folklore assignment

Amy Titus

Sandy, Utah

November 2009

“Pineapple “Scuffle” Soufflé”

Foodways

Informant: Elvina Hansen is the proud mother of two, one girl and one boy. She is also a grandmother of eight, and the great grandmother of four. She is 81 years old and has been retired for many years. She loves to garden and do genealogy. She is a pack rat by nature and hates to see anything that is good for something be thrown away, even if she herself will never use it. She has lived in the greater Salt Lake area her entire life. It is often said, “If you ever leave her house hungry, it’s your own damn fault.”

Context: I interviewed Elvina at her home in Sandy. As I entered through the door I saw one of her many quilting projects sitting out. As we crossed the room Elvina slowly sat herself down in her lazy boy. I sat down on the green couch we began to make ourselves comfortable and talk about recipes. After about five minutes of conversation Elvina got up from her chair went to the kitchen and came back with a few boxes full of recipes. She sat down with one white binder in particular and began looking through the various recipes. She flipped through the pages and found one in particular she smiled, took it out of the binder and handed it to me and then proceeded to tell me the story about Pineapple Soufflé.

Text: My mother was deaf, all during my childhood my mother would have funny

pronunciations for various words. One of her favorite recipes was pineapple soufflé; however

she didn’t pronounce soufflé as it is supposed to be pronounced she called it scuffle. All

growing up I thought that it was called scuffle it wasn’t until later years that I realized what it

was really called.

Pineapple Soufflé “Scuffle”

4 eggs separated

1/3 cup sugar

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp. almond extract

1 can (1 lb 4 ½ oz) crushed pineapple

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

2 tbs. lemon juice

1 cup whipping cream

1. Beat egg yolks, sugar, salt, vanilla and almond extract together in small deep bowl until thick

and lemon colored.

2. Drain pineapple reserving syrup

3. Soften gelatin in pineapple syrup and dissolve over hot water.

4. Beat dissolved gelatin into egg yolk mixture, stir in drained pineapple and lemon juice.

5. Cool until slightly thickened, then beat mixture until light and fluffy.

6. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold into pineapple mixture.

7. Fold in stiffly beaten cream.

8. Turn into 6-inch soufflé dish (1 quart) with a 3-inch collar*

9. Chill several hours or over night.

When ready to serve, garnish top with additional crushed pineapple and fresh mint sprigs or

maraschino cherries, if desired.

*Use strip of foil or heavy waxed paper (double thickness) to make collar. Top edge should

extend 3 inches above edge of soufflé dish; tie collar to dish with string.

(Original recipe from Phoebe Barnes Mason Elvina’s mother)

Texture: As Elvina was looking through her recipe book she stopped on this particular page and smiled to herself for a minute. Then she pulled it out of the book and told me that I had to have this recipe. As she was telling me how her mother pronounced it as scuffle she looked amused she stated that she never understood how she got scuffle from soufflé. She smiled a lot while talking about her mother and recalled fondly of this dessert.

Amy Titus

USU

English 2210

Dr. Lynne S. McNeil Fall 2009