Potato Souffles
For a potato souffles, wash and scrub with a brush six potatoes of even, medium size. As soon as the skins are thoroughly cleaned, put them into the oven and bake them until they are thoroughly done. Cut off an end of each one and scrape out the contents without breaking the skins. Mash the potatoes until they are free from lumps. A vegetable press is very good for this purpose. When the potatoes are mashed and perfectly smooth, add a tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of salt, a gill of cream, boiling hot and finally the white of an egg beaten to a stiff froth. Beat the mixture very light. Fill the potato skins with the mixture, without putting on the ends, and stand them up in a quick oven to bake for about ten minutes, or until they are slightly browned or swollen.
A twice-baked potato in all but name, lightened with beaten egg white. The technique is sound; only the vocabulary and the oven need translating.
- A gill of creamHalf a cup (4 fl oz). Scald it before adding — cold cream stiffens the mash and makes it harder to fold in the egg white.
- Quick oven425–450F. The high heat is what puffs the filling in the ten minutes given; a moderate oven will simply warm it through.
- Baking the potatoesRussets or another dry, floury baking potato at 400F for about an hour, until a skewer meets no resistance. Waxy potatoes will not mash smooth or hold air.
- The hingeThe original places "Beat the mixture very light" after the white goes in, which would knock much of the air out. Modern practice is to beat the mash and hot cream light first, then fold the white in at the very end and only until combined.
- Cutting the endsSlice off one end while the potatoes are still hot and scoop with a teaspoon, leaving the shell about a quarter-inch thick. Working hot also keeps the flesh from going gluey.
- Standing them upSet them cut-end up in a muffin tin or wedge them in a small baking dish so they do not topple and spill the risen filling.
- YieldSix potatoes, so six servings as a side dish.
Potatoes baked in their skins, hollowed, enriched and returned to the oven appear across late nineteenth-century American and English cookery under names like potato souffle, potatoes in the shell and stuffed potatoes — the French word was attached to almost anything lifted with beaten egg white, not only the classic souffle in a dish.