CHAPTER XIX.

=Soufflés, Omlets, &c.= [Illustration] SOUFFLÉS. THE admirable lightness[132] and delicacy of a well-made _soufflé_ render it generally a very favourite dish, and it is now a fashionable one also. It may be greatly varied in its composition, but in all cases must be served the very instant it is taken from the oven; and even in passing to the dining-room it should, if possible, be prevented from sinking by a heated iron or salamander held above it. A common soufflé-pan may be purchased for four or five shillings, but those of silver or plated metal, which are of the form shown at the commencement of this chapter, are of course expensive; the part in which the _soufflé_ is baked is placed within the more ornamental dish when it is drawn from the oven. A plain, round, cake-mould, with a strip of writing paper six inches high, placed inside the rim, will answer on an emergency to bake a _soufflé_ in. The following receipt will serve as a guide for the proper mode of making it: the process is always the same whether the principal ingredient be whole rice boiled very tender in milk and pressed through a sieve, bread-crumbs soaked as for a pudding and worked through a sieve also, arrow-root, potato-flour, or aught else of which light puddings in general are made. Footnote 132: This is given to every description of _soufflé_ in the same manner as to Savoy or sponge-cakes, by mingling gently with the other ingredients the whites of eggs whisked to a solid mass or _snow froth_,—that is to say, that no portion of them must remain in a liquid state. For the proper mode of preparing them, see commencement of the chapter of Cakes, page 540: _soufflé_-puddings are rendered light in the same manner, and steamed instead of being boiled. Take from a pint and a half of new milk or of cream sufficient to mix four ounces of flour of rice to a perfectly smooth batter; put the remainder into a very clean, well-tinned saucepan or stewpan, and when it boils, stir the rice briskly to it; let it simmer, keeping it stirred all the time, for ten minutes, or more should it not be very thick; then mix well with it two ounces of fresh butter, one and a half of pounded sugar, and the grated rind of a fine lemon (or let the sugar which is used for it be well rubbed on the lemon before it is crushed to powder); in two or three minutes take it from the fire, and beat quickly and carefully to it by degrees the yolks of six eggs; whisk the whites to a very firm solid froth, and when the pan is buttered, and all else quite ready for the oven, stir them gently to the other ingredients; pour the _soufflé_ immediately into the pan and place it in a moderate oven, of which keep the door closed for a quarter of an hour at least. When the _soufflé_ has risen very high, is of a fine colour, and quite done in the centre, which it will be in from half to three-quarters of an hour, send it instantly to table. The exact time for baking it depends so much on the oven that it cannot be precisely specified. We have known quite a small one not too much baked in forty-five minutes in an _iron_ oven; but generally less time will suffice for them: the heat, however, should always be moderate. New milk or cream, 1-1/2 pint; flour of rice, 4 oz.; fresh butter, 2 oz.; pounded sugar, 1-1/2 oz.; eggs, 6; grain of salt; rind, 1 lemon: 30 to 45 minutes. _Obs. 1._—The _soufflé_ may be flavoured with vanilla, orange-flowers, or aught else that is liked. Chocolate and coffee also may be used for it with soaked bread: a very strong infusion of the last, and an ounce or two of the other, melted with a little water, are to be added to the milk and bread. _Obs. 2._—A _soufflé_ is commonly served in a dinner of ceremony as a remove of the second-course roast; but a good plan for this, as for a _fondu_, is to have it quickly handed round, instead of being placed upon the table. LOUISE FRANKS’ CITRON SOUFFLÉ. To obtain the flavour of the citron-rind for this celebrated Swedish _soufflé_, take a lump of sugar which weighs two ounces and a half, and rub it on the fruit to extract the essence, or should the citron not be sufficiently fresh to yield it by this means, pare it off in the thinnest possible strips and infuse it by the side of the fire in the cream of which the _soufflé_ is to be made. Should the first method be pursued, crush the sugar to powder and dry it a little before it is added to the other ingredients. Blend very smoothly two ounces of potato-flour with a quarter of a pint of milk, and pour boiling to them a pint of good cream; stir the mixture in a large basin or bowl until it thickens, then throw in a grain of salt, two ounces of fresh butter just dissolved in a small saucepan, and the sugar which has been rubbed on the citron; or should the rind have been pared, the same weight some of which is merely pounded. Add next, by degrees, the thoroughly whisked yolks of six fresh eggs, or seven should they be _very_ small. Beat the whites lightly and quickly until they are sufficiently firm to remain standing in points when dropped from the whisk; mix them with the other ingredients at the mouth of the oven, but without _beating_ them; fill the _soufflé_-pan less than half full; set it instantly into the oven, which should be gentle, but not exceedingly slow, close the door immediately, and do not open it for fifteen or twenty minutes: in from thirty to forty the _soufflé_ will be ready for table unless the oven should be very cool: a fierce degree of heat will have a most unfavourable effect upon it. Rind of half citron (that of a Seville orange may be substituted on occasions); sugar, 2-1/2 oz.; cream, 1 pint; potato-flour, 2 oz.; milk, 1/4 pint; butter, 2 oz.; yolks and white of 6 large or of 7 small eggs: 30 to 40 minutes, or more in very slow oven. _Obs._—The fresh citron would appear to be brought as yet but very sparingly into the English market, though it may sometimes be procured of first-rate fruiterers. Nothing can well be finer than its highly aromatic flavour, which is infinitely superior to that of any other fruit of its species that we have ever tasted. We have had delicious preparations made too from the young green citron when extremely small, of which we may have occasion to speak elsewhere. A FONDU, OR CHEESE SOUFFLÉ. Mix to a smooth batter, with a quarter of a pint of new milk, two ounces of potato-flour, arrow-root, or _tous les mois_; pour boiling to them three-quarters of a pint more of milk, or of cream in preference: stir them well together, and then throw in two ounces of butter cut small. When this is melted, and well-beaten into the mixture, add the well-whisked yolks of four large or of five small eggs, half a teaspoonful of salt, something less of cayenne, and three ounces of lightly-grated cheese, Parmesan or English, or equal parts of both. Whisk the whites of the eggs to a quite firm and solid froth; then proceed, as for a _soufflé_, to mix and bake the _fondu_. 20 minutes. OBSERVATIONS ON OMLETS, FRITTERS, &C. The composition and nature of a _soufflé_, as we have shown, are altogether different, but there is no difficulty in making good omlets, pancakes, or fritters; and as they may be expeditiously prepared and served, they are often a very convenient resource when, on short notice, an addition is required to a dinner. The eggs for all of them should be well and lightly whisked; the lard for frying batter should be extremely pure in flavour, and quite hot when the fritters are dropped in; the batter itself should be smooth as cream, and it should be briskly beaten the instant before it is used. All fried pastes should be perfectly drained from the fat before they are served, and sent to table promptly when they are ready. Eggs may be dressed in a multiplicity of ways, but are seldom more relished in any form than in a well-made and expeditiously served omlet. This may be plain, or seasoned with minced herbs and a very little eschalot, when the last is liked, and is then called an “_Omlette aux fines herbes_;” or it may be mixed with minced ham, or grated cheese; in any case, it should be light, thick, full-tasted, and _fried only on one side_; if turned in the pan, as it frequently is in England, it will at once be flattened and rendered tough. Should the slight rawness which is sometimes found in the middle of the inside, when the omlet is made in the French way, be objected to, a heated shovel, or a salamander, may be held over it for an instant, before it is folded on the dish. The pan for frying it should be quite small; for if it be composed of four or five eggs only, and then put into a large one, it will necessarily spread over it and be thin, which would render it more like a pancake than an omlet; the only partial remedy for this, when a pan of proper size cannot be had, is to raise the handle of it high, and to keep the opposite side close down to the fire, which will confine the eggs into a smaller space. No gravy should be poured into the dish with it, and indeed, if properly made, it will require none. Lard is preferable to butter for frying batter, as it renders it lighter; but it must not be used for omlets. A COMMON OMLET. Six eggs are sufficient for an omlet of moderate size. Let them be very fresh; break them singly and carefully; clear them in the way we have already pointed out in the introduction to boiled puddings, or when they are sufficiently whisked pour them through a sieve, and resume the beating until they are very light. Add to them from half to a whole teaspoonful of salt, and a seasoning of pepper. Dissolve in a small frying-pan a couple of ounces of butter, pour in the eggs, and as soon as the omlet is well risen and firm throughout, slide it on to a hot dish, fold it together like a turnover, and serve it _immediately_; from five to seven minutes will fry it. For other varieties of the omlet, see the observations which precede this. Eggs, 5; butter, 2 oz.; seasoning of salt and pepper: 5 to 7 minutes. AN OMLETTE SOUFFLÉ. SECOND COURSE REMOVE OF ROAST.[133] Footnote 133: Served also as an _entremets_. Separate, as they are broken, the whites from the yolks of six fine fresh eggs; beat these last thoroughly, first by themselves and then with four tablespoonsful of dry, white sifted sugar, and the rind of half a lemon grated on a fine grater. Whisk the whites to a solid froth, and just before the omlet is poured into the pan, mix them well, but lightly, with the yolks. Put four ounces of fresh butter into a very small delicately clean omlet or frying pan, and as soon as it is all dissolved, add the eggs and stir them round that they may absorb it entirely. When the under side is just set, turn the omlet into a well-buttered dish, and send it to a tolerably brisk oven. From five to ten minutes will bake it; and it must be served the _instant_ it is taken out; carried, indeed, as quickly as possible to table from the oven. It will have risen to a great height, but will sink and become heavy in a very short space of time: if sugar be sifted over it, let it be done with the utmost expedition. Eggs, 6; sugar, 4 tablespoonsful; rind, 1/2 lemon; butter, 4 oz.: omlet baked, 5 to 10 minutes. _Obs._—This _omlette_ may be served on a layer of apricot-marmalade which must be spread over the dish in which it is to be baked, and sent to table before the _omlette_ is turned into it. PLAIN COMMON FRITTERS. Mix with three well-whisked eggs a quarter of a pint of milk, and strain them through a fine sieve; add them gradually to three large tablespoonsful of flour, and thin the batter with as much more milk as will bring it to the consistence of cream; beat it up thoroughly at the moment of using it, that the fritters may be light. Drop it in small portions from a spouted jug or basin into boiling lard; when lightly coloured on one side, turn the fritters, drain them well from the lard as they are lifted out, and serve them very quickly. They are eaten generally with fine sugar, and orange or lemon juice: the first of these may be sifted quickly over them after they are dished, and the oranges or lemons halved or quartered, and sent to table with them. The lard used for frying them should be fresh and pure-flavoured: it renders them more crisp and light than butter, and is, therefore, better suited to the purpose. These fritters may be agreeably varied by mingling with the batter just before it is used two or three ounces of well cleaned and well dried currants, or three or four apples of a good boiling kind _not_ very finely minced. Double the quantity of batter will be required for a large dish. Eggs, 3; flour, 3 tablespoonsful; milk, 1/4 to 1/2 pint. PANCAKES. These may be made with the same batter as fritters, if it be sufficiently thinned with an additional egg or two, or a little milk or cream, to spread quickly over the pan: to fry them well, this ought to be small. When the batter is ready, heat the pan over a clear fire and rub it with butter in every part, then pour in sufficient batter to spread over it entirely, and let the pancake be very thin: in this case it will require no turning, but otherwise it must be tossed over with a sudden jerk of the pan, in which the cook who is not somewhat expert will not always succeed; therefore the safer plan is to make them so thin that they will not require this. Keep them hot before the fire or in the stove-oven until a sufficient number are ready to send to table, then proceed with a second supply, as they should always be quickly served. Either pile them one on the other with sugar strewed between, or spread quickly over them, as they are done, some apricot or other good preserve, and roll them up: in the latter case, they may be neatly divided and dished in a circle. Clotted cream is sometimes sent to table with them. A richer kind of pancake may be made with a pint of cream, or of cream and new milk mixed, five eggs or their yolks only, a couple of ounces of flour, a little pounded cinnamon or lemon-rind rasped on sugar and scraped into them, with two ounces more of pounded sugar, and two ounces of clarified butter: a few ratifias rolled to powder may be added at pleasure, or three or four macaroons. From 4 to 5 minutes. FRITTERS OF CAKE AND PUDDING. Cut plain pound, or rice cake, or rich seed cake, into small square slices half an inch thick; trim away the crust, fry them slowly a light brown in a small quantity of fresh butter, and spread over them when done a layer of apricot-jam, or of any other preserve, and serve them immediately. These fritters are improved by being moistened with a little good cream before they are fried: they must then be slightly floured. Cold plum-pudding sliced down as thick as the cake, and divided into portions of equal size and good form, then dipped into French or English batter and gently fried, will also make an agreeable variety of fritter. Orange marmalade and Devonshire cream may be served in separate layers on the _seed cake_ fritters. The whole of the above may be cut of uniform size and shaped with a round cake-cutter. MINCEMEAT FRITTERS. With half a pound of mincemeat mix two ounces of fine bread-crumbs (or a tablespoonful of flour), two eggs well beaten, and the strained juice of half a small lemon. Mix these well, and drop the fritters with a dessertspoon into plenty of very pure lard or fresh butter; fry them from seven to eight minutes, drain them on a napkin or on white blotting paper, and send them very hot to table: they should be quite small. Mincemeat, 1/2 lb.; bread-crumbs, 2 oz. (or flour, 1 tablespoonful); eggs, 2; juice of 1/2 lemon: 7 to 8 minutes. VENETIAN FRITTERS. (_Very good._) Wash and drain three ounces of whole rice, put it into a full pint of cold milk, and bring it very slowly to boil; stir it often, and let it simmer gently until it is quite thick and dry. When about three parts done, add to it two ounces of pounded sugar, and one of fresh butter, a grain of salt, and the grated rind of half a small lemon. Let it cool in the saucepan, and when only just warm, mix with it thoroughly three ounces of currants, four of apples chopped fine, a teaspoonful of flour, and three large or four small well-beaten eggs. Drop the mixture in small fritters, fry them in butter from five to seven minutes, and let them become quite firm on one side before they are turned: do this with a slice. Drain them as they are taken up, and sift white sugar over them after they are dished. Whole rice, 3 oz.; milk, 1 pint; sugar, 2 oz.; butter, 1 oz.; grated rind of 1/2 lemon; currants, 3 oz.; minced apples, 4 oz.; flour, 1 teaspoonful; a little salt; eggs, 3 large, or 4 small: 5 to 7 minutes. RHUBARB FRITTERS. The rhubarb for these should be of a good sort, quickly grown, and tender. Pare, cut it into equal lengths, and throw it into the French batter of page 130; with a fork lift the stalks separately, and put them into a pan of boiling lard or butter: in from five to six minutes they will be done. Drain them well and dish them on a napkin, or pile them high without one, and strew sifted sugar plentifully over them. They should be of a very light brown, and quite dry and crisp. The young stalks look well when left the length of the dish in which they are served, and only slightly encrusted with the batter, through which they should be merely drawn. 5 to 6 minutes. APPLE, PEACH, APRICOT, OR ORANGE FRITTERS. Pare and core without dividing the apples, slice them in rounds the full size of the fruit, dip them into the same batter as that directed for the preceding fritters, fry them a pale brown, and let them be very dry. Serve them heaped high upon a folded napkin, and strew sifted sugar over them. After having stripped the outer rind from the oranges, remove carefully the white inner skin, and in slicing them take out the pips; then dip them into the batter and proceed as for the apple fritters. The peaches and apricots should be merely skinned, halved, and stoned before they are drawn through the batter, unless they should not be fully ripe, when they must first be stewed tender in a thin syrup. 8 to 12 minutes BRIOCHE FRITTERS. The brioche-paste,[134] when good, makes very superior cannelons and fritters: it is, we should say, better in this form than in that of the bun or cake, in which it is seen so commonly abroad. Make it, for the fritters, into very small balls; roll them quite thin, put a teaspoonful or less of rich preserve into each, moisten the edges and fold the paste together securely, or with a _small_ tin shape cut as many rounds of the brioche as are wanted, place some preserve in the centre of one half of these, moisten the edges, lay the remainder lightly over them, press them carefully together and restore them to a good form with the tin-cutter, by trimming them with it to their original size; glide them gently into a pan of boiling lard, and fry them from four and a half to five minutes. Serve them very hot, crisp, and dry, piled on a folded napkin. The cannelons are made like those of paste, and are very good. They are sometimes filled with lemon-cheesecake mixture, or with Madame Werner’s (see Chapter XVIII.) Footnote 134: For this see page 347. Fritters, 4-1/2 to 5 minutes; cannelons, 5 to 6 minutes. POTATO FRITTERS. (ENTREMETS.) The same mixture as for potato puddings, Chapter XXI., if dropped in small portions into boiling butter, and fried until brown on both sides, will make potato-fritters. Half the proportion of ingredients will be quite sufficient for a dish of these. LEMON FRITTERS. (ENTREMETS.) Mix with six ounces of very fine bread-crumbs four of beef suet minced as small as possible, four ounces of pounded sugar, a small tablespoonful of flour, four whole eggs well and lightly whisked, and the grated rind of one large or of two small lemons, with half or the whole of the juice, at choice; but before this last is stirred in, add a spoonful or two of milk or cream if needed. Fry the mixture in small fritters for five or six minutes. CANNELONS. (ENTREMETS.) [Illustration] Roll out very thin and evenly some fine puff-paste into a long strip of from three to four inches wide, moisten the surface with a feather dipped in white of egg, and cut it into bands of nearly two inches wide; lay some apricot or peach marmalade equally along these, and fold the paste twice over it, close the ends carefully, and when all are ready, slide them gently into a pan of boiling lard;[135] as soon as they begin to brown, raise the pan from the fire that they may not take too much colour before the paste is done quite through. Five minutes will fry them. Drain them well, and dry them on a soft cloth before the fire; dish them on a napkin, and place one layer crossing another, or merely pile them high in the centre. If well made, and served of a light brown and very dry, these cannelons are excellent: when lard is objected to butter may be used instead, but the paste will then be somewhat less light. Only lard of the purest quality will answer for the purpose. Footnote 135: Cannelons may be either baked or fried: if sent to the oven, they may first be glazed with white of egg and sugar. 5 minutes. CANNELONS OF BRIOCHE PASTE. (ENTREMETS.) Proceed exactly as for the cannelons above, substituting the brioche for the puff-paste, and rolling it as thin as possible, as it swells very much in the pan. Fine sugar may be sifted over these after they are dried and dished. 4 or 5 minutes. CROQUETTES OF RICE. (ENTREMETS.) [Illustration: Croquettes. ] Wipe very clean, in a dry cloth, seven ounces of rice, put it into a clean stewpan, and pour on it a quart of new milk; let it swell gently by the side of the fire, and stir it often that it may not stick to the pan, nor burn; when it is about half done, stir to it five ounces of pounded sugar, and six bitter almonds beaten extremely fine: the thin rind of half a fresh lemon may be added in the first instance. The rice must be simmered until it is soft, and very thick and dry; it should then be spread on a dish, and left until cold, when it is to be rolled into small balls, which must be dipped into beaten egg, and then covered in every part with the finest bread-crumbs. When all are ready, fry them a light brown in fresh butter, and dry them well before the fire, upon a sieve reversed and covered with a very soft cloth, or with a sheet of white blotting paper. Pile them in a hot dish, and send them to table quickly. Rice, 7 oz.; milk, 1 quart; rind of lemon: 3/4 hour. Sugar, 5 oz. bitter almonds, 6: 40 to 60 minutes, or more. Fried, 5 to 7 minutes. FINER CROQUETTES OF RICE. (ENTREMETS.) Swell the rice in thin cream, or in new milk strongly flavoured with vanilla or cocoa-nut; add the same ingredients as in the foregoing receipt, and when the rice is cold, form it into balls, and with the thumb of the right hand hollow them sufficiently to admit in the centre a small portion of peach jam, or of apricot marmalade; close the rice well over it; egg, crumb, and fry the croquettes as usual. As, from the difference of quality, the same proportions of rice and milk will not always produce the same effect, the cook must use her discretion in adding, should it be needed, sufficient liquid to soften the rice perfectly: but she must bear in mind that if not boiled extremely thick and dry, it will be difficult to make it into croquettes.[136] Footnote 136: We must repeat here what we have elsewhere stated as the result of _many_ trials of it, that good rice will absorb and become tender with three times its own bulk or measure of liquid. Thus, an exact half pint (or half pound) will require a pint and a half, with an extremely gentle degree of heat, to convert it into a thoroughly soft but firm mass; which would, perhaps, be rather too dry for _croquettes_. A pint of milk to four ounces of rice, if well managed, would answer better. SAVOURY CROQUETTES OF RICE. (ENTRÉE.) These are made with the same preparation as the _casserole_ of rice of