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Cheese Souffle (Requires two tablespoonfuls)
A cheese souffle requires two tablespoonfuls of butter, one heaping tablespoonful of flour, one-half cupful of milk, one cupful of grated cheese, three eggs, one-half teaspoonful of salt, and just a dust of cayenne. First, heat the butter, then add the flour, stir until smooth, but not brown. Add the milk and the seasoning and cook three minutes. Add the well beaten yolks of two eggs and the cheese. Mix and set aside to cool. When cold, fold in the whites of the eggs beaten stiff, turn into a buttered dish and bake, the dish standing in a pan of hot water. In twenty-eight minutes, remove from the oven and serve at once.
A straightforward béchamel-based soufflé, but the original omits an oven temperature and is quietly inconsistent about the eggs. Read both points below before starting.
- Oven temperatureNone is given, which was normal when ranges had no gauges. Bake at 350F; the water bath means the custard sets gently, and the stated twenty-eight minutes is about right for a 1-quart dish.
- The egg countThree eggs are listed, only two yolks are used, and "the whites of the eggs" is left open. Use all three whites — the extra white is what lifts a mixture this heavy with cheese. The third yolk can go into something else.
- Cool the base properlyThis is the hinge. Hot béchamel deflates beaten whites on contact, so the cheese base must be genuinely cold, not merely warm. Cover it if it sits long, or a skin will form and leave lumps through the soufflé.
- The cheese"grated cheese" in a book of this period most often meant a dry, sharp aged cheese, such as a firm Cheddar or a hard factory cheese. One cupful grated is roughly 3-4 oz depending on the grate. Pre-shredded cheese carries anti-caking starch and gives a grainier set.
- Folding techniqueBeat the whites to firm but not dry peaks, then work a spoonful into the base to slacken it before folding in the rest. Streaks of unincorporated white are better than a mixture stirred flat.
- The water bathSet the buttered dish in a pan of water already hot from the kettle, filled to about halfway up the dish. It slows the rise and gives a moister, more custard-like interior than a modern dry-baked soufflé.
- Yield and servingServes two generously or three as a light course. "Serve at once" is literal — a bain-marie soufflé begins to sink within a couple of minutes of leaving the oven.
Cheese soufflés reached American cookbooks through the French repertoire, where the word simply means "blown" or "puffed." Recipes of this kind belong to a period when cheese was often treated as a protein for supper and luncheon rather than as a course after dinner. The instruction to bake in a pan of hot water is generally understood as a response to the era's uneven coal and wood ranges: the water would have buffered the fierce bottom heat that might otherwise scorch the egg before it set, and it is often said to have produced the softer, spoonable texture associated with soufflés of the time.