A Simple Ruse

There are several recipes for soufflé puddings in my battered old edition of Escoffier’s Guide Culinaire. These old warships were regular features of the Victorian and Edwardian dining room. They had a certain robust dreadnought quality, which would have allowed them to be carried up draughty staircases, down long tiled corridors and through the green baize door into the dining room without fear of collapse. The more modern soufflé would have come in when the journey from kitchen to dining room became a good deal shorter.