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Chous Filled with Cream
Pour one-half pint of water into a saucepan with a small piece of butter, one teaspoonful of sugar, a piece of lemon peel and one pinch of salt; boil these together and then mix in two tablespoonfuls of flour and stir till thick and cooked. Allow the paste to get cold and then work into it a sufficient number of eggs to make it thin enough to drop from a spoon. Place a lump of lard in a deep fryingpan and make it hot, but not quite to the point of boiling. Then with a spoon drop the paste into it in lumps about the size of a hen's egg. When it is lightly browned and well swollen, remove the cakes, drain them, scoop out a little of the top of each to form a hollow and allow them to get cold. Whip some cream to a stiff froth, put a small quantity into the hollow of each piece, arrange them in a fancy dish, and serve.
This is fried choux paste — the same batter as an éclair shell, cooked in fat instead of an oven. The proportions as printed need attention before you start.
- The flour is almost certainly understatedThe flour looks understated -- two tablespoonfuls to half a pint of water will not form a paste that pulls from the pan. Standard choux is roughly equal volumes of liquid and flour, about 1 cup flour to 1 cup water. Whether the printed figure is an error or simply a very loose direction cannot be established; work to the texture described rather than the number.
- Half a pintAn American pint of the period is 16 fl oz, so half a pint is 1 cup. "A small piece of butter" is unquantified; around 2 oz would suit that quantity of water.
- Cook the paste, then cool itStir over heat until the mass leaves a film on the pan bottom and pulls together into a ball — that step gelatinises the starch and is what makes the puffs rise. Letting it cool before the eggs go in is not optional: hot paste scrambles them.
- "A sufficient number of eggs"For a cup of water and a cup of flour, expect four large eggs, added one at a time. Stop when the paste falls slowly from the spoon in a thick ribbon; too much egg and the puffs spread and collapse.
- Fat temperature"Hot, but not quite to the point of boiling" means fat that is hot but not smoking; keep it moderate rather than fierce, since fat too hot sets the outside before the interior expands, while fat too cool lets the paste soak it up. Lard works well, but any neutral frying fat will do.
- Size and patienceEgg-sized lumps take 8 to 10 minutes and need room to turn; fry four or five at a time in at least two inches of fat. They should roll over on their own as they swell, and they must be dry and hollow inside before they come out.
- Fill cold, serve soonWarm shells melt whipped cream and the fried surface softens within an hour or two of filling. Sweeten the cream lightly and fill at the last moment; a piping bag through the scooped hole is tidier than a spoon.
- YieldThe recipe gives no count; it depends entirely on how large the spoonfuls are dropped.
Fried choux under one name or another runs through European pastry for centuries — the Italian zeppole, the French beignet soufflé, the Spanish buñuelo de viento — all the same cooked paste dropped into fat rather than piped onto a sheet. "Chous" here is simply an unaccented spelling of choux, French for cabbages, the name generally traced to the rumpled, cabbage-like look of the baked buns. Oscar Tschirky's 1896 collection is widely understood to be a compilation drawing on existing sources, and its recipes read as reminders for cooks who already knew the method rather than instructions for beginners — which is why the flour is casual, the eggs are uncounted, and the frying temperature is described by eye. The lemon peel in the water is a small period touch, perfuming the paste.