What does “chemiser un moule” mean in French cooking?

Before a soufflé goes anywhere near the oven, you chemiser the moulds: coat the inside with butter and sugar so nothing sticks and the batter can climb the walls. The verb comes straight from chemise, a shirt — you are dressing the tin. Recipes use it for lining with baking paper, cocoa or slices of fruit too, depending on what the dish needs.

Chemise has quietly spread beyond clothing on the same image of a wrapping layer: the cardboard folder that holds a stack of papers is une chemise, and so is the metal sleeve lining an engine cylinder. Once you notice the pattern, chemiser un moule stops sounding like specialist jargon and starts sounding literal.