Soufflé - what is it? History of the soufflé

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Soufflé is an invention of French cuisine. Translated, the word soufflé means "airy". What explains the light, like a cloud, the consistency of this dish? Egg whites. In principle, making a soufflé is quite simple. First, the yolks are ground with some kind of base, and then protein foam is mixed with them. And to protect yourself from salmonella, which can hide in raw eggs, the soufflé is baked. During heat treatment, the proteins increase in volume and solidify into a foam. This "airiness" gave the name to the type of dish. In this article we will tell the story of the appearance of the soufflé. And also we will give some simple recipes for preparing this dish.

Origin story

We all ate soufflé at least once in our lives. These are Bird's Milk sweets. If you remove the shell of chocolate, inside you will find nothing but a soufflé. But this dish was not always a dessert. And at first it was not sweet at all. For that matter, a properly cooked omelet can also be called a soufflé. However, the history of this dish goes back to the seventeenth century. King Louis XVI of France wished to start his day with something light and airy. For breakfast, he was served grated vegetables seasoned with Bechamel sauce. And to make the dish moreairy, cooks mixed in whipped proteins. Then the mass was placed in a preheated oven.

Soufflé literally melts in your mouth. It is easily absorbed by the body. Therefore, soufflé very quickly became a dessert, and then the basis of nutrition for toothless babies. Modern children also tried this dish at the dawn of their lives. Let's remember jars with meat mass.

Principle of making soufflé

This dish is unforgiving. Egg whites require a special approach. After all, with the wrong temperature, they can easily fall off. Then the mass will delaminate, and you will get jelly. Even the dishes should be special. Ideally, ceramic refractory plates are suitable for soufflés. But stainless steel containers are fine too. The souffle consists of two main components. The first is the base that gives taste. It can be fish, meat, vegetables, cheeses, cottage cheese, chocolate, fruits and berries. And the second component is whipped proteins. They are gently mixed into the base at the very end. The dish can be of two types: baked and chilled. The first type is served hot. It is poured over with sauce, if it is a dessert - with syrup or jam. As it cools, the soufflé will shrink a bit. The second type is served chilled. The gelatin added to the souffle helps maintain the airy shape here. Photos of such dishes look very appetizing. But we should not forget that the eggs for such a soufflé do not undergo heat treatment.

Easiest recipe

Soufflé is an egg dish. And in this recipe we will use only them. That is, we can do without meat, fish, cottage cheese and other things. The result is a sweet omelet, a simple but stylish dessert that can be served with whipped cream or vanilla sauce. Let's put an incomplete glass of milk (two hundred milliliters) to warm up. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a saucepan. Pour the same amount of flour, season with s alt and mix everything well. The flour should be creamy. Now pour hot milk. Stir so that there are no clots of flour left, and add a tablespoon of sugar. We continue to cook, stirring. After some time, the mass will thicken. Divide two eggs into yolks and whites. We will grind the first white with a bag of vanilla sugar. Carefully, so that the yolks do not curl, pour in the hot milk mixture. Cool and put in the refrigerator for another quarter of an hour. During this time, beat the egg whites. Let's add them to the base. Lubricate the ceramic mold with butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Let's put out the soufflé. The oven should already be preheated to one hundred and eighty degrees. Bake the dish for about thirty-five minutes.

Baby soufflé

Meat in the diet of babies is very important. Only bad luck: not all children want to eat it. Especially the liver, which is very good for he alth. But, by putting this recipe into practice, you will make the most capricious child eat everything to the last crumb. We process a pound of beef liver and cook after boiling for about half an hour. Remove from water and let cool completely. Soak a couple of slices of white bread in milk. We clean a small onion. Cut the liver into pieces. We scroll everything through a meat grinder: offal, onions and bread. S alt minced meat, addbeaten egg. If it turns out dry, you can add milk or a little melted butter. Do not forget to prepare a baking dish. Lubricate its inside with butter. Based on the fact that the souffle in the oven will increase in volume, we fill the form only halfway. We put in an oven preheated to one hundred and eighty degrees. We cook for about twenty minutes. Serve with cream sauce.

Fish soufflé

Milling half a kilo of hake. Grind the meat with a blender. Add a spoonful of soy sauce. Add to taste. Add two yolks (squirrels are removed for a while in the refrigerator). Beat the minced meat with a fork. Add two tablespoons of sour cream. Whisk again. We light the fire so that the oven warms up to one hundred and eighty degrees. Take the whites out of the fridge and beat them with a pinch of s alt until firm and stable peaks form. Carefully mix this foam into the fish base. We fill the form with mass. It is not necessary to lubricate it with oil: we will cook this soufflé for children in a water bath. So it will be more dietary. Fill a baking sheet with water. Put a baking dish on it. The water must not reach the edges of this heat-resistant container. We bake for half an hour. Serve with cheese sauce, Olandaise or Bechamel. Children love this fish souffle very much. After all, it does not contain bones, tender and airy. Not only hake, but also other fish is suitable for this dish.

Dessert soufflé

In order for the dish to keep its shape, chefs use the following tricks. They add viscous to the baseboiled rice, semolina or cottage cheese. The latter option is more preferable, since the dessert will come out not only tasty, but also he althy. Souffle with cottage cheese can be baked like a cheesecake, or you can make something that resembles yogurt ice cream. Consider the last type. Soak a bag of gelatin in a glass of cold water. Mix two hundred and fifty grams of cottage cheese and mascarpone (or some other cream cheese). Add the zest and chopped lemon pulp to it. You can also add a handful of raisins, a spoon or two of honey. Wet gelatin melt on fire, but do not boil. We will introduce it into the cheese mass. Berries (strawberries, blueberries or similar gifts of the forest) are blended. We introduce into the curd base along with the yolk. We beat the protein. We add to the base. Put the soufflé in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Bird's milk

These delicious candies can be made at home. They will have a shorter shelf life, but they will be more useful. How to cook soufflé "Bird's milk"? Soak one and a half tablespoons of gelatin in a glass of warm water. After a quarter of an hour, warm it up in a water bath. The gelatin should completely dissolve. Beat 4 chilled egg whites to stiff peaks. In the process, gradually add a glass of sugar to them. When the foam becomes shiny and stable, pour in the dissolved gelatin. Whisk again. We cover a baking sheet, the size of which allows you to fit in the refrigerator, with confectionery paper. Pour out the soufflé. Level the surface with a knife. Let cool for at least twenty minutes. Melt a bar of chocolate in a water bath. Thickly lubricatefrozen soufflé. We put it to cool. Cut the sweets with a hot knife so that the chocolate does not crack.

Soufflé as cream for cake

Brulee was invented at the end of the nineteenth century. This is not ice cream at all, but a cream soufflé baked to a caramel shade. They can decorate a cake or serve as an independent dessert. And if you do not bake sugar on caramel, you get an airy white soufflé. A pack of gelatin should be poured with warm milk (an incomplete glass), and then heated in a water bath. Mix three hundred and sixty grams of store-bought sour cream with 140 g of powdered sugar and a pinch of vanillin. Beat for about ten minutes. Pour in chilled milk with gelatin. Now let's get to the end. We cut into small pieces three types of multi-colored jelly. You can cook it yourself or use store-bought marmalade. Add jelly to the mass. Stir and put in the refrigerator.