of leaving the oven, and there is no way to hold it.
- YieldServes two as a light supper dish or three as a savoury course.
In nineteenth-century English cookery books "fondue" often meant this baked cheese custard rather than the Swiss pot of melted cheese and wine that the word now brings to mind; Cassell's cross-reference to "Cheese Fondue" points to a family of related dishes rather than to anything dipped. The name comes from French fondre, to melt, and the baked version travelled into English kitchens through French professional cookery, where it sat alongside the cheese soufflé and could be hard to tell apart from it. Parmesan was among the grating cheeses generally associated with the well-stocked Victorian larder — it kept for months in a cool place, which mattered before domestic refrigeration, and it was imported in hard drums that could be shaved as needed. The "probable cost, 10d." is characteristic of Cassell's, which priced almost every recipe so that a household manager could plan by the shilling; tenpence marks this as an inexpensive way to finish a dinner respectably.