The as-light-as-air soufflé

The perfect soufflé is a work of art, involving a judicial balance between air and moisture, using a bain-marie, pre-chilling the mixture, and so on

The origin story of my soufflé-making is now lost in the mists of time. However, I will admit that it had a lot to do with the fact that, after a string of epic fails with everyday lunches, I turned to baking under the impression that baked dinners would make for at least one decent meal per day. I do remember that my first attempt turned out fairly well, and soufflé philistines that my husband and I were, how much it rose was the exact amount of rise we expected, and since we loved eggs, this was a light and satisfying dinner. Soon it became cheese soufflé for dinner one night every week. My soufflé-making started in the pre-Internet days, so my go-to recipe was one culled from a 1966 issue of my grandmother’s stash of Woman & Home. I read the recipe, more than a bit surprised at how easy it seemed. Apparently, all one needed was some white flour, butter, eggs, cheese and milk... and some wrist game to beat the eggs to frothy perfection. In 1966, apparently manual exertion was what made for light-as-air soufflés. In time, the kid was an enthusiastic, if slightly ineffectual, egg-beater when she was home for the holidays. Later on in life, the husband eschewed the egg-beater in order to go at the mixture manually, with delicious results.