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Puffs
Place in a copper basin half pound sifted flour, two raw eggs, half saltspoon salt and half pint cold milk. Briskly beat the whole together with a whisk for five minutes, or until thoroughly thickened. Clean thoroughly six puff moulds. Fill them up with the preparation to half their heights. Place in a hot oven to bake for forty-five minutes. Remove, detach from the edges of the moulds with a knife, and serve on a dish with a folded napkin.
This is a popover in all but name: a lean egg-and-milk batter that climbs on steam alone. The original assumes a professional kitchen with copper bowls and a bank of small moulds, but nothing here needs special equipment.
- MeasuresHalf a pound of sifted flour is about 1 3/4 to 2 cups (225 g); half a pint of milk is one cup. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so half of one is 1/8 teaspoon.
- The copper basinCopper was most likely specified simply because it was the standard whisking vessel in a professional kitchen; any bowl works. What matters is the five minutes of hard beating, which develops the gluten that gives the batter its structure -- the lift itself comes from steam.
- ConsistencyWith this ratio the batter is thick, closer to a heavy cream than the thin pourable batter of a Yorkshire pudding. If it will not fall from the whisk in a ribbon, add milk a spoonful at a time.
- Hot ovenRead that as 425-450F. The rise depends entirely on the batter hitting fierce heat, so the oven must be fully up to temperature before the moulds go in.
- The mouldsDeep individual moulds -- popover cups, custard cups, or a deep muffin tin. The recipe says only to clean them; grease them well too, since there is no fat in the batter, and heat them in the oven before filling. Half-filling is correct; they need the headroom.
- TimingForty-five minutes is long by modern practice. Check at 30 minutes: they should be deep brown, dry to the touch, and firm at the sides. Resist opening the door in the first 20 minutes, which is when the steam does its work and a draught will collapse them.
- ServingMakes six. They deflate within a few minutes of leaving the oven, so cut them loose from the moulds and take them straight to the table. A folded napkin under such dishes was standard service of the period, and would also have absorbed steam that could soften the crust.
"Puffs" is one of a family of names -- popovers, Yorkshire pudding -- given to batters raised by steam rather than by yeast or a chemical leaven. The technique is old and pre-industrial: with nothing but flour, eggs, milk and salt, a violent oven turns the liquid to vapour faster than the setting crust can let it escape, and the batter inflates around a hollow centre. American cookbooks of the later nineteenth century increasingly used "popover" for the same thing, and the survival of "puff" here, along with the copper basin and the row of six moulds, may suggest a recipe written down from professional practice rather than a home kitchen.