Fig Souffle
This may be made like the above, substituting figs for raisins and stewing them long enough to soften them well before putting them with the meringue. The wine or brandy may be omitted.
This is a variation entry rather than a standalone recipe: it depends on the raisin soufflé printed above it, and assumes you have that method in front of you. What it does supply is the one thing that actually changes, and that is worth taking seriously.
- Read the parent recipe firstNothing here makes sense without the raisin version it refers to, which presumably supplies the meringue and the baking instructions. Treat this page as an amendment, not a set of instructions.
- The hinge: soften the figs completelyThe whole point of the note is that figs do not behave like raisins. Dried figs stay leathery unless stewed until a knife goes through the flesh with no resistance, usually 20 to 30 minutes in barely simmering water, and any hard stem end must be cut away.
- Drain and cool before foldingWet, warm fruit will deflate beaten whites on contact. Drain the stewed figs well, chop them small, and let them come to room temperature before they go into the meringue.
- Which figsSince the figs are to be stewed until soft, dried figs are meant rather than fresh. Fresh figs need no stewing at all and will make a much wetter, looser pudding.
- The wine or brandyThe recipe explicitly allows it to be left out, so it is optional flavouring rather than something the dish depends on.
- ServingMeringue soufflés of this type collapse within minutes of leaving the oven, which is why they were sent to table immediately. Cold custard or thin cream is the usual accompaniment.
Nineteenth and early twentieth century American cookbooks used ""soufflé" loosely, often for a baked pudding lightened with beaten whites rather than the French flour-based construction, and this fig version belongs to the class of meringue puddings that also produced snow puddings and the various "whips". The economy of the entry is characteristic of the genre: household books of the period were often organised so that one worked-out method could spawn several variations, saving type and paper. Dried figs were a common pantry sweet in this period, shipped from the Mediterranean and, by around 1900, increasingly from California, and they appear in dessert chapters as a winter substitute for fresh fruit.