Home › The Belgian Kitchen › Limpens Cheese
Limpens Cheese
Take a roll and, cutting it in slices, remove the crusts so that a round of crumbs remain. Butter each slice, and cover it well with grated cheese, building up the slices one on the top of the other. Boil a cupful of milk, with pepper, salt, and a little nutmeg; when boiled, pour it over the bread till it is well soaked. Put them in the oven, for quarter of an hour, according to the heat of the oven and the quantity you have. You must pour its juice over it every now and then, and when the top is turning into a crust, serve it.
A savoury bread-and-cheese pudding built in layers rather than stirred together, close to a rustic strata. The instructions assume a cook who will watch the dish rather than a timer.
- The hinge: keep bastingThe milk sinks to the bottom of the dish as the bread swells, and the top layer will dry out and scorch if left alone. Spoon the liquid back over the stack two or three times during baking so the crust browns rather than hardens.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given; the cook is told only to judge "according to the heat of the oven and the quantity you have." A moderate oven, around 350-375F, is a reasonable modern equivalent, and the quarter hour stated may need extending if the dish is deep.
- The rollThe recipe specifies only "a roll," sliced with the crusts cut away so rounds of crumb remain. A firm, close-crumbed white roll or a short length of baguette holds the layers; an enriched bun such as brioche will go sweet and soft.
- A cupfulSomewhere between 8 and 10 fl oz for the single roll the recipe describes; a British cupful of the period is often nearer half a pint. Pour until the bread is "well soaked," and warm a little extra milk if the slices stay dry.
- The cheeseUnspecified, as it would have been whatever was on hand. A firm well-aged cheese that grates dry works best -- Gruyere, aged Gouda, or a Comte. Fresh mozzarella or anything wet will make the layers slide.
- SeasoningPepper, salt, and "a little nutmeg" go into the boiled milk rather than onto the layers. Nutmeg with milk and cheese is a familiar Low Countries seasoning; keep it light, and salt with restraint given the cheese.
- YieldOne roll makes a single generous portion as a light supper or savoury course. Scale by the roll, and use a dish narrow enough to keep the stack upright.
The Belgian Cook Book was assembled in Britain during the First World War from recipes contributed by Belgian refugees, and it carries the marks of that origin: dishes are frugal, ingredients are few, and a number of entries seem to carry a family or district name, though whether these came from the contributors or from any tradition is not clear. Limpens is a Belgian surname, and the title most likely records whose kitchen the recipe came from -- though the book gives no note either way. The dish itself belongs to the wide European family of bread-and-cheese suppers that stretch from Welsh rarebit to Savoyard croute au fromage, all of them built on the same economy: stale bread, a little milk, and enough hard cheese to make a meal of it.