I’ve never made a cheese soufflé before. I followed Alton Brown’s recipe. He’s a food scientist, so generally his recipes are pretty bulletproof, but often involve a lot of steps.

This one involved a lot of steps (not even counting my substitutions), all of which I can do individually, but cheese soufflés have a reputation for being tricky, so I was worried about the end.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease an 8″ soufflé dish generously with room-temperature butter.

Sprinkle 2 Tbps. of grated Parmesan on the sides and bottom of the dish. I didn’t have Parmesan (maybe in six months!), so used this:

It’s milder and sweeter than Parmesan, but it’s the only hard grating cheese I have, and seemed like an acceptable substitute.

In a medium saucepan, heat 3 Tbsp. butter over medium heat until the water has been cooked out. You’ll know that has happened when there’s no more crackling sound.

In a bowl, combine 3 Tbsp. flour, 1 tsp. dry mustard, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, and 1/8 tsp. salt.

Stir into the butter, and whisk constantly for two minutes over medium heat to make the roux. You want the flour to get brown, but not too dark:

Whisk in 1-1/3 C. hot milk.

Remove from heat.

Beat four egg yolks until creamy.

Put a couple of tablespoons of the hot milk sauce into the eggs, and whisk furiously so they don’t turn into scrambled eggs.

Return the mixture to the saucepan:

And again whisk furiously to incorporate:

The recipe calls for 6 oz. of sharp Cheddar, which I didn’t have. Instead, I used Taleggio, which I have a lot of, à point and won’t be very good in a couple of weeks, so I need to use it up. It’s milder but stinkier than Cheddar, so I thought it would be a good alternative.

Stir into the sauce until it’s dissolved.

Using a hand mixer, whip 5 egg whites, one Tbsp. water, and 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar until stiff (the egg whites, not you.) Why does that joke always make me laugh?

Carefully fold in the egg whites, going by thirds.

Into the dish:

Bake for 35 minutes, but check after 30 to make sure it’s not getting too brown on top.

I should have had my camera at the ready, because a few minutes out of the oven and it had already started to sink:

But, you ask, how did it taste?

Fluffy, light, not at all dry as I had worried about. Intensely cheesy (but not stinky!) and rich, so much so that it needed an acid foil:

After a couple of hours, it had sunk down to about half size. A day later, it’s all gone 🙁

Thank you Mr. Brown!

Yum!

-R