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Rice, Ground, Souffle Of
Mix an ounce and a half of ground rice with an ounce of butter, an ounce of sugar, a pinch of salt, and a gill of milk. Stir over the fire until well cooked. Cool, add the yolks of three and the whisked whites of four eggs. Steam gently until it has risen to a good height, is brightly coloured, and quite set in the centre, and serve immediately.
A tiny steamed soufflé built on a rice-flour panada rather than the usual flour-and-butter roux. The quantities are small; treat it as a dessert for two.
- A gillIn a British book of this period a gill is 5 fl oz, or a scant 2/3 US cup. American gills are often reckoned at 4 fl oz, so err toward the smaller figure if the mixture looks slack.
- Ground riceSold today as rice flour. Ground rice proper is slightly grittier than the fine flour used in Asian cooking; either works, but the coarser grind gives the pudding a little texture.
- Cool the base properlyThe hinge of the recipe. The cooked rice paste must come down to warm-not-hot before the yolks go in, or they set into threads and no amount of whisked white will lift it.
- Four whites to three yolksDeliberate, not a misprint. The extra white buys height in a mixture with no flour structure to speak of. Whisk to soft, glossy peaks, fold in a third to slacken the base, then fold the rest quickly.
- How to steam itButter and sugar a small mould or basin, fill it no more than two-thirds, cover loosely with buttered paper or foil, and set it in a covered steamer or in a pan of barely simmering water reaching halfway up. Keep the water at a bare tremble; a hard boil makes it rise and collapse.
- TimingThe original gives none. Expect 30 to 40 minutes for a single mould of this size, 15 to 20 for individual ramekins. It is done when the centre is set and a skewer comes out clean.
- "Brightly coloured"Steam will not brown anything. The phrase means the pale gold of a well-risen egg mixture, not a browned crust; do not extend the cooking chasing colour.
- Serve immediatelyMeant literally. A steamed souffle begins to sink soon after it leaves the heat. Have plates, and any sauce, ready before you lift the lid.
- YieldAbout 1 1/2 oz rice flour and four eggs makes two modest servings, or three small ones.
Ground rice was a staple of the Victorian store cupboard, cheap, keeping well, and used for everything from nursery puddings to thickening soups, so it is unsurprising that it turns up as an alternative base for a soufflé where a French kitchen would use flour. Steaming rather than baking is often said to have been the older and safer method in a coal range, where oven heat was hard to judge and a soufflé could be ruined in a moment; the covered mould in simmering water gave a gentle, even heat that a cook could trust. The result sits between a soufflé and a light steamed pudding, and it reads like an exercise in two skills: cooking a starch base thoroughly, and folding whisked whites without knocking the air out of them.