No. 3060

Omelet Souffle, Ancient Style

Omelette Soufflee a l'Ancienne

Melt half a pound of good butter and have it clarified. Put into a glazed vessel fourteen egg yolks and ten ounces of vanilla sugar; beat the preparation the same as for lady fingers, or until it becomes frothy and light, then add to it a grain of salt, seven or eight pulverized macaroons, and lastly sixteen stiffly beaten egg-whites. Pour the melted butter into two clean omelet pans, heat and putting half the preparation into each, toss slowly to warm them both at once, having them absorb all the butter, and keep them well rounded; transfer them immediately into two deep, buttered dishes, and push into a slack but well-regulated oven; remove two minutes later and split them down through their entire depth, then return them to the oven. Twelve to fifteen minutes suffice to cook the omelets. When done and light, besprinkle liberally with powdered vanilla sugar (No.3165), and two minutes later remove from the oven and serve immediately.

← No. 3059 Rum Omelet Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 3061 Omelet Souffle-Light →

For the Modern Kitchen

A Delmonico's soufflé omelette built on fourteen yolks and sixteen whites — a banquet-scale dish that wants two pans, two shallow gratin dishes, and an oven you trust. Read the whole thing through before starting, since the meringue will not wait.

The hinge: split it, then finish itAfter two minutes in the oven the surface has set enough to hold a shape; cutting down through the full depth lets heat reach the raw centre so the interior cooks rather than staying liquid under a crust. Do it fast, with a thin knife, and get the dish straight back in.
"A slack but well-regulated oven"Slack means a low-to-moderate oven; period equivalences vary, roughly 250-325F. "Well-regulated" is the operative half — a souffle omelette browned hard at the edges before the middle sets is the standard failure. Convection off.
Beat "the same as for lady fingers"Yolks and sugar whipped to the ribbon stage: pale, thick, falling in a slow band that sits on the surface for a second or two. Five to eight minutes in a stand mixer. Underbeaten yolks give a dense, eggy base.
Vanilla sugarRanhofer gives vanilla sugar its own entry at No. 3165; such sugars were generally made by pounding and sifting sugar with dried vanilla pods and letting it perfume. Ten ounces is about 1 3/8 cups; make it several days ahead, or use caster sugar with the scraped seeds of two pods.
MacaroonsThese are crisp almond macaroons of the amaretti type, not coconut macaroons and not French macarons. Seven or eight, dried out in a low oven and crushed fine, come to roughly ⅓ to ½ cup of crumbs and give the omelette body.
Half a pound of clarified butterMuch of it functions as a cooking medium, though Ranhofer directs that the omelets "absorb all the butter" as the pans are tossed. Clarify it properly; the milk solids in whole butter will scorch and speck the omelette at this quantity.
Glazed vesselGlazed earthenware, i.e. a nonreactive vessel for a yolk-and-sugar foam. Any nonreactive bowl does the same job.
Folding and timingFold the whites in with a light hand and stop while streaks are just gone; every extra stroke costs height. The pans, the dishes and the oven should all be ready before the whites are whipped.
YieldThirty eggs' worth in two dishes serves ten to twelve as a dessert course. Halving works, but keep the ratio of yolks to whites — the two extra whites are what lift it.
Serve at onceThe final dusting of vanilla sugar and two minutes' heat sets a thin glazed surface. From oven to table it collapses steadily; there is no holding it.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this is one of a run of souffl sequence — rum omelet before it, "omelet soufflé-light" after. The à l'ancienne label points backward on purpose, though what exactly it signals is a matter of interpretation: the older French method is often said to start the sweetened egg foam in an omelet pan on the range, as an omelette proper, and only then move it to a dish and the oven, whereas the soufflé of Ranhofer's own day is generally described as built in a buttered and sugared mould from the start. The crushed macaroons may belong to that older line too. Its place among the hot entremets is a reminder of how the long service menu worked: a dish that has to be eaten within a minute of leaving the oven only makes sense in a kitchen with a brigade timing it against the dining room.