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Potato Flour Scuffle
Rub the rind of half a lemon upon two or three lumps of sugar until the yellow part is taken off. Put these into a saucepan with half a pint of milk or cream, two ounces of fresh butter, and three table-spoonfuls of sugar. Stir into the hot milk or cream three ounces of potato flour that has been mixed smoothly with a little cold milk, and continue to stir the whole over the fire until it boils. Add the well-beaten yolks of three eggs, and, separately, the whites of six whisked to a firm froth. Pour the preparation into the lining of a souffle dish, round which has been fastened a band of oiled paper, to prevent the souffle overflowing the sides whilst in the oven. Bake in a well-heated oven, and be careful to turn the souffle round two or three times, that it may be equally baked. Serve the moment it comes out of the oven, or it will fall. It should have risen to twice its original height. Time to bake, nearly half an hour. Probable cost, 1s., if made with milk. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A starch-thickened soufflé base, closer to a pastry-cream panade than to a modern flour roux. The title's "Scuffle" is a typesetter's slip for soufflé.
- Potato flourThis means potato starch (sometimes sold as potato farina or fécule), not the dried potato flour used in bread baking today. Three ounces is about 1/2 cup of starch; it thickens at a lower temperature than wheat flour and thins again if held at a hard boil, so bring it just to the boil and take it off.
- Half a pintCassell's is British, so half a pint is 10 fl oz, about 1 1/4 US cups. Two ounces of butter is 4 tablespoons.
- Oven heatA "well-heated oven" is not defined in the book; for a soufflé of this kind something in the region of 375-400F is the usual modern equivalent. Much hotter and the outside sets before the centre has climbed.
- The hingeLet the thickened base cool to warm before the yolks go in, then fold the six whites in two or three additions, cutting rather than stirring. The base is stiff; slacken it with a spoonful of the whites first or the froth will collapse as you try to work it in.
- Rubbing the sugar on the lemonAn efficient old trick that still works: dragging lump sugar over the zest pulls out the oils. Finely grated zest rubbed into the sugar with your fingers does the same job.
- The paper bandA collar of parchment tied round the dish and standing a couple of inches above the rim, lightly oiled or buttered on the inside, as the recipe's 'oiled paper' directs. Six whites over a half-pint base will climb well past the dish.
- Turning it in the ovenSound advice for a coal range with hot and cold sides. In a modern oven, open the door as little as possible; one quarter-turn at the halfway point is enough.
- Time and yield"Nearly half an hour" holds for a single large soufflé; it is done when risen to double, browned, and only faintly wobbling at the centre. Serves five or six, and must go straight from oven to table.
Potato starch was being extracted commercially and sold in Britain as potato flour or fécule de pommes de terre through the nineteenth century — cheaper than arrowroot, and known to have been used to imitate and adulterate it. It suited sweet soufflés and creams because it sets clear and bland, without the raw taste wheat flour leaves unless properly cooked out. The dish itself belongs to the French repertoire that dominated English cookery books of the period: soufflé, from souffler, to blow, describes exactly what the whisked whites do in the oven, and explains why the instruction to serve it the moment it comes out appears in so many versions.