On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 221

Finally,afactthatfollowsfromboththe
upandthedownsidesofthesouffléprinciple:
afallensouffléwillriseagainifputbackinto
theoven.Thoseairbubblesarestillinthere,
asismostofthemoisture;andbothairand
moisturewillexpandagainasthetemperature
goesup.Youwon’tgetashigharisethe
secondorthirdtimearound,becausethe
soufflémixhasstiffenedandthere’sless
wateravailable.Butyoucanresurrect
leftovers,orcookthesouffléoncetosetitand
unmoldit,thenagaintoserveit.
The Soufflé Base The soufflé base, the
preparationintowhichthefoamedeggwhites
are incorporated, serves two essential
purposes.Thefirstistoprovidethesoufflé’s
flavor (the base must beover flavored to
compensate for its dilution by tasteless egg
white and air). The second purpose is to
contribute a reservoir of moisture for the
soufflé’srise,andstarchandproteintomake


the bubble walls viscous enough that they
won’t ooze down again. Usually the base is
precooked and can’t actually thicken during
thesoufflé’srise.Thebubblewallsaresetby
theeggwhiteproteins,whichcanbeeffective
only if they’re not excessively diluted by the
base material. The usual rule is to allow at
leastonewhiteoronecupwhippedwhiteper

half-cup/125mlbase.
Theconsistencyofthebasehasastrong
influenceonsouffléquality.Tooliquid,and
thesouffléwillriseandspilloverbeforethe
eggproteinshaveachancetoset.Toostiff,
anditwon’tmixevenlywiththefoamed
whitesorrisemuch.Acommonruleofthumb
isthatthebaseshouldbecohesiveyetsoft
enoughtofallofitsownweightfromaspoon.
ManyFormulasSoufflébasesaremadefrom
a broad range of ingredients. Those that
contain just egg yolks, sugar, and flavoring
arethelightestandmostdelicateandproduce