Soufflé de Maïs au Paprika

Soufflé de Maïs au Paprika (paprika corn soufflé) teaches the one rule behind every hot soufflé: flavor lives in the base, lift lives in the whites, and once they meet, the oven must already be waiting. Here the base is sweet maize sharpened by onion fried in butter and a generous pinch of paprika, then passed fine enough that each spoonful feels light rather than husky.

The source assumed a tammy, a firm professional oven, and enough brigade hands to fry the onion, dry the purée, beat the whites, and fill the moulds without pause. This isn't a sauce-driven dish: it asks for no saucier, no stockpot kept simmering, and no salamander. At home, a fine-mesh sieve replaces the tammy, an electric mixer supplies the second pair of hands, and six cassolettes (small straight-sided baking dishes) turn a service garnish into six generous portions. The linked Soufflé de Maïs à la Crème (No. 2170) remains whole and keeps its one-pound purée ratio; only the equipment and batch size have changed. The brigade's division of labor was scaffolding. Butter-frying the onion, adding the paprika before sieving, drying the purée, folding the whites, and baking at once are the dish.

When they are right, the tops stand butter-gold and lightly coppered by paprika, while the interiors remain tender, savory, and unmistakably maize. If the purée is loose enough to flow back across the pan, don't fold the whites into it. Dry it until a spoon leaves a clean trail, because that concentration is the one step that decides the rise.