Whaddyall do with the whites left over from the sauce when you prepare eggs benedict/florentine?
Myself, I’m in the habit of adding it to the eggs before poaching them – I use a slightly bigger cup than usual and steam them for an extra minute.
I’ve been happy with the results, generally – the extra volume makes the eggs a better fit for the muffins.
My confidence has been somewhat shaken, though, by someone looking askance at the practice as they peered over my shoulder and opining that I was spoiling a good breakfast through excessive frugality – the position being that you can’t poach an egg “properly” when the yolk-to-white ratio is altered. I’m not too sure about this – in my opinion, the white should be just set, and the yolk should be as hot as possible, but still liquid. This is still perfectly achievable with a bit of extra white.
The implication of miserliness is what stings – especially since you often have a vested interest in making the right impression on folks that you have an opportunity to make breakfast for. I admit that the idea of simply putting the better part of an egg down the drain is anathama to me – I know it’s not as though it’s liquid platinum or something, (being valuated at, what, 20¢ per egg?) but yes, wasting food seems unprincipled to me.
Am I really committing such a faux pas here? What else can you do? I don’t have a lot of things on the menu that call for egg whites, with the exception of a mean chocolate genoise, and that requires more than you’d ever see as a byproduct of hollandaise for two. Should I just grit my teeth and bin the albumen?
Or is my critic just too critical? I was also advised against preparing the cups with olive oil and basil, and infusing my hollandaise with a small piece of fresh jalapeno (discarded before serving-- I’m not so cheap!) A dash of cayenne powder provides a nice colour, but I think the sauce benefits from a little bit of pepper that you can actually taste – and god knows that it’s not going to be too spicy (even for breakfast) underneath all that butter and lemon. Both of these things, in my opinion, go along way toward taking the “blah” out of breakfast.
Any fresh uncooked egg whites I have over from custard making, go to make Merangues or get thrown out. I’m sure their are plenty of merangue recipies on line. I like to vary the sugar I use in them, to vary the texture of the merangues between batches (soft brown sugar makes very chewy but nice merangues.)
I like to use an extra egg-white for every three whole eggs in an omelette. It makes the mixture come out that much fluffier. If there’s someone in your party who doesn’t want Benedict, reuse the jalpeno as diced filler for the omelette. Add vegetables ad lib.
I guess my default attitude toward albumen is that it had better be used right this instant, because it seems like just about the perfect substrate for microbiological growth. I thought I was being sufficiently paranoid about it, but that was because I had been exposed the the wee sidebar at carrot’s link, yet:
Guess I’ll be making a trip to the dollar-store tomorrow. My god, it came out of a hen’s hoo-hah, it’s porous, and I’ve been dipping it into my breakfast. :eek:
Meringues are a good idea, too. My mum used to make meringue pies, but she’d use evil Jell-O products for the filling. I used to catch hell for eating the merangue and then ditching the fluorescent yellow putrescence underneath it.
Chocolate meringue pie would be my first choice, but my recipe books all agree that the filling and the meringue require an equal number of whites and yolks, respectively. Perverse bastards. Imagine my joy when I looked around online and learned that some people make wee meringues that are complete unto themselves.
Mmmm. Meringues and genoise.
This means 2004 will be the year my ass finally fattens up, which will undoubtably allow me to sit here and post more. Now look what y’all have wrought.
Actually, I’ll probably make good use of these recipes, also from the site carrot linked to. Thanks!