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RICE SOUFFLE (another way)
Wash six table-spoonfuls of rice, and throw it into quickly-boiling water for five minutes. Drain it, and put it into a clean saucepan with a quart of milk, a pinch of salt, four table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar, two ounces of butter, and any flavouring that may be liked, such as orange, lemon, vanilla, coffee, chocolate, orange-flower water, rose-water, or any liqueur. If the rice is not sweet enough to suit the palate, a little more sugar may be added, but it should be remembered that the less used the lighter will be the souffle. Let the rice boil, put the lid on the saucepan, and simmer very slowly until it is tender and has absorbed the milk. Let it cool a little, then add, one at a time, the well-whisked yolks of six eggs. Warm and butter a souffle-dish or tin which the preparation will half fill, or, failing these, use a deep pie-dish or thin earthenware basin. Whisk the whites of the eggs to a firm froth. Mix them lightly with the rice, and bake the souffle at once after they are added. In order to ascertain whether the souffle is sufficiently baked, run a straw into the centre of it. If it is set throughout, it is done enough. It should be baked in a quick oven. Sift sugar over the top, tie a hot napkin round the tin, and serve immediately. The success of a souffle depends on the ingredients being well beaten, frothed, and mixed on their being put into the dish; on their being baked immediately afterwards; on the sufficient temperature of the oven; and on the rapid transfer of the souffle from the oven to the dining-room. Time to bake, about twenty minutes. Probable cost, 1s. 10d. Sufficient for six or seven persons.
A rice pudding lightened with beaten whites — sturdier than a flour-based soufflé and considerably more forgiving, though it still has to go from oven to table without pausing.
- The hingeFold the whites in and get the dish into an already-hot oven at once. Every minute the mixture stands, the froth collapses and you are left with a dense baked rice pudding.
- Quick ovenUsually read as somewhere in the 400–450F range. For a half-filled dish of this depth the lower end is safer: the recipe allows about twenty minutes for the centre to set, and a fiercer heat will brown the top before then.
- MeasuresSix tablespoons of rice is about 75 g; a British quart is 40 fl oz (1.14 litres), so use about 4¾ US cups of milk. Two ounces of butter is 55 g, four tablespoons of sugar about 50 g.
- Powdered sugarIn Victorian usage this generally means finely ground sugar, not modern confectioners' sugar with its cornflour. Caster sugar is the nearest equivalent, both in the rice and sifted over the top.
- RiceA short-grain pudding rice absorbs the milk and breaks down as intended. Long-grain will stay separate and give a grainy soufflé.
- Adding the yolks"Let it cool a little" matters — the rice should be warm, not hot, or the yolks scramble. Beat each one in fully before the next.
- DishA large soufflé dish or deep baking dish, buttered and warmed. Half-filling it is deliberate: the mixture needs room to rise.
- FlavouringsOrange-flower and rose water are still sold, and a teaspoon or two is plenty; both turn soapy in quantity. Infuse coffee or melt chocolate into the milk rather than adding it at the end.
- ServingSix to seven, as stated. The hot napkin tied round the tin is Victorian insulation for carrying it to the table; a folded cloth does the same job.
This appears to be from Cassell's, and the title "another way" marks it as an alternative to an earlier rice soufflé; it is the domestic version: no flour panada, no scalded paste, just milk-boiled rice enriched with yolks and raised with whites. That approach belongs to the long English tradition of the baked rice pudding, which the nineteenth century steadily refined upward — sieved, sweetened, egged, and finally frothed into something that could be sent up as an entremets rather than a nursery dish. The list of flavourings is a good index of a well-stocked late-Victorian store cupboard: orange-flower and rose water were still everyday baking scents rather than curiosities, and chocolate and coffee had become cheap enough to use as puddings flavours. The costing of 1s. 10d. reflects the book's habit of pricing dishes for a housekeeper working to a weekly figure.