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Three Eggs (Three-quarters of an ounce)
Three-quarters of an ounce of Gelatine.
Two and a half Lemons.
Half a pint of whipped Cream.
Half a gill of Water. good Put the yolks of eggs, sugar, grated rind, and juice of the lemons into a saucepan, and whisk until it is nearly boiling. Strain into a basin, and let it get cold, and when it is cold stir the whipped cream into the mixture. Melt the threequarters of an ounce of gelatine in half a gill of water, and when melted strain it into the mixture, and lastly, add the whites whipped. Let it set creamily, and then pour into a silver soufflé case, with a band of paper tied round. When firm, take off the paper, and shake ratafia crumbs on top. Serve in the silver soufflé case.
This is a cold lemon soufflé, printed with its ingredient list half-collapsed into the title — a common casualty of these columnar Victorian layouts. Read it before deciding to cook it, because the last addition is raw and stays raw.
- The whipped whites are never cookedOnly the yolks go into the pan, whisked until "nearly boiling"; the whites are whipped and folded in afterwards, cold, and the set comes from gelatine rather than heat, so the whites never reach a temperature that would deal with Salmonella. Shell eggs of this period were not pasteurised and most sold today are not either; use a current recipe for cold souffl e if you want to serve one.[0] duplicate removed
- It is then held at room temperatureNo chilling step is given -- The mixture is left to "set creamily" and poured into a metal case with a paper collar, and the recipe nowhere says to put it on ice or in a cold larder. If a dessert containing raw whites firms up in a warm room, that is exactly the wrong condition.
- No sugar quantity survivesSugar appears in the method but not in the surviving ingredient list; the stray word "good" may be the remnant of the sugar line, though there is no way to know what it once read. Whatever you use is a guess, and guessing on a gelatine set is guesswork twice over.
- Archaic measuresA gill is a quarter of a pint, so half an imperial gill is about 2 1/2 fl oz. "Half a pint of whipped cream" is ambiguous: it may mean half a pint of cream before whipping or the whipped volume, and the recipe does not say.
- Gelatine strengthThree-quarters of an ounce for this volume reads as very heavy now. Victorian leaf and sheet gelatine was inconsistent and often much weaker than modern platinum-grade leaf or powdered gelatine, so period quantities cannot be carried across at face value.
- Ratafia crumbsRatafias are small, hard almond macaroons, close to Italian amaretti; crushed amaretti are the usual stand-in. In some period recipes they were flavoured with bitter almond, which is another reason to treat old almond confectionery with care.
- The silver soufflé caseThe silver souffl e case -- A straight-sided silver or plated case, collared with a band of paper tied above the rim so the mixture sets standing proud of the edge, then unwrapped to mimic a risen hot souffl e. The collar holds the soft mixture up until it is firm; the effect once the paper comes off is purely presentational.
Cold or "iced" souffl es were a fixture of late Victorian and Edwardian dinner service, and this one belongs to the gelatine-and-cream school of the sweet course: a lemon custard base, whipped cream for body, whipped whites for lift, and just enough gelatine to hold a shape when the paper collar came off. The paper band is the whole conceit -- it lets a cold dish stand above its case like a souffl e fresh from the oven, and the ratafia crumbs scattered over the top do the work of a browned surface. A silver case, specified twice, points to a well-appointed household. Ratafia biscuits are generally said to take their name from the almond-flavoured cordial, ratafia, the word having transferred to the little macaroons flavoured to match.