No. 759

Small Swiss Cheese Souffle Garnishing

Garniture de Petits Souffles au Fromage Suisse

Butter twelve hollow tartlet molds; fill them to almost their height with a cheese souffle preparation (No. 2984) not too light. Range these molds in a sautoire with a little hot water, and let them poach in a slack oven for sixteen to eighteen minutes without allowing the water to boil. After removing them from the oven, unmold on a deep buttered silver dish; dredge over some grated parmesan cheese in such a way that the tops of all the small loaves are well covered; a quarter of an hour before serving, pour over some good raw cream so that they float in the liquid to about half their height, then place them in a moderate oven to let them absorb the cream, souffleing them slightly and coloring them at the same time. Serve the instant they leave the oven.

← No. 758 Straws Cheese Garnishing Garnishings No. 760 Tartlets a la Parmentier →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is describing what modern kitchens call a twice-baked soufflé: small cheese soufflés poached in a water bath, unmolded, then finished in cream. The whole thing hinges on the base being stiff enough to survive unmolding.

The batter must be deliberately heavy"Not too light" is the key instruction. Fold in fewer beaten whites than you would for a soufflé served in its dish, or the little loaves will collapse the moment they leave the mold. A thick béchamel base, heavily cheesed, with yolks and only a modest proportion of whites.
No. 2984 is elsewhere in the bookThe cross-reference is to Ranhofer's cheese souffle preparation; the title here points to a Swiss cheese, so a Gruyere-type base is the likely intent. Any standard cheese souffle recipe works if you slacken the amount of whipped white.
Oven temperaturesA "slack" oven for the poaching is usually reckoned at about 275-300F; a "moderate" oven for the final browning at around 350F. The low first bake is what keeps the water below a simmer.
The water must not boilRanhofer says so explicitly, and it matters: boiling water pushes the souffles up fast and coarsens the set, so they tear when turned out. Use hot, not boiling, water -- the recipe asks only for "a little" in the pan -- and check it stays still.
VesselsA sautoire is a shallow straight-sided pan; any roasting pan or baking dish serves as the bain-marie. "Hollow tartlet molds" are small deep tartlet tins or dariole molds. Butter them thoroughly and, if you like, dust with grated parmesan for release.
"Good raw cream"Here "raw" means uncooked and unsweetened, poured over as it is. Use plain heavy cream; avoid ultra-pasteurized, which tastes cooked.
The fifteen-minute soakThe final quarter-hour -- Ranhofer pours the cream a quarter of an hour before serving, and the second bake happens within that interval: the souffles absorb the cream in the moderate oven, puffing and colouring as they go.
Yield and servingTwelve molds give a garnish for a large service, or four to six portions as a first course, two or three soufflés each. They deflate within a minute or two, so the instruction to serve the instant they leave the oven is literal.

A Little History

This comes from the *Garnishings* chapter of Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous record of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, where a dish like this existed to accompany a larger course rather than to stand alone. The technique — bake a soufflé in a mold, turn it out, flood it with cream and bake again — solves the perennial problem of the soufflé's two-minute lifespan by making the collapse part of the plan: the second bake in cream lifts it again on the plate. The idea is generally traced through French hotel cookery of the late nineteenth century and reached a wider public a century later as *soufflé suissesse*, the twice-baked Gruyère soufflé made famous by the Roux brothers in London, which follows essentially the same order of operations Ranhofer sets out here.