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Lemon Souffle
Mix 1/4 of a pound of flour very smoothly with 1 1/2 pints of milk; add 1/4 of a pound of sugar, which has been well rubbed upon the rind of 3 fresh lemons, and flavor with vanilla or other extracts, and 1/4 of a pound of butter, and boil gently until the mixture is thick and smooth. Pour it out and stir it until it is nearly cold, then add the yolks of 6 eggs, well beaten. Last of all, whisk the whites of 9 eggs to a firm foam, and add them, with the strained juice of 2 lemons, to the rest. Butter a souffle-mould thickly, half fill it with the mixture, and bake in a moderate oven. If it is necessary to fill the mould more than half, tie a band of well-buttered white paper round the top, to prevent the contents running over. Serve the souffle the moment it comes out of the oven, or its appearance will be spoilt. Time to bake, from thirty to forty minutes.
A classic panade-based souffle: a thick flour-and-milk paste enriched with butter and yolks, lightened with a large quantity of whites. The proportions are generous and the method sound, but a few conventions need translating.
- Weights in cupsA quarter pound of flour is about 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons; a quarter pound of sugar is a scant 2/3 cup; a quarter pound of butter is 8 tablespoons, that is one standard stick. The 1 1/2 pints of milk is 3 cups if American pints are meant, nearer 3 1/2 if the measure is an imperial pint.
- Moderate ovenRead this as 350F. A souffle of this depth wants steady heat rather than a blast; too hot and the outside sets before the centre rises.
- Rub the sugar on the rindThis is the flavour hinge. Abrading loaf sugar against whole lemons pulls the oil straight out of the zest. With modern granulated sugar, grate the zest of three lemons and work it into the sugar with your fingers until it is damp and fragrant.
- Cool the panade properly"Nearly cold" matters — yolks added to a hot paste will scramble, and hot paste will slacken the whites. Stir as it cools to keep a skin from forming.
- Nine whites to six yolksThe surplus whites are deliberate, giving lift without extra richness. Whisk them to firm but not dry peaks and fold in thirds; the first third loosens the heavy base, the rest carries the air.
- Lemon juice lastFold the strained juice of two lemons in with the whites, as the recipe directs, and get the dish into the oven immediately.
- The mould and paper collarA souffle-mould is a straight-sided dish; the mixture here comes to roughly 2 quarts, and since the recipe directs half-filling, the mould wants to be larger again unless you use the paper band. Butter it heavily and right up the sides. The buttered paper band is the period version of a foil collar and still works if you overfill.
- ServingThirty to forty minutes in a moderate oven, and it must go to the table at once — it will begin to sink within a few minutes. It will serve six or so, though the recipe states no yield.
Souffles built on a flour panade rather than a pastry cream were a common nineteenth-century approach in English kitchens, and the technique of rubbing sugar against citrus rind belongs to the era of loaf sugar, when a cook broke off a lump and scraped it over the fruit to capture the oils. Lemon was a workhorse flavouring of Victorian and Edwardian sweet cookery: dependable, shipped well, and bright enough to cut through a mixture holding a quarter pound of butter. The paper collar and the insistence on serving "the moment it comes out of the oven" show how the souffle functioned in a household with formal service, arriving as a piece of timing rather than a dish that could wait on a sideboard.