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How To Cook
Eggs-Tatically
Do
you really know how indispensable eggs are to cooking?
By Marge Perry - Cooking Light, August 2000
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Most cooks need
eggs. Sure, you can live without omelets and forgo frittatas.
But try baking cakes and cookies without them, or making
meat loaves, casseroles, puddings, custards, and mousses
- the list goes on for as long as hens have been laying.
It's not necessarily
their flavor that makes eggs so hard to do without.
It's the cooking chemistry. The strong binding power
of the proteins, as well as the ability to induce either
expansion or thickening, is critical in perhaps thousands
of recipes and has been for centuries. Eggs are also
divisible - white and yolk - which allows you to draw
on the strengths of whichever component you happen to
need. And, of course, you can use these components together.
Mastery
of the egg ensures success in almost any culinary
inclination, which is why we chose it as part of
our continuing Cooking Class series. From the simple
art of separating egg whites to baking them into
a perfect soufflé, you'll bring the egg into the
technical arsenal you've been accumulating all year. |
Learning
to beat egg whites to the right consistency, for example,
gives you the
ability to produce treats ranging from Double-Vanilla Meringue
Cookies to classic angel food cake. Whipped egg whites
can
also be folded in with other ingredients to produce a fluffy
texture, such as in a mousse. Lightly beaten egg whites
help
keep the ground meat and breadcrumbs together so you can
slice the Italian Meat Loaf With Fresh Basil and Provolone
without
it falling apart. When you beat egg whites and subject them
to heat, they'll expand (a process known as leavening),
as
you'll discover with our Roasted Garlic-and-Rosemary Soufflé.
Egg yolks, on the
other hand, are just what you need to thicken sauces into
silky, rich toppings for desserts - most notably crème anglaise.
This shows the finicky side of eggy chemistry, because heated
yolks can curdle in a heartbeat - but we'll show you how to
do it just right.
As for whole eggs
- plenty to work with there, too. Quiches, for example, puff
slightly from the leavening properties of the white and draw
a smooth richness and depth from the yolk; cakes bake up moist
because of the yolk and stay tender thanks to the white. It's
been said that the egg is nature's most perfect food. It's
certainly one of her most incredible gifts to cooking.
PATHS
TO PERFECTION
Here's how to scramble
and hard-cook eggs like a pro.
SCRAMBLED
EGGS
Fluffy and light are the goals, so don't stir the eggs too
much. The key to large, fluffy curds is to allow the eggs
to set in the pan for about 30 seconds. Don't touch them.
Then, with a rubber spatula, gently pull the cooked edges
away from the pan, creating an almost folded effect. Remove
the eggs from the heat before they look completely done because
they will continue to cook. Use a nonstick skillet and medium-low
heat.
HARD-COOKED
EGGS
Cooking eggs for too long at too high a temperature results
in two common problems: greenish yolks and cracked shells.
Here's an easy way to avoid that: Place eggs in a single layer
in a saucepan with enough cool water to cover the eggs by
at least 1 inch. Cover the pan, and bring just to a boil;
then immediately turn off the heat. Let the eggs stand, covered,
for 15 minutes. Run the eggs under cold water until completely
cooled. Eggs older than seven days are perfect candidates
for cooking because they're actually easier to peel. Peeling
under cold running water also helps.
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