When combined with other ingredients, eggs have a unique ability to flavor, color, emulsify or thicken, bind, foam, interfere, and clarify. Read more »

Safety Tips

The chances of an egg being internally contaminated are relatively low, less than one in 10,000 commercial eggs. It is more common for contamination to occur during handling and preparation after the egg has been removed from its shell. Read more »

Dried eggs, used extensively by food manufacturers, are particularly advantageous when storage and refrigeration space is limited. The major disadvantage of using dried eggs is that they lose many of the functional and sensory qualities of eggs, and are highly susceptible to bacterial contamination. Therefore, they should be used only when the end product will be thoroughly heated.

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Freezing Eggs

Freezing a whole egg is not possible because it will crack under the expanding liquids, so food manufacturers solve this dilemma by breaking the eggs open at the processing plants where the contents are frozen whole (whites and yolk mixed together) or separated as whites or yolks. Prior to being frozen, the liquid whole eggs are usually pasteurized. Read more »

Storage of Eggs

Eggs begin to deteriorate as soon as they are laid and lose quality very rapidly at room temperature. To ensure the freshness of whole or liquid eggs, they may be refrigerated, frozen, or dried. Read more »

Eggs cook extremely rapidly in a microwave oven, so special caution should be taken to avoid over-cooking. Manufacturer’s instructions should be followed for microwave egg cooking. Whole eggs with intact shells should never be microwaved, because steam expanding within the shell can cause them to burst. Read more »

Types of Custards

Custards are mixtures of milk and/or cream, sweeteners (sugar, honey), flavorings (vanilla, nutmeg, etc), and eggs or egg yolks. Custards are thickened by the coagulation of egg proteins during cooking. These egg proteins denature when heated and recombine to form a network that sets or coagulates, at the right temperature, to form the solid gel of a custard. Read more »

Coddling. Coddled eggs are prepared by breaking an egg into a small cup, called a coddler, made of porcelain or heat-proof glass with a screw-on top, and submerging the whole coddler in simmering water until the egg is cooked. The cups, or coddlers, should be buttered or greased before adding the raw eggs. Read more »

Simmering and Boiling of Eggs

Simmering. Simmering temperatures are used to prepare eggs that are hard or soft “boiled”, coddled, poached, incorporated into soft custards, or microwaved.

“Boiling”. Although the term “hard-boiled eggs” is commonly used, eggs should actually be simmered and never boiled, because they will become tough and rubbery if so treated. The high heat of boiling also transforms the iron in the egg yolk into ferrous sulfide, causing the greenish-black color and unpleasant flavor found in the yolk of overly hard-cooked eggs. Read more »

Baking with Eggs

Baking eggs and their ingredients lead to a number of different egg dishes: shirred eggs, meringues, and souffles.

Shirred Eggs. Whole eggs that are baked and served in individual dishes are called shirred eggs. The egg is cracked, gently placed into a cup from which it can be rolled into a container coated with butter or margarine, and then baked in an oven at 350^oF (177^oC) until cooked to order. Read more »