trick to end up with smooth egg dishes is to control the coagulation by heating the concoction

very slowly. That is why cooks bake egg-rich dishes in a water bath. The water keeps the

mixture from heating too fast and also keeps it to below the boiling temperature of water. When

cooking such a mixture on top of the stove (custard for instance), you keep the temperature low

and stir continuously. You apply heat slowly, gradually and uniformly. Continuous stirring

assures that the long protein molecules have no chance to clump together (and form scrambled

eggs). The result is a very smooth, creamy dish. The price you pay for this is sweating over the

hot stove until the mixture thickens. The eggs take their time, and you cannot speed them up.

Checking the temperature with a thermometer gives you an idea of how far along you are in the

process.

Note again, that in both areas of egg cookery the key is slow, gradual heating for best

result.

If you are an impatient cook (like I am), there is a trick to speed up the process with a

technique called tempering the eggs. Here is how to do it. Thoroughly beat the whole eggs (or

yolks) in a bowl. Heat up the liquid (often milk) to near boiling. Add the near-boiling liquid to

the eggs, a spoonful at a time to begin with, while stirring constantly and zealously. Keep adding

more hot liquid, now a little more each time, until you mixed about a third of it into the eggs. At

this point, you tempered the eggs, and you can dump the mixture into the rest of the hot liquid

without danger of coagulating them into clumps. Keep heating and stirring the mixture over low

to moderate heat. In a few minutes the liquid thickens into a velvety smooth sauce or custard.

You cannot reverse the coagulation (curdling), unless you catch it at an early stage. If that

happens, remove the pan from the heat immediately and beat the mixture vigorously to break up

the clumps. If you are successful, continue heating slowly. If you are not, the process has already

reached the point of no return, and the egg mixture will help to add shine to Fido’s fur coat after

Fido gobbled it up.

TASTINGS Ostrich eggs

The average ostrich egg weighs 5 pounds (2¼ kg). It serves 20 people with

portions equivalent to two large chicken eggs.

Cooking whole egg in the shell

If you can boil water, you should be able to boil an egg, right? But cooking them and

ending up with easily peelable shells and perfect, bright yellow, still-moist yolks in the dead

center of the whites is somewhat trickier.

First, let’s straighten out our terminology. The American Egg Board declares that there is

no such thing as a hard-boiled egg. Eggs simply should not be boiled, the egg people maintain. It

is a hard-cooked egg that we are after, and we accomplish this by cooking them in barely

simmering water or letting the eggs stand in water that is just been brought to boil. Although the

American Egg Board may be correct, the terms hard-boiled and soft-boiled are too firmly

entrenched in our kitchen terminology to change.

An overcooked egg has a dry and discolored yolk. Too much heat eventually breaks

down proteins, and discoloration occurs as these react with sulfur and iron compounds in the

yolk. To avoid this fate, set your timer and cook an egg no more than 10 minutes. A centered

yolk is critical only when you are planning to cut the cooked eggs in half. The Egg Board says

storing eggs pointed end down gives a better chance of a centered yolk. Egg packers always pack

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