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Cheese Souffle with Pastry
2 eggs 2/3 cup thick cream 1/2 cup Swiss cheese, cut in small dice 1/2 cup grated American cheese 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese Salt and pepper Few grains cayenne Few gratings nutmeg Add eggs to cream and beat slightly, then add cheese and seasonings. Line the sides of ramequin dishes with strips of puff paste. Fill dishes with mixture until two-thirds full. Bake fifteen minutes in a hot oven.
A baked cheese custard in a pastry collar rather than a soufflé in the modern sense — there are no whipped whites here, and it will not rise dramatically. Judge it by the set of the custard, not by height.
- Hot oven"Hot" in books of this period is generally taken to mean somewhere around 400-450F. Fifteen minutes at that heat suits shallow individual dishes; anything deeper will still be liquid at the centre.
- Ramequin dishesSmall individual baking dishes of roughly 4 fl oz, what we now call ramekins. The recipe does not say how many the mixture fills.
- American cheeseIn 1900 this meant ordinary factory cheddar, not the processed slices sold under the name today. Use a firm medium or sharp cheddar.
- Thick creamHeavy cream (British double cream is richer still). Light cream or half-and-half will set more loosely and weep.
- Puff pasteStrips of puff pastry pressed against the buttered inner walls of each dish, forming a collar the custard bakes against. The base is left bare. Chill the lined dishes before filling so the pastry holds its shape.
- SaltThree cheeses, one of them Parmesan, carry a great deal of salt already. Season the cream mixture lightly and taste before it goes into the dishes.
- DonenessThe custard should be just set with a faint tremble at the centre and the pastry browned. Overbaked it curdles and the cheese oozes fat.
- ServingServe at once, in the dishes. It sinks and stiffens as it cools.