Eggs

What size egg does the recipe mean?
Generally when a recipe calls for an egg they mean a large egg.

What temperature should an egg be used at?
Eggs should be used at room temperature

How to tell if an egg is fresh or stale without opening?
To tell if an egg is fresh or stale - place it in a bowl of water if it floats its stale (the shell of an egg is porous and the older it gets the more air gets in). The fresher the egg is for baking purposes the better.


How to Crack an egg without getting shell in the mix
To crack an egg without splitting the yolk - put the egg in your hand and give it a gentle tap with a knife.

How to separate eggs
The simplest way way of separating the eggs is to crack them and use your fingers as a filter to catch the yolk in your fingers and let the white trickle through.

Crack the egg into a mug before adding to a mixture because if you get a bad one it won't cost you the rest of the mixture.

Egg Whites

• When making meringues or whisking egg whites make sure that the all utensils are absolutely clean and free of grease, this means never using a plastic bowl. Use a glass, porcelain or metal bowl otherwise the egg whites won't whip up properly.  Apparently a copper bowl is best but I cant either confirm or deny.
• If you want to see if egg white is whipped enough you can turn it upside down over your head and it should remain in the bowl
• Leftover egg whites can be frozen.  Its a good idea to measure them out before freezing.  The amount of egg white contained in the average egg is approximately 2 Tablespoons of Egg whites.