by Barbara Ehrentreu

Created on: March 10, 2009

Lots of recipes in baking call for using egg whites. If you are not familiar with how to separate egg whites this is the first thing you need to learn. Eggs have both a yellow part, the yolk and the clear part, which is the white or the albumen. In order to make many recipes you need to separate the whites from the yolks of the eggs.

First of all, eggs that are to be used for baking should be at room temperature, so take out your eggs for your recipe first. Then lay out all the other ingredients and feel the eggs until they no longer feel cold. If you don't have much time you can warm them in your hands until they reach room temperature.

Then you need to crack each egg and separate the yolk from the white part. This is tricky, because when you crack the egg you need to keep all of the white part separate from the yolk. You can use a yolk separator, which can be bought easily at any kitchen gadget place or you can do it the old fashioned way by using the two halves of the egg.

You will need to use two bowls, one for the whites and one for the yolks. Crack the egg on a hard surface. The best is to use one of the bowls and hold a half in each hand. Immediately make sure that any whites that run off the edge of the cracked egg go into a bowl.

Then hold the half with the most whites in your hand over the same bowl and slip the yolk from one half to the other. This will allow more of the albumen or whites to slip out. Keep doing this until all of the liquid is in the bowl and you are left with only the yolk. Put the yolk in the empty bowl. If you get any part of the yolk in the whites don't panic. You can get it out with a teaspoon, the tip of a knife or even the egg shell. Just slip the spoon, knife tip or shell half into the bowl and pull the yolk part toward the side and up to the lip of the bowl. You can then flip it out and put it into the other bowl.

Some people use the fingers of one hand to separate the eggs. This requires practice as does the way I just described. You need to hold your hand in a cupped position after you crack the egg and place the entire egg in your hand. Then you open your fingers just a little so the white can slip through. Keep the yolk in your palm. Then gently place it into the other bowl.

If you are not going to be using the egg immediately both the yolks and egg whites can be stored in the refrigerator. If you do store them in the refrigerator when you want to use them again you will need to keep them out to reach room temperature. That

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>