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Cheese Dishes (Bake fifteen minutes in a hot)
bake fifteen minutes in a hot oven, and serve at once. Cases for baking the soufflé may be purchased from a confectioner, or they may be made with very little trouble.
CHEESE SOUFFLÉ IN A MOLD-In a saucepan, over the fire, place one tablespoon of butter, six rounded tablespoons of flour and one-half cup of sweet cream. Stir until well mixed but do not let it brown. Next beat the yolks of two eggs, stir in thoroughly one teacup of rich milk and two ounces of grated Parmesan cheese; add this mixture by degrees to the hot contents of the pan. Stir in lightly the whites of eggs beaten to a froth. (Another egg will make it still lighter.) Bake one-half an hour in a soufflé dish in a moderate oven. The dish must be served at once or it will fall.
Two recipes run together here: the tail end of a soufflé baked in paper cases, and a full method for one baked in a mold. The instructions are sound but the proportions and oven language need translating.
- Oven temperatures"A hot oven" for the little cases means 425-450F; the small volume needs to set fast. "A moderate oven" for the molded soufflé is 350F, and half an hour at that heat suits a dish of about one quart.
- The hinge: whites"Beaten to a froth" in this period probably means whites taken only to soft peaks that still slump, not stiff and dry. Fold them in in two additions with a light hand; over-beaten or over-stirred whites are a common reason a souffle comes out dense.
- A teacupA teacup in American books of this date is usually reckoned at about 3/4 cup, or 6 fluid ounces, rather than a full 8, though the measure was never standardised. "Rich milk" means whole milk or milk with a little cream added; "sweet cream" simply means fresh cream rather than soured.
- That much flourSix rounded tablespoons of flour to one tablespoon of butter and half a cup of cream gives a stiff paste rather than a conventional roux. It works because the milk and yolks thin it afterward, but expect to beat hard to keep it smooth, and add the liquid gradually off the fiercest heat.
- Cheese and seasoningTwo ounces of grated Parmesan is about two-thirds of a cup, loosely packed. No salt is specified anywhere; season the base with salt, white pepper and a pinch of cayenne before the whites go in, since Parmesan alone will not carry it.
- Yield and the dishAs written this should roughly fill a 1-quart straight-sided dish and serve three or four as a light course. Butter the dish and dust it with grated cheese or fine crumbs so the mixture can climb.
- ServingThe warning is literal. Do not open the oven during the first twenty minutes, and carry it to the table the moment it comes out; the structure is steam, and it starts collapsing within a few minutes.
- Paper casesThe "cases" bought from a confectioner were stiff paper shells. Individual ramekins or foil bake cups do the same job; fill them about three-quarters full.
Soufflé -- from the French souffler, to blow or puff -- appeared in American home cookbooks as a mark of French-trained refinement, and was often placed in a chapter of cheese dishes that supplied lunches, suppers and light entrées. The reference to buying paper cases from a confectioner is telling: cookbooks of the period routinely offered both the shop-bought and the homemade route. Parmesan appears here rather than a domestic cheese, being imported, hard, gratable and stable on a shelf.