I recently came across a hundred-year-old recipe for Tuna Souffle, and decided to try it. The recipe called for separating the eggs and stiffly beating the egg whites, then folding them into a white sauce and tuna mixture which is baked.
The Tuna Souffle was tasty. When I made this recipe, the tuna became the bottom layer of the souffle. It was topped by a light souffle topping. My husband said it was “good” which is a high compliment from him.
Here is the original recipe:
I used one can of tuna when I made this recipe. That is less tuna than the original recipe called for, but the recipe turned out fine. The size of tuna cans have decreased over the years. I think that a can of tuna in 1926 may have contained about 1 cup of tuna. Today, many cans of tuna contain 5 ounces, which is less than 1 cup.
The recipe called for a “hot” oven. I interpreted this to mean 400° F.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Tuna Souffle
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 can (approximately 5 ounce) tuna
3 eggs, separated
Step 1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
Step 2. Melt the butter in a skillet using medium heat. Stir in the flour and salt, then gradually add the milk while stirring constantly. Continue stirring and cooking until the mixture comes to a boil. Turn off the heat. Add tuna, flake and stir to combine.
Step 3. Put egg yolks in a small bowl; stir until smooth. Place a small amount (approximately 1 – 2 tablespoons) of hot mixture into dish with egg yolk, stir quickly. (The egg is first combined with a little of the hot mixture to prevent it from turning into scrambled eggs when introduced into the hot combination.) Add egg mixture to the remaining hot mixture in the saucepan; stir. Set aside.
Step 4. Put egg whites in a bowl; beat until stiff peaks form.
Step 5. Fold the beaten egg whites into the tuna mixture.
Step 6. Pour into a 1-quart baking dish. Put into the oven and bake until set and lightly browned (about 30 minutes.
I’m sure this is a really tasty dish for those who love fish. It looks scrumptious and it was nice of you to post the conversion recipe.
Many old recipes lack detailed instructions, and I often end up trying to interpret what the recipe author intended. Since I’m never quite sure if I interpreted it right, I also post the original recipe so readers can see if they agree with any changes I made (and so they can make the recipe in a different way if they don’t).
Good idea. Us older cooks learned to measure by adding a dab of this and a pinch of that! lol
Looks so yummy.
It was tasty.
🙂
Did any of you grow up with “souffle” on the menu?
Now that you mention it –No, we never had any souffles when I was a child. That said, some people must have been making souffles years ago, because I’ve seem several souffle recipes in hundred-year-old cookbooks. Here are a few souffle recipes that I’ve previously posted:
Chicken Souffle
Corn Souffle
Onion Souffle
Apricot Souffle
Prune Souffle
This looks like a hearty supper from one little can of tuna!
It would be nice for supper. I made it for lunch, and it was the perfect amount for my husband and me. I served it with soup.
The souffle looks pretty on the top, and like it would be fluffy and creamy to eat.
It looked nice, and had a lovely, light texture.
I love making a souffle when an easy meal is called for, so this looks a good addition to the repertoire, and a nice change from my fall-back dish, cheese souffle.
If you like tuna, I think that you’d like this souffle.
That’s a lovely recipe and thanks for sharing your conversion of the original. It looks lovely, too.
It is a nice recipe. The souffle looked lovely and was tasty.
I’m on the lookout for some ‘new’ recipes at the moment. I wonder if this could be made with salmon?
Yes, I think that salmon would work well in this recipe.
Comfort food at its finest from a can!
I never thought about it quite that way, but you’re right, several of the really tasty comfort foods use canned ingredients.
This looks great! My mom found many ways to make tuna, but this wasn’t one of them. I bet your husband enjoys trying all these unique recipes!
It’s easy for me to get in a rut when cooking. Making new (old) recipes for blog posts really helps me broaden the foods that I make. My husband enjoys most of the hundred-year-old recipes I make – though there are a few that haven’t been a hit.
That’s to be expected:)
I like how you post the original recipe and then your modern day instructions for it.
It’s good to hear that you like that I post both the original version of the old recipes I make and the updated version.
It gives me an idea how to present my great grandmother’s recipes.Thank you.
I’m glad that these posts have been helpful as you think about how to present your great grandmother’s recipes. It sounds like a wonderful project.
It looks so soft and creamy. It is interesting that the tuna separated out and sank to the bottom. With the tuna so much heavier than the whipped egg whites, it makes sense that it would sink. Did the egg whites help hold the tuna together on the bottom?
Like you, I was surprised that the tuna sank to the bottom of the souffle. Apparently it was substantively heavier than the egg whites. I think that the egg yolks in the souffle mixture helped to keep the tuna together on the bottom – thought it was still somewhat loose. That said, I really liked this souffle, and it worked fine to have a tuna layer on the bottom. The two layers partially mixed when it was spooned out of the dish.
It does sound like an interesting way to have tuna.
My husband and I liked this recipe, and I anticipate that I’ll make it again.
Looks good!
It’s yummy.
This vintage recipe reminded me the decades tuna has melded into casseroles and soufflés juts like this one-It was inexpensive and a great way to stretch a family dollar. I thought an interesting point, was tuna cans are smaller these days-that’s really interesting.
Great post. Thanks for sharing.
Velva
It’s nice to hear that this post brought back some food memories. Tuna has been a great way to stretch a food budget for a long time. It seems like the cans of several different types of canned foods have gotten smaller in recent years. In the past, I think that the “regular” size of canned fruits were generally pound, but recently I’ve noticed that some cans are 15-ounce cans.
That looks so good!
It was tasty.
I think I would like this. I wonder if there’s a way to get the tuna suspended throughout.
I was thinking about that, too; but haven’t come up with any ideas about how to get the tuna suspended in the souffle. The souffle would look really nice if it was incorporated into the souffle.