Handbook of practical cookery

Take the sauce-pan from the fire and drop in the yolks of the eggs, stirring each one thoroughly together with the potato mixture before putting in the next, to prevent curdling. Put the whites of the eggs upon a plate, and whip them with a knife to a very stiff froth. Mix this into the compouud in the sauce-pan, being careful not to break the froth, and when this is done, fill each of the potato skins twothirds full of this mixture, place them upright in a bakingtin, and bake them in a quick oven from seven to ten minutes. The length of time required for the baking is determined by the heat of the oven, which should be quick; and the souffle may be pronounced done when the finger may be pressed upon the top of the stuffing of the potato skins and removed again without any of the mixture adhering. Serve on a small platter. NOTE. — Sometimes in preparing these souffles there will be a little of the potato-flour mixture left after the skins are sufficiently filled, and when this occurs, the remnant may be utilized by baking it in a greased cup. Lemon Souffle.— Two lemons, one pint of milk, two ounces of butter, two ounces of flour, one ounce of arrowroot, two ounces of sugar, yolks of four eggs, whites of five Grease a broad band of paper, and secure it with a piece of twine around the top of a quart souffle tin, in order that it may project and deepen the tin, and so prevent the souffle running over the sides as it rises. Grease the sides and bottom of the souffle tin. Cut from the lemon its thin yellow rind, and put it into a sauce-pan with a gill of the milk. Allow this to come to the boiling-point, and, drawing the sauce-pan aside from the fire, let its contents simmer slowly for five minutes. Put into a copper or porcelain-lined sauce-pan the butter, and stir into it, as it melts, the flour. Add the arrowroot and sugar, and by degrees the remainder of the milk. Stir this until it boils, and when boiling strain the lemon rind from the milk, and add the flavouring liquid to the mixture in the sauce-pan. Draw the sauce-pan aside from the fire, let it cool slightly, and drop into it, one by one, the yolks of eggs. Stir this well together, when the whites of the eggs must be put upon a plate and whipped to a stiff froth, and this also added to the contents of the sauce-pan, stirring lightly in order not to beat down the froth. Put this mixture quickly into the souffle tin, that the froth of egg may not fall ; place the tin into a deep sauce- pan containing sufficient boiling water to reach half-way up the sides of the tin ; cover the sauce-pan closely ; draw it to one side of the fire, and let the water simmer for three-quarters of an hour, taking care to keep the sauce-pan closely covered all the time, and so keep confined all the steam generated in which the souffle is being cooked. At the end of this time Remove the souffle from the sauce- VANILLA SOUFFLE. 137 pan, cut from it the band of paper, transfer it to a silver souffle dish, or fold a napkin around the tin in which it is prepared, and serve immediately. If the dining-room be distant from the kitchen, the souffle" should be carried in upon a hot shovel, otherwise it may be chilled, and so fall from its perfect state.