No. 3065

Omelet Souffle with Preserves

Omelette Soufflee aux Confitures

Place in a bowl five ounces of flour with four ounces of powdered sugar; dilute with two gills of milk, strain the liquid through a sieve into a saucepan and add to it a bit of lemon peel, a grain of salt and three ounces of melted butter; stir the preparation over a slow fire to thicken and boil for two minutes without leaving it, and when it is taken from the fire remove the lemon peel and five minutes after work in six or seven egg-yolks, one at a time, without ceasing to beat; when cold stir in the beaten whites. Put into a large frying pan four or five spoonfuls of clarified butter; when hot pour in the preparation, spreading it over the entire surface, and two minutes after push it into a slack oven on a trivet; as soon as the top is firm turn the omelet over on the lid of a large saucepan covered with a sheet of paper, slide it back at once to the rebuttered pan and set it once more in the oven to finish cooking. It ought to be quite mellow. As soon as done, slip it on a sheet of paper again and fill the center with a row of preserves; fold it on itself, then invert it on a long dish with the assistance of the sheet of paper; shape it prettily, tightening the two ends, and besprinkle over with fine sugar; glaze under a salamander (Fig. 123).

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is not an omelet in any savory sense: it is a thick pastry-cream batter lightened with beaten whites, cooked in a pan, folded around jam and glazed. The hinge is the folding of the whites and the gentle heat — treat it as a soufflé that happens to start on the stovetop.

Gills and ouncesTwo gills of milk is one cup. Flour and sugar are given by weight: five ounces of flour is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons, four ounces of powdered sugar about 1 cup sifted. A "grain of salt" is a pinch.
Egg whitesRanhofer names six or seven yolks and then "the beaten whites" without counting them. Use the whites of the same eggs, beaten to soft, glossy peaks — stiff, dry whites will not fold into a base this heavy.
Slack ovenA slack or slow oven is usually reckoned at roughly 300-325F. Higher heat risks setting the outside before the inside inflates, and the result will not be "quite mellow" -- that is, soft and creamy at the center.
Cooling the baseRanhofer allows only five minutes off the fire before the yolks go in one at a time, and then says to let the base go fully cold before the whites. A warm base deflates the foam on contact.
Clarified butterFour or five spoonfuls is roughly 1/4 to 1/3 cup. Clarified butter matters here because the milk solids in whole butter will scorch in the pan and again in the oven; ghee is a close substitute. Use a wide ovenproof pan, 11-12 inches.
The turnInverting a half-set soufflé onto a paper-covered saucepan lid and sliding it back is the period method for cooking the second side. A large flat plate or an inverted sheet pan lined with parchment does the job with less drama; work quickly and rebutter the pan while it is still hot.
SalamanderThe salamander was an iron plate heated red and held over the sugar to caramelize it. A broiler at its highest setting, rack close, for a minute or two, or a kitchen blowtorch, gives the same glaze. Watch it continuously — the sugar goes from blond to black fast.
Preserves and yieldAbout 3/4 cup of a firm preserve -- apricot, raspberry, cherry -- spread in a band down the center. Serve immediately; the recipe states no yield, and a souffle omelet of this size begins to slacken within minutes of leaving the oven.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of the restaurant's repertoire, and its hot entremets section runs through dozens of near-identical sweet soufflés distinguished only by flavoring — macaroons, vanilla, preserves. The French omelette soufflée is generally held to be older than the modern baked soufflé and covers a family of dishes in which whipped whites are folded into a sweet base and cooked in a pan rather than a mold; the name is often said to survive from a time when "omelette" meant almost anything set with eggs in a skillet. What distinguishes this version is the flour-thickened milk base, essentially a pastry cream, which makes the finished dish sturdier and more forgiving than a whites-and-yolks soufflé and allows it to be turned in the pan and then folded around jam without collapsing. The salamander and the trivet in the oven both belong to a coal-range kitchen where heat came from below and above by separate means, and where a brigade large enough to send out something this fragile at the right moment was simply assumed.