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Puffed Egg Toast
Blend an ounce of butter and three-quarters of an ounce of fine flour in a small stewpan over the fire; then add a tea-cupful of milk and cream mixed, and stir and cook for a minute. Remove from the fire, and beat in the yolks of three eggs, a tea-spoonful of parsley and a pinch of thyme minced together, a slat-spoonful of salt, half as much pepper, a pinch of cayenne, and a dust of nutmeg. Then add carefully the whites of the eggs, beaten. Have ready some buttered toast in squares without crust, and pour the mixture over, smoothing the surface. Brown delicately in a hot oven, and serve at once.
A soufflé mixture built on a thick béchamel, spooned over toast and set in a hot oven. Everything depends on getting it into the oven the moment the whites are folded in.
- The hinge: fold, then runThe beaten whites are the only lift in the dish and they begin collapsing as soon as they meet the warm sauce base. Have the toast buttered and squared before you start beating, fold with a light hand until barely combined, and put it straight into a preheated oven.
- A tea-cupfulVictorian teacupfuls are generally reckoned at around 5 to 6 fl oz, so somewhere near 3/4 cup of milk and cream mixed. With an ounce of butter to three-quarters of an ounce of flour this gives a stiff panada, which is what carries the yolks.
- "Slat-spoonful"A printer's error for saltspoonful, the smallest spoon in a Victorian canteen, about 1/4 teaspoon. Half as much pepper is therefore a scant 1/8 teaspoon.
- Fine flourPlain white flour. Nothing exotic is meant; "fine" most likely just marks it off from the coarser grades then sold alongside it.
- A hot oven425-450F. At that heat the topping should be puffed and delicately coloured in 8-12 minutes, depending on how thickly it is heaped. Anything slower dries the toast before the egg rises.
- Cook the roux outThe minute of stirring after the milk goes in is the minimum, not a suggestion; the sauce should be thick enough to hold a trail from the spoon or the mixture will soak the toast rather than sit on it.
- YieldThree eggs and this quantity of sauce will cover four to six small crustless squares, enough for two as a savoury course or a light supper.
Puffed or "soufflé" toasts belong to the late-Victorian savoury, the small hot dish served after the sweet at dinner or as a breakfast and supper item in its own right. The method is simply a soufflé mixture without a dish to climb: a thick white sauce enriched with yolks, seasoned sharply with cayenne and nutmeg, lightened with whipped whites and given a base of buttered toast instead of a buttered mould. The panada at its foundation is the same one used for quenelles, croquettes and full soufflés. The seasoning is characteristic of the period: parsley and thyme minced together, and pepper and cayenne used in company.