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RAMAKINS (another way)
Put a saucepan on the fire containing the third of a pint of milk, two ounces of fresh butter, and a pinch of salt. Add gradually two tea-spoonfuls of flour, beat the mixture till quite smooth, and stir it for five minutes, or until it is quite hot. Take it off the fire, and add two ounces of grated Parmesan, Gruyere, or Cheshire cheese, four well-beaten eggs, and a little pepper and pounded mace. Make some little paper trays about an inch deep and three inches square. Half fill them with the mixture, and bake in a gentle oven. The batter for the ramakins ought to be as thick as cream. Time to bake, a quarter of an hour.
A cheese custard closer to a loose soufflé than to a modern baked dip, and the ancestor of the little dish we now call a ramekin. Two details govern success: the eggs must go into a cooled base, and the cases must be only half filled.
- The measurementsA third of an Imperial pint is about 6 2/3 fl oz, or a generous 3/4 cup of milk. Two ounces of butter is half a stick, and two ounces of grated hard cheese is roughly 2/3 cup loosely packed.
- Only two teaspoons of flourThat is not a mistake and not a roux in the modern sense; so small an amount will do little thickening, and its main effect is to help stabilise the mixture against curdling. The consistency check in the original ("as thick as cream") is the one to trust; the eggs do the setting.
- Cool the base before the eggsThe milk mixture has just been stirred hot for five minutes. Let it drop to warm, then beat the eggs in gradually, or they will set into threads and the custard will be granular.
- A gentle ovenRead this as roughly 300-325F. Higher heat puffs the tops fast and then collapses them, and a four-egg custard baked hot will weep.
- Paper traysDoubled parchment or cupcake cases stood on a baking sheet will do the job, or simply use small ceramic ramekins, buttered. Whatever the vessel, half fill it — the mixture rises considerably and then settles.
- The cheesesParmesan, Gruyère and Cheshire all work but behave differently: Parmesan gives the most savour for the least fat, Gruyère melts smoothest, and a dry crumbly Cheshire needs finer grating to disperse.
- MacePounded mace is the outer covering of nutmeg, warmer and less sweet. Ground mace from a jar is fine; a pinch is enough for this quantity.
- Yield and servingEnough for six to eight small cases, served as a savoury course or a light supper. They must go to the table straight from the oven, since like any egg-risen dish they sink within a few minutes.
Ramakins (also spelled ramequins) came to English cookery from French and Swiss practice, where a ramequin is generally said to have meant a small quantity of cheese toasted or baked and served hot, often on bread; the origin of the word is uncertain. English cookbooks from the eighteenth century onward carried it as a savoury, and by the later nineteenth century — when the savoury had become the course of small hot salty dishes served after the sweet at a formal dinner — the recipe had drifted toward a cheese custard baked in individual cases. The name of the preparation later transferred to the little vessel it was baked in, and outlasted it, which is why we now say "ramekin" for the dish rather than the food. The method drills the two skills a Victorian cook needed most — a smooth milk-and-flour base and eggs beaten into it without curdling.