Soufflés

Soufflés sucrés (hot sweet soufflés) teach timing. The one true thing to know before touching the pan is this: the oven, baking dish, table, and guests must be ready before the aerated mixture is finished. A soufflé begins losing lift while it waits, so the cook controls everything around that brief journey from bowl to oven.

The book sends us to Soufflé Preparations (No. 2405), where the foundation remains whole. Its four-person formula already suits the home table, while the separate big-party batch is brigade scaffolding and can go. The false-bottomed service dish can go as well; a straight-sided 1.5-liter ceramic soufflé dish gives the mixture the same honest climb. No saucier or stockpot has work here, and no salamander is needed, because the book glazes the crown with icing sugar in the same moderate oven that cooks the center. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Serve the soufflé alone. Only a fruit-based one welcomes stewed seasonal fruit or a macédoine, a mixture of diced fresh fruit, and even then the fruit waits beside it rather than weighing down the crown. The step that decides everything is the transfer: once the Soufflé Preparations (No. 2405) are ready, fill the prepared dish and bake without delay.