Freezing Egg Yolks
I have always frozen spare egg whites for future use, but been perplexed over what to do with spare egg yolks. Over the years I have made attempts to freeze yolks and they just never thaw correctly. I was always left with gummy, pasty, yellow balls of goo that were clearly ready to cause catastrophe to any recipe I dared use them in.
While flipping through Harold McGee’s book, On Food and Cooking, I came across a great bit of information. Firstly, he confirms what I discovered, that yolks frozen directly and thawed results in a pasty consistency that does not readily combine with other ingredients. Being the smart food science guy that he is, he provides a solution!
Mixing yolks with either salt, sugar, or acid solves the problem. He recommends mixing 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar, or 4 tablespoons of lemon juice per pint of whole eggs or egg yolks. One large U.S. egg is equivalent to 3 Tablespoons and an egg yolk is equivalent to 1 tablespoon. I was working on a much smaller scale and just for simplicity sake I did some rounding and for six egg yolks mixed in 1 teaspoon of sugar and it worked great.
I no longer feel the need to make ice cream every time I make an angle food cake, meringue, or marshmallows. It’s a whole new world!
Tags: Eggs
August 8th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Very, very nice research. This will come in mighty handy.
September 21st, 2008 at 2:11 am
Awesome!
I’ve also tried freezing egg yolks with relative success. They do thaw to become a pasty goo. However, I tried making zabaione from thawed yolks once and it came out great. I simply had to heat them a tiny bit when I added the sugar - this made my beating them easier. It was also VERY important to beat them EXTREMELY well - so that no little pieces of yolk remain.
However, I believe that this trick is way way way better than the risky straightforward freezing/thawing.