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Omelette Souffle
Six eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately and very light. Put on the stove a teacup milk with a piece of butter in it the size of a walnut. When the butter is melted, mix in one tablespoonful corn starch. Mix this with the yolks, add salt to the taste, then stir in slowly the whites. `Bake in a buttered pudding dish, fifteen minutes, in a quick oven.--Mrs. M. E. L. W.
A late-nineteenth-century souffle built on a cornstarch base rather than a flour roux, which makes it lighter but also quicker to collapse. Everything depends on getting it into a hot oven the moment the whites are folded in.
- The hingeFold the whites in with a spatula and stop the moment no streaks remain. Overmixing is one of the easiest ways to ruin the dish, and the batter will not wait — butter the dish and heat the oven before you beat a single egg.
- Quick ovenConventionally reckoned at somewhere around 400–450F. For a dish this shallow the upper end suits: it sets the outside fast and drives the rise. Fifteen minutes should give a set edge and a soft, custardy centre.
- A teacup of milkUsually reckoned at about 6 fl oz (3/4 cup) rather than a modern 8-oz cup, though period usage varied. Butter "the size of a walnut" is roughly 1 to 2 tablespoons.
- Cook the cornstarchOne tablespoon of cornstarch stirred into hot milk needs to come to a simmer and thicken, about a minute, or the finished souffle tastes chalky. Let it cool to warm before adding the yolks so they do not scramble.
- Pudding dishA shallow earthenware or glass baking dish, buttered heavily; six eggs will want a generous one. A modern straight-sided souffle dish will rise higher and may need a few minutes longer.
- Yield and servingServes four as a light supper or dessert dish. Bring it straight from the oven to the table; it will begin to sink within two or three minutes. Sweetened with a little sugar and vanilla it becomes a dessert souffle, unsweetened it takes cheese, ham or herbs.
- Beating the whitesStiff but not dry — the peaks should just hold and still look glossy. Over-beaten whites break into grains and lose the air they were meant to hold.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), edited by Marion Cabell Tyree, gathered contributions from two hundred and fifty of Virginia's noted housewives, which is why so many of its recipes end in initials rather than a name. The souffle arrived in American cookbooks through French cookery and is often said to have been a favoured demonstration of a competent kitchen, since it depends entirely on technique and cannot be held or reheated. The use of cornstarch instead of flour is a period marker: commercial cornstarch became widely available in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century and was promoted for exactly this sort of delicate work, in puddings, blancmanges and custards, on the grounds that it thickened without the raw taste of flour.