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Omelet Souffle
Yolks 2 eggs 1/4 cup powdered sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Whites 4 eggs Few grains salt Prepare same as Souffle au Rhum. Mound three-fourths of mixture on a slightly buttered platter. Decorate mound with remaining mixture forced through a pastry bag and tube. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and bake ten minutes in a moderate oven.
A plain French dessert omelette, baked rather than pan-cooked, and finished with piped decoration. The recipe leans on a neighbouring entry for its method, so the working sequence is worth spelling out.
- The borrowed method"Prepare same as Souffle au Rhum" refers the cook to a neighbouring entry not reproduced here. The standard handling for a mixture of this kind is to beat the two yolks with the sugar until thick and pale, add the vanilla, then fold in the four whites beaten with a few grains of salt to firm but not dry peaks, stopping as soon as the streaks are gone; overworking tends to make the mound slump in the oven.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350-375F by modern reckoning. Ten minutes should leave a set shell over a soft centre; longer browns the piping and dries the interior.
- Powdered sugarIn American books of this period powdered sugar means a fine-ground sugar between today's granulated and confectioners'. Modern confectioners' sugar works for both the mixture and the dusting; it contains a little cornstarch, which does no harm here.
- The platterThe mixture is baked directly on a slightly buttered serving platter, not in a dish. Use a platter known to be ovenproof; some china and most ordinary glass serving plates risk cracking from thermal shock.
- PipingReserve the last quarter of the mixture and pipe it without delay; the recipe names only a pastry bag and tube, so the pattern is the cook's choice. Beaten whites lose air fast, so pipe and get the platter into the oven without pause.
- Odd egg countTwo yolks to four whites, which gives a lighter mixture. Four eggs broken leaves two yolks over; keep them for custard or mayonnaise the same day.
- Yield and servingNo yield is given; the quantities suggest two or three portions. Carry it straight from the oven, as a baked omelette souffle starts to settle quickly.
The omelette soufflée was an established French sweet by the nineteenth century, a beaten-egg dessert built for show: piled high, dusted, browned quickly, and rushed to the table before it settles. The cross-reference to Souffle au Rhum is typical of turn-of-the-century American cookery instruction, where one master method was written out once and then varied by flavouring.