COOKING WITH EGGS

Te Ao Hou, March 1959, Page 62

COOKING WITH EGGS Eggs facilitate so many things in cookery that would otherwise be difficult or impracticable, such as making meringues or cream puffs or sponges or even a mayonnaise dressing. Eggs set or coagulate at a temperature well below boiling point (212°F.), in fact eggs heated to 160°F. go tough and hard. This is important to know because eggs sometimes need to be added to a hot sauce or to hot milk for custard. When this is done the liquid must be below boiling point or the egg will set in hard bits and “curdle” the mixture. It is safer when adding egg to hot liquids to beat the egg first with a little of the hot liquid and then add this mixture to the remainder, than to add egg directly to the hot liquid. A sauce or custard must not be allowed to boil after eggs are added, but should be heated gradually until it thickens: if such a mixture shows signs of “curdling” (due to overheating) plunge the saucepan immediately into cold water, and beat the mixture well.

When beaten egg whites are used to lighten a mixture, they should be folded into the other ingredients, and never beaten, as this causes the egg white to lose the air it previously held. Folding in is best accomplished with a metal spoon using a figure of eight movement. Meringues, which are a combination of sugar and beaten egg white, sometimes go flat. This is due to the incorrect proportion of sugar and egg white (2 ozs sugar to each egg white) or by beating the sugar into the egg whites after they are fully beaten. When egg whites are beaten stiffly the sugar should be folded in, but sugar may be added a little at a time during the beating process—this latter method gives a closer textured meringue. Baked or steamed custards that show holes in them mean that the eggs have been beaten too much, or that the custard has been cooked too fast. Custards or other egg dishes that are shrunk or weeping indicate again over fast or too lengthy cooking. Whenever eggs are one of the principal ingredients in a dish the cooking must be slow and gentle. Cream puffs that flop, sponges that sink, or souflées that shrink down when taken from the oven all indicate too fast cooking, and that the egg isn't sufficiently coagulated, so that the shape is lost once the air contained in it contracts. A variety of dishes are served under the name of scrambled egg, true scrambled egg should be very lightly beaten and cooked slowly. The mixture needs stirring to prevent it sticking and overcooking at the bottom, and is ready when the whole mass is almost set. It must not be fully set, or dry, or worst of all have reached the watery stage. Eggs which have a tendency to crack when boiled may do so because they are taken straight from the refrigerator,—always run warm water over very cold eggs before plunging into boiling water. The greenish tinge that occurs round the yolk of hard boiled eggs is a sign that the eggs are over cooked, or have been cooked at too high a temperature or that they have not been cooled sufficiently quickly. For fast cooling crack the eggs immediately they are cooked and plunge into cold water. Contributed by the Home Science Extension Branch, Adult Education Department, University of Otago. * * * The boys of Rehua Maori Boys Hostel, Christchurch, have contributed their share in the raising of funds to enlarge the hostel. They formed a concert party and have raised hundreds of pounds through performances in Christchurch, Nelson, Timaru, Temuka and other places.