Petits Soufflés À La Françoise

This recipe hails from the monumental 1836 Parisian pâtisserie manual, 'Le pâtissier national et universel', a comprehensive guide that captures the innovative and cosmopolitan spirit of early 19th-century French baking. Penned by Belon, a celebrated pastry chef to influential members of the French clergy, the book pools the latest inventions, discoveries, and best practices from both French and foreign pastry kitchens. Such soufflés embody the refined tastes of the French elite during the post-Napoleonic era, when lighter, more delicately flavored pastries became fashionable in the grand maisons. The lavish use of fine sugar and rose water, along with meticulous technique, expresses a period obsessed with elegance and subtlety.

In the 1830s, the chef would have used a large mixing bowl (often porcelain or earthenware) and a sturdy whisk—possibly a bundle of twigs or early wire whisk—to blend egg whites and sugar. Sifting the flour would be done through a fine mesh sieve. Small copper or tin baking trays, lined with buttered paper, would serve for shaping and baking the soufflés. As precise ovens were rare, temperature control relied on experience, banking the coals or using a gentle wood-fired oven. A spoon (sometimes silver for the wealthy) shaped each soufflé, imitating the size of an olive. The rest period relied on a warm room or the residual heat near the oven, since proofing cabinets did not exist yet.