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Cheese in Scallop Shells or Ramekins
1 cup milk 2 cups bread crumbs 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 2 cups grated American cheese Brush 6 or 8 scallop shells or ramekin dishes with melted butter. Pour milk over bread crumbs, add salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, half of grated cheese and mix well; fill into scallop shells or ramekins; place in pan, sprinkle with remainder of cheese and a few fresh bread crumbs and bake in moderate oven 30 minutes.
A simple baked cheese savoury that depends almost entirely on the crumbs and the cheese being the right kind. Two decisions in the ingredient list do more for the result than anything in the method.
- "American cheese" is not the sliced kindIn a book of this vintage the phrase means plain domestic cheddar, the everyday factory cheese sold in wheels. Use a medium or sharp cheddar; modern processed slices will melt to grease and never brown.
- Moderate ovenThe recipe gives no temperature; "moderate" is conventionally read as about 350-375F. At 30 minutes the top crumbs should be well browned and the centre set but still soft.
- Crumbs, soft not dryTwo cups of crumbs to one cup of milk only works if the crumbs are soft fresh ones torn from a day-old loaf. Dried or packaged crumbs will drink the milk and bake into a brick; if that is all you have, increase the milk until the mixture is loose and spoonable.
- Scallop shellsReal shells were common kitchen equipment and hold about half a cup. Any shallow 4-ounce ramekin or gratin dish does the same job. Butter them properly or the cheese welds itself to the sides.
- "Place in pan"This means set the filled shells on a sheet pan for handling and to catch overflow, not a water bath. Shells in particular tip; steady them on a bed of coarse salt or crumpled foil.
- WorcestershireA quarter teaspoon across the whole mixture is a background note, not a flavour. It is there for the anchovy and the depth it gives cheese, and it can be doubled without the dish tasting of it.
- SeasoningTwo cups of cheddar bring their own salt. Taste the mixture before filling; half a teaspoon of added salt may be more than you want.
- Yield and servingSix to eight ramekins, meant as a savoury course or a light supper with a green salad. Serve hot from the oven, as they stiffen noticeably as they cool.
Baking a rich mixture in scallop shells spread from restaurant cooking into domestic cookbooks: the shells were cheap, decorative, and available to anyone who had eaten scallops, and the French coquille, simply "shell," came to be attached to dishes served that way. Cheese preparations of this sort belonged to the savoury course, the small hot dish served after or instead of a sweet in English and Anglo-American dining, and they turn up throughout the period alongside Welsh rarebit and cheese straws.