Thursday, March 08, 2007

Separating Eggs

I've nothing else to blog about, viz a viz food, restaurants, or even baking, as I stuck making the same things catering to orders. However, I thought this is worthy of mention.

Method of egg separation. You know how all these chefs espouse (or is it eschew? can't remember which is which...I think it's espouse la, since spouse means "stuck with") the theory that fat is the nemesis of albumen, (aka egg white), for meringues, and even one molecule of fat is likely to render your meringue into a wobbly mess that would make the merengue and cha cha look stiff. When I first started baking, I used that contraption called an egg separator. For some reason, it was a bit of a hit and miss, coz I think the catchment bowl for the yolk wasn't deep enough, and the yolks seem to break many times. Then I moved on to the half shell method, whereby you rock the egg contents to and fro in half shells, until the white is separated. Delia Smith uses this method in her show. Nigella, on the other hand, uses her hand, (no pun intended), dropping the entire egg onto her palm, and letting the whites flow thru. I've always wondered, what if you have fat hands, and some fat oozes thru your pores, would that ruin the meringue?

Anyway, the first time I tried using this method was at the Boutique Desserts course, and I found it CURIOUSLY SATISFYING. Very therapeutic, to have that slimy white slip through your fingers, reminds me of that ABBA Song, Slipping Thru My Fingers.....

I told you I had nothing to post...

14 comments:

backStreetGluttons said...

u mean dripping off...
...ever so softly &...
... sensually...
...along..
.de..sore..
...edges...hehehe

Lyrical Lemongrass said...

all that's missing on you are boobs.

snowdrop said...

kahkahkah. that was a funny post, for a 'nothing to post' entry.

i do the half shell method... and even then have to wash my hands between eggs because i geli about the little bits that inevitably get onto my fingers.

oh no, that means i am NO nigella! *sob*

fatboybakes said...

team bsg...err yerrr, so wat tat...but yalar, something along those lines. snigger.

lyrical, how you know i no boobs? i might have those powerful MAN BREASTS tahu!!!

snowie, aww, just because you donch like slime, doesnt mean you're no nigella. but looking at your work, i think you're BETTER than nigella. nigella is a rather lazy kinda cook. my kinda cooking....

but can you imagine doing the egg separating by hand, when you have runny nose???? HAW HAW HAW..... snort snort...

boo_licious said...

Hmmmmm, I guess from my perspective I never did find anything sensual abt seperating eggs with my hands which is the method I learnt since I was a kid. Gee, now I feel like a total bore.

Talking abt boobs and Nigella - you should see the latest pix of her inside the March issue of Delicious. Huge big cleavage which Splashie Boy noticed straight away while I was naturally distracted by this huge yellow rock she had on her finger. I guess men and women have totally different priorities!!!

wmw said...

So you finally threw caution to the wind and went ahead with it after telling us during our meet up about Nigella and her egg "separation" method! Ha ha ha...please make sure you don't do that when you're baking the cake for the next meet up if you're having a cold! LOL

Babe_KL said...

did you picture Nigella on your head whilst you let the slime flow thru your fingers? :p hehehe

Anonymous said...

i love this post, such beautiful writing....(just a visitor fr the other side)

Anonymous said...

Ah Maah (grandma-lah) used to say "if you have nothing nice to say ... dont say anything"

judging from the responses to ur "nothing to blog about", Ah Maah would have to qualify her statement ... "if you have nothing nice to say ... dont say anything ... unless u make it sound farni".

my england not as powderful as urs, but i tink maybe it is espouse too, since "eschew" would have to mean that the great chefs "'ave-2-chew" n eat their own words, ie. meaning their fat-albumen theory is wrong?

btw, thks 4 letting me indulge in a bit of displacement activity every other day.

fatboybakes said...

sunshine, u being sarky ah? such beautiful writing? lei mou kau chor ah!!!! hahahah.

smaller toe, oh dear, if we followed your ahmah's advise, the world will be almost a silent place, and the silence will be deafening. nice to know you visit regularly.

Anonymous said...

aisay fbb, i tot u were from the age when the Silence is Golden was a hit and Charlie's Angels was in.

Incidentally, there was another Charlie widely seen on M'sia TV in those days (coz'when he was a hit, M'sia belum ada lagi) who used Silence to great effect.

His silent movies were hillarious and at the same time impactful from a social commentary / human condition viewpoint. He was of course Charlie Chaplin. So how can u say dat the silence would be deafening? It probably says even more.

a more recent eg. is the song "You say it best when you say nothing at all". I suspect dat it is an all time fav of naggy wife husbands? bt wat do i know? i'm the noisy one at home.

fatboybakes said...

yes yes, of course, we all need QUIET TIME lar,

but what would life be? without a song, or a dance, what are we? so i say thank you for the music, for giving it to me.

Lee Ping said...

Hi,

Actually, separating eggs is an interesting topic. I once saw a Taiwanese show (生活智慧王), they had tips on separating eggs. I think they used an empty water bottle to suck up the egg yolk. I haven't try it. Reading up Malaysian blogs, makes me feel like I am home lah.

Anonymous said...

(thank you, FBB said) u r welcome!