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COOKING EQUIPMENT
It’s easy to cook eggs with the usual pots, pans, beaters and bowls ordinarily found in most kitchens. However, there are some pieces of kitchen equipment designed especially for preparing eggs. Some of these items – such as an electric egg cooker – are limited to egg use only, while others – such as custard cups – come in handy for a variety of foods.
It’s fine to have a utensil for every use but, if your budget or storage space is limited, you can usually do just as well without a special piece of equipment. For example, you don’t need to have a double boiler to cook egg sauces and custards. Simply use a heavy-gauge saucepan over low heat.
As a rule, on top of the range, cooking is more even in heavy-gauge pots and pans. Baking dishes and pans of the proper size are particularly important for items that rise, such as breads, cakes and souffles.
Beaters
Cooks once had to rely on muscle power to whip eggs. They used an assortment of large and small, flat and balloon-shaped whisks, many of which are still available. A really determined home baker could whip up an angel food cake by separating the egg whites onto a large platter and beating them vigorously with a hickory rod.
In 1870, the rotary hand beater was invented. The rotary beater beat out all competition, along with mountains of meringue, and is still a handy and inexpensive tool.
Today, most cooks use an electric stand mixer or a portable electric mixer. Blenders and some food processors can whip up a whole egg, an egg yolk or a mixture but do not produce stiffly beaten egg whites.
Bowls
There has long been a great controversy about the merits, if any, of using a copper bowl to produce volume in beaten egg whites. The copper in the bowl reacts with the conalbumin of egg whites much like cream of tartar to stabilize egg-white foam. With the addition of cream of tartar, a stainless steel or glass bowl works just as well, is much less expensive and avoids excess copper in the diet.
Because they tend to absorb fat, plastic and wooden bowls aren’t suitable for beating egg whites. Any film or residue of fat will keep the whites from forming a stable foam.
The size and shape of a bowl is important. When you use an electric stand mixer, use the bowl size, large or small, specified in a recipe. A deep bowl with enough room for expansion is best for a rotary beater or portable electric mixer. For hand-whipping with a balloon whisk, use a bowl that’s rounded at the bottom, at least 10 inches across the top and 5 to 6 inches deep. |
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