Some people say you should crack an egg on the edge of a bowl; others say you should crack each egg on a solid horizonal surface (like a kitchen counter). Whichever method you use, you sometimes get little shards and unwanted pieces of eggshell floating in the egg white. It's very difficult to remove them with a spoon or your fingers; you end up chasing them all over the place.
Instead use a piece of the eggshell as a "dipper". The piece of eggshell seems almost to "attract" the smaller pieces, and you can scoop each of them up much more easily. Trust me, this really works!
The easiest way to separate the white of an egg from the yolk is to use a funnel:
- place the funnel in a glass or some other appropriate container: it must be deep enough so that funnel won't reach right to the bottom, and so that there is room below the bottom of the funnel for however many egg whites you are collecting
- crack an egg and put it (both yolk and white) into the funnel
- swirl the funnel slightly so that the whites can slip past the yolk, down the funnel and into the bottom of the glass
- dump the yolk into a bowl or other container
- crack the next egg and put it into the funnel, and proceed as above
If you don't have a funnel, you can use the traditional method:
- get two separate bowls, one to hold the yolks and one for the whites
- crack the egg (on the bowl for the whites), so that you end up with two large pieces of shell and the yolk is nestled in one of them
- hold the two pieces over the bowl intended for the whites
- gently tip the yolk into one piece, then back into the original piece
- do this several times, and after a while most of the egg white will have dripped into the bowl
- put the yolk into the other bowl
- repeat for as many separated eggs as you need for your recipe
Disclaimer: while these hints are the result of years of experience and/or lots of research, in the end they are just my personal opinion. If you try something I suggest and it doesn't work, please don't sue me — I guarantee nothing. Best of luck!
Page created and maintained by A. Steinbergs
Last modified: November 28, 2011