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INDIVIDUAL (Make either the friar's omelet)
Make either the friar's omelet mixture or the apple custard next following. Instead of baking, stir the mixture over the fire till it becomes thick. Take it off and add 4 beaten yolks, 1/2 cup of brandy, a teaspoonful of lemon extract and the same of extract of cloves; then 6 whites of eggs beaten up firm. Bake in cups, shells or paper cases. If the apple sustard be used--it is the richer of the two--observe that it is of double quantity and the added ingredients must be doubled accordingly.
This is a soufflé built on a pre-existing base: the book expects you to have already made its friar's omelet or apple custard mixture, then diverts you before the baking step. A few notes on translating the instructions.
- It depends on another recipeNothing here works without the friar's omelet or apple custard from the preceding pages. Friar's omelet in nineteenth-century American and English books is a baked pudding of stewed apple bound with breadcrumbs, butter, sugar and egg; of the apple custard the author tells us only that it is the richer of the two and of double quantity.
- The hinge: fold, don't stirThe six beaten whites go in last and must be folded through in a few strokes with a spatula, leaving the mixture streaky rather than smooth. Beat them to firm but not dry peaks, and get the filled cups into the oven at once; a soufflé batter that stands loses its lift.
- Thickening over the fire"Stir the mixture over the fire till it becomes thick" means low, direct heat with constant stirring until the base holds a trail. Take it off the heat before the yolks go in, and add them one at a time so they thicken rather than scramble.
- Extract of clovesClove extract is still sold and modern versions are potent. A teaspoon is a great deal by current standards; a quarter teaspoon, or a pinch of ground cloves, will likely give the effect without turning the dish medicinal.
- Half a cup of brandyThat is a heavy pour into a base that is already loose. Some of the alcohol cooks off, but the liquid does not, so expect a slacker mixture and a slower set. Reducing it to a quarter cup keeps the flavour and protects the structure.
- Cups, shells and paper casesRamekins or ovenproof teacups are the modern equivalent. "Shells" most likely means scallop shells, still usable if you have them, though pastry shells cannot be ruled out; "paper cases" are the stiff pleated cups sold for baking, which need to be set on a tray for support. Butter and sugar the insides so the mixture can climb.
- Oven and timeThe recipe gives no oven temperature at all. For individual cups of this size, around 350F for roughly 20 to 25 minutes, until well risen and set at the edge with a slight tremble at the centre. Do not open the door for the first fifteen minutes.
- Yield and servingThe quantity of the base is not given here, so the yield can only be guessed at from the four yolks and six whites added; whatever it comes to, the apple custard version gives double. Serve immediately, with cream or a spoonful of the same brandy; these fall within a few minutes of leaving the oven.
Friar's omelet is an English pudding of long standing, attested in early nineteenth-century English books and possibly older, and it is not an omelet at all: it is stewed apple layered or beaten with breadcrumbs and butter, bound with egg and baked, the name often said to refer to its plainness and cheapness rather than to any monastery in particular. The version here takes that homely pudding and lifts it into something a hotel could plate individually: the same apple base is cooked on the stove instead of in the dish, enriched with yolks and spirit, lightened with a separate meringue of whites, and portioned into cups, shells or paper cases so each diner gets a soufflé. To double the additions when using the apple custard is a working baker's shorthand, written for someone with both mixtures already standing in the kitchen and no interest in a second full recipe.