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Potato Puff or Souffle
2 cups hot mashed potatoes 2 eggs 2 tablespoons butter 1 cup milk To the mashed potatoes add the fat, the egg-yolks which have been beaten until very light, and the milk. Stir until well blended and then fold in the stiffly beaten egg-whites. Mix lightly and pile the mass into a well-greased baking-dish. Bake in a moderate oven about ten minutes. Serve at once.
A light mashed-potato souffl\ba that depends on the egg whites, not on flour or cheese, for its rise. It falls quickly, so time it to the table.
- Moderate ovenThe recipe gives no temperature; "moderate" in period usage is generally taken as somewhere around 350-375F. Ten minutes at that heat is enough only if the potato mixture goes in genuinely hot; if the potatoes have cooled, allow longer and expect a set, puffed top.
- The hingeFold the whites in with a spatula and stop while streaks are still visible. Overmixing deflates them and the dish bakes into ordinary mashed potato.
- PotatoesUse a floury variety, russet or similar, riced or put through a food mill rather than beaten in a mixer. Waxy potatoes and overworked ones turn gluey and will not lift.
- "The fat"That is the two tablespoons of butter; the ingredient list and the method use different words for the same thing. Melt it into the hot potatoes first.
- Milk quantityA full cup into two cups of potato gives a very loose batter by modern standards. Add it gradually and stop when the mixture is soft but still holds a shape on the spoon.
- SeasoningNo salt or pepper is listed, presumably because the mashed potatoes were expected to be seasoned already. Taste before the whites go in, since you cannot stir afterward.
- Dish and yieldA 1 1/2-quart baking dish, greased and filled no more than three-quarters. Serves four as a side.
- Serve at onceTake it straight from the oven to the table. Like any egg-white souffl\ba it begins to sink within a few minutes.
Potato souffles of this kind were a common way for home cooks to give yesterday's mashed potatoes a second appearance, and recipes for them run through household cookery from the late nineteenth century onward. The double title, "puff or souffle," pairs the plain domestic name with the French one.