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Baked Cheese
1/2 pint (I cup) grated cheese 1 gill (1/2 cup) milk 3 eggs I heaping tablespoonful (I Salt and pepper to taste oz.) butter I heaping tablespoonful (I oz.) flour Melt the butter, stir in the flour, add the milk, salt and pepper. When it comes to boiling point remove from the fire, then add the yolks of the eggs, the cheese, and the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth.
Pour into a well-buttered fireproof dish, and bake until brown.
Serve hot.
This is a cheese soufflé under a plainer name, built on a thick béchamel base. The proportions are sound; what the original leaves out is the oven temperature and the baking time.
- The measuresA gill is half a cup (4 fl oz). Half a pint of grated cheese is about 1 cup loosely packed, roughly 3 oz of a firm cheese. The heaping tablespoonfuls of butter and flour are given as 1 oz each: that is about 2 tablespoons of butter, while 1 oz of flour is nearer 3 level tablespoons by modern spoon sizes.
- Oven and timeNo temperature is given. A soufflé of this size bakes at 375°F for 25 to 30 minutes, until well risen and browned on top. Do not open the oven for the first 20 minutes.
- The hinge: cool the baseAdd the yolks only after the sauce has come off the heat and lost its fiercest heat, or they will scramble in threads through the mixture. Then fold the whites in with a light hand — the lift comes entirely from the air in them.
- Fireproof dishGlazed earthenware or a heatproof glass dish that goes straight from oven to table. Butter it thoroughly and, if you want a better rise, dust the buttered sides with fine dry breadcrumbs or grated cheese so the mixture can climb.
- The cheeseThe recipe specifies only 'grated cheese'; a dry, firm cheese is what suits it. Use a well-aged Cheddar, Gruyere or a mixture; young, moist cheeses shed water and weigh the whites down.
- SeasoningSalt and pepper alone are thin for a cheese mixture. A scrape of nutmeg or a pinch of mustard powder in the sauce is period-appropriate and sharpens the cheese considerably.
- Yield and servingServes two as a light main dish or four as a savoury course. It must go to the table straight from the oven; it begins to sink within a few minutes.
Fireproof glazed earthenware that could be baked in and then carried to the table -- saving a serving dish and keeping the food hot -- suits a mixture like this one, which wants to hold its heat and be eaten the instant it comes out of the oven.