No. 2982

Souffle, Creamy, with Cheese

Souffle Cremeux au Fromage

Place twelve raw egg-yolks into a saucepan; beat them with half a pound of partly melted butter, season with pepper and nutmeg and stir the preparation on a slow fire the same as a cream, so that it thickens, without ceasing to stir, and without letting it boil; when done remove from the fire and stir in three-quarters of a pound of grated Swiss and parmesan cheese (the preparation should remain mellow); add to it first five beaten egg-whites, mixing thoroughly but gently, and then two or three spoonfuls of whipped cream. Pour this preparation in a souffle pan (Fig. 182), lay it on a small baking sheet and cook it from eighteen to twenty minutes in a slack oven. Strew over grated parmesan before removing and serve at once.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's cheese souffle is built on a stirred yolk-and-butter custard rather than the usual flour-thickened bechamel, which makes it richer, looser and far less forgiving of heat. Everything depends on the base.

The hinge: never let the base boilTwelve yolks beaten with butter over direct heat will curdle if they get much above roughly 180F. Work over a bain-marie or the lowest possible flame, stirring without pause, and pull it the moment it coats the spoon.
"Slack oven"The low end of the nineteenth-century range; modern equivalents are usually given as somewhere between about 250 and 325F. The gentle 18 to 20 minutes suits a custard-based mixture that would curdle and weep at the higher heat often used for souffles.
Quantities and scaleTwelve yolks, 8 oz butter and 12 oz cheese is a banquet-sized dish, probably eight or so portions, and it will want a large souffle dish or two smaller ones. It scales down, though five whites do not divide neatly in half.
Only five whitesFive whites to twelve yolks is deliberate. This is not a tall, dry soufflé but a rich one that rises modestly and settles into something closer to a baked cream. Do not add more whites expecting more lift.
"Mellow"Ranhofer's word for the consistency after the cheese goes in: soft, slack, still pourable. If the cheese has stiffened the base into a paste, the whites cannot be folded in without knocking them flat.
The cheeses"Swiss" here means Gruyere or Emmental, grated fine; pair it with true Parmigiano-Reggiano. Pre-shredded cheese carries anti-caking starch that dulls the texture of a mixture this delicate.
Butter the dish properlyButter the mould and dust it with grated parmesan rather than flour, which gives the mixture something to climb and matches the finishing dusting called for at the end.
Serve immediatelyThe instruction is not decorative. A custard-based souffle with this much butter falls quickly and turns greasy as it cools.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years cooking at Delmonico's in New York, and it reads as a professional French repertoire transplanted whole to Manhattan. The book gives several cheese souffles in succession, this one distinguished by a base of yolks and butter worked like a custard; the technique is essentially that of a warm emulsion. The pairing of Gruyere for melt and body with Parmesan for salt and savour is the standard French kitchen combination for cheese souffles and remains so. The Figure 182 referenced is one of the engraved illustrations of moulds and utensils that fill the book, a reminder that it was written as much for professional kitchens fitting themselves out as for readers at home.