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Omelette Souffle Au Rhum
Place four egg yolks in a bowl with three ounces granulated sugar and two tablespoons good rum; sharply mix with a wooden spoon for eight minutes. Beat up to a stiff froth the whites of six eggs, add to the yolks, and gently mix with a skimmer for one minute. Arrange three-quarters of the preparation on a large baking dish in omelette form. Place the rest of the preparation in a pastry bag, with a fancy tube previously placed at the bottom of the bag, then decorate the top and all around the omelette with the contents of the bag. Dredge two tablespoons sugar all over the omelette, place the dish on a hot range a minute, then set in the oven to bake for twenty minutes. Remove and immediately send to the table.
A soufflé omelette baked flat on a dish rather than folded in a pan. It is all air and timing, so have the table ready before it goes in the oven.
- Oven temperatureThe original gives none. A dish of this type is usually taken to suit a moderate oven, around 350F, so the interior sets before the exterior colours too hard. Twenty minutes should leave it firm at the edges and softer in the middle, but check at 15.
- Four yolks, six whitesThe extra whites would give lift and lightness; whether the imbalance is deliberate the recipe does not say. Cracking six eggs leaves two spare yolks, which can go into a custard or mayonnaise the same day.
- Three ounces sugarBy weight, about a scant half cup of granulated sugar. The further two tablespoons dredged on top are there to caramelise into a thin crust, not to sweeten.
- The eight-minute beatingBeating yolks and sugar by hand for eight minutes is what produces the pale, thick ribbon that carries the mixture. Three to four minutes with an electric mixer on medium-high reaches the same point.
- "Gently mix with a skimmer"The skimmer here is doing the work of a folding tool. A large rubber spatula and three or four strokes will serve; the recipe allows one minute, and less is safer.
- "A hot range a minute"The recipe sets the dish on the stovetop briefly before baking; the reason is not given. On a modern flat-bottomed dish over low heat, thirty to sixty seconds answers, and it can be skipped if the dish is not flameproof.
- The dishThe recipe asks only for a large baking dish. A shallow oval gratin or metal dish suits the flat, decorated shape better than a deep casserole.
- Serve at once"Immediately send to the table" is the hinge of the whole recipe. It begins collapsing within two or three minutes of leaving the oven. Serves three to four.
Omelette soufflée is the sweet cousin of the plain omelette, made light by folding stiff whites into sweetened yolks and finishing it in the oven rather than on the burner. Alexander Filippini, long a chef at Delmonico's in New York, compiled The International Cook Book (1906), which collects that hotel-and-restaurant tradition alongside home cooking. The piping bag decoration and the dredging of sugar over the surface belong to that style of presentation. Rum is the flavouring here; a flamed, table-side version exists but is a separate preparation.