Monday, April 14, 2008

Herbert Hoover's Asparagus Souffle

Here's a second in the presidential recipe series. Are you surprised it's not "Chicken in [every] pot?"
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 3 Tbsp. flour
  • 1 cup half milk, half cream
  • 4 egg yolks, well beaten
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 stiffly beaten egg whites
  • 3-1/2 cups asparagus tips for soufflé and garnish
Melt butter, blend in flour, stirring constantly to make a roux. When mixture is smooth, gradually add milk or cream mixture, stirring until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and allow to cool before stirring in the beaten yolks, season with salt and pepper. Lastly, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Arrange 1-1/2 cup of asparagus tips in the generously buttered soufflé dish, and pour mixture over. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. Take the tips to be used for garnish out of the can, and just before serving, trim the soufflé.

Recipe from The First Ladies Cook Book (1966)

8 comments:

Kim Ayres said...

Even after all these years, I still get a surprise that my pee smells funny after I've eaten asparagus

Amy said...

Laughing about chickens in pots distracted me from the fact that this involves asparagus, one of my least favorite vegetables. (Close runner-up to Brussels sprouts. Bleh!)


Have you read The President's Table: Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy?

Apparently there's also a traveling display. It was at my local library a few months ago ("Fairview library displays White House memorabilia") but I totally missed it.

I didn't really read the book, either -- it just gathered dust for three weeks while I was busy with other things, and then I couldn't renew it because it was on hold. Doh! I'll have to request it again.

Lana Gramlich said...

*LOL @ "chicken in every pot!"*

Mary Witzl said...

Good God, Herbert Hoover must have been half the size of a barn if he ate a lot of stuff like this! Still, my kids would probably love it with that many eggs and all that cream and butter...

Brave Astronaut said...

Kim - Have you seen this movie? There is that whole scene/discussion where they time how long it takes before their pee smells.

But I'm with you. I think it's kind of cool.

Amy - Again, I say, why aren't you an archivist?

Lana - better than Pot in every Chicken (or would that just make you hungrier?)

Mary - Old Herb was a good-sized president, but certainly no William Howard Taft.

Amy said...

I see that the Occupational Outlook Handbook projects an 18 percent increase in the employment of archivists, curators, and museum technicians between 2006 and 2016 — faster than average for all occupations.

Mary Witzl said...

Taft came to my hometown once. They had to have a special chair built for him, which was thereafter permanently on display, and when I was a kid we longed to sit in it. All three of us would have fit.

Brave Astronaut said...

Amy - Well we control the information, would you expect anything less? We are the keepers of the flame, protectors of the faith. I'll teach you the secret handshake in Chat'qua.

Mary - and we won't even discuss the piano box size coffin they had to bury him in.