a French word which literally means ‘puffed up’, is a culinary term in both French and English (and used in many other languages) for a light, frothy dish, just stiff enough to hold its shape, and which may be savoury or sweet, hot or cold. There is no mistaking a hot soufflé; but cold ones are difficult to distinguish from a mousse.
The basic hot soufflé has as its starting point a roux—a cooked mixture of flour and butter. This is cooled slightly and blended with egg yolks and savoury or sweet flavouring ingredients which are either already cooked or do not require much cooking. The result resembles a thick rich sauce. Stiffly beaten egg whites are then folded in. The mixture is baked in a high-sided dish. It rises mainly through simple expansion of the air in the egg foam.
This type of soufflé was a French invention of the late 18th century. Beauvilliers was making soufflés possibly as early as 1782 (though he did not publish his L'Art du cuisinier until 1814). Recipes for various kinds appear in Louis Ude's The French Cook of 1813, a work which promises a ‘new method of giving good and extremely cheap fashionable suppers at routs and soirées’. Later, in 1841, Carême's Pâtissier royal parisien goes into great detail on the technique of making soufflés, from which it is clear that cooks had been having much trouble with soufflés that collapsed. The dish acquired a reputation for difficulty and proneness to accidents which it does not really deserve. Conversely, a successful soufflé has a certain glamour.
The unjustified reputation for frailty which hot soufflés have attracted may be partly due to nervous cooks who open the oven door while the soufflé is cooking to see how it is getting on. This lowers the temperature in the oven and disrupts rising. A soufflé has to be left undisturbed for the full cooking time and then served promptly. A soufflé will collapse if it is undercooked, or if it is kept waiting after cooking.
Most of the mixtures used in these dishes had been in existence for centuries under other names. Even the earliest custards made with unbeaten eggs rose to some extent when cooked. However, beating as a method of lightening eggs or cream was not introduced until the 16th century (see meringue).
There are some Ukrainian and Russian dishes of the hot soufflé type, independently evolved and slightly different in composition. The Ukrainian drachena is made from a mixture of egg yolks, cream or milk, flour, salt, and a little sugar into which the beaten whites of the eggs are folded. It is baked and served with melted butter and herbs.
The term is also applied, as an adjective, to other things, always indicating something puffed up. Thus an omelette soufflée is a light, usually sweet omelette given a foamy texture by beating the egg whites separately.
See also snow.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
