Meringue Science: Perfecting the Egg White Foam

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Sometime around 1650, bundled straw began to be used as a stirring utensil, and when applied to eggs, had the effect of getting more air into the matrix of egg white goo than a simple stick that would have been used for stirring. Egg “snow,” so named back then, is a miraculous substance. You start with a single egg white, whip vigorously, and soon you have a big pile of fluffy egg white foam about eight times its original volume that can be cooked and eaten alone in meringue or folded into other ingredients, such as in mousses, soufflés and angel food cake, to give them tremendous lift and a delicate texture. Recipes that rely on egg foams will vary depending on the final result, but the basic job always goes something like this.

1. Separate Eggs. The best way to separate eggs is to start with fresh, cold eggs. They separate more easily than old or warm eggs. The best way to get a clean break when cracking eggs is to smack their sides on a countertop rather than a sharp edge. Then begin to pour the contents from one half of an eggshell into the other, back and forth. A bowl placed beneath your hands will catch the white, and the yolk will stay in the shells until you pour it out.

If, like me, you like to inject a little silliness into your cooking, you might want to get a weird but incredibly handy egg separating tool called the It ‘sNot-a-Mug, in which the egg white comes out of a ceramic face shaped like a mug through its nostrils — like snot. Weird, yes. I received mine as a gift years ago, use it all the time and laugh every time.

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