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Arrowroot Souffle
Mix 4 tablespoonfuls of arrowroot with 1 cupful of milk. Stir it gradually into 1 pint of boiling milk, and add 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar on which the rind of 1 lemon has been rubbed. Let it boil for a quarter of an hour, stirring all the time. Take it from the fire and let it cool, then stir in the well-beaten yolks of 6 eggs. Well oil a plain tin mould, and when everything is ready, whisk the whites to a solid froth, and add them to the rest. Fill the tin three parts full, and bake for twenty minutes in a good oven. Serve immediately.
A cornstarch-style pudding base lightened with beaten whites and baked. It behaves like a soufflé only if the whites go in at the last second and it reaches the table immediately.
- The hinge: fold and bake at onceWhisk the whites only when the base is cooled to lukewarm, fold in with a light hand, and get the mould into an already-hot oven. Any standing about and the foam deflates before the heat can set it.
- "A good oven"Probably something in the region of 375-400F; the term is imprecise and the original gives no temperature. Twenty minutes at that heat would suit a mould filled three parts full, perhaps 1 to 1.5 quarts in capacity.
- Arrowroot behaves unlike flourIt thickens at a lower temperature than cornstarch and thins if held at a hard boil. Bring the milk up gently, cook until it is thick and glossy, and take the quarter of an hour as an outer limit rather than an instruction to keep it rolling.
- Measure the arrowroot by weight if you canFour tablespoonfuls is about 1.25 oz / 35 g. Starch powders pack unevenly in a spoon, so a scale gives a more predictable set.
- Rubbing the sugar with lemonRub the whole lemon against the sugar crystals until the sugar is damp and yellow. This draws out the oil from the zest and is the only flavouring in the dish, so do not skip it or substitute juice.
- The mouldA "plain tin mould" means a smooth, straight-sided tin without fluting or pattern. A soufflé dish or charlotte mould works. Oil, as written, is fine, but softened butter dusted with sugar gives a better climb.
- Tempering the yolksSix yolks stirred into a still-hot base will scramble. Let the mixture cool to warm, then beat a spoonful into the yolks before returning them to the pan.
- YieldProbably about six servings, though the original gives no number. It falls within a few minutes of leaving the oven, which is why the recipe ends where it does.