Baking 101: a series of how-tos and what’s what when it comes to home baking. The small stuff, explained.
I know you know. I know you know not to throw a carton of eggs in the bottom of the grocery bag, toss them thoughtlessly in the trunk of the car, shove them in the fridge, slam them on the counter. I don’t need to tell you to treat eggs delicately until, that is, the very moment you want what’s inside of them.
It is with humility that I show you how to crack and separate egg.
Baking is all about the details. How you measure flour, the accuracy of temperature in the oven, the softness of butter, the size of egg. All of the details matter and it’s helpful to know the rules and details… in my case… in order to occasionally break and ignore them.
Let’s talk about how to crack an egg. It’s exactly like rocket science but tremendously less complicated. Getting in good habits in the kitchen is key.
How to crack an egg: Crack an egg with firm pressure on a flat surface. Gently, but with confidence, separate the sides of the shell. I find it best to first crack eggs into a small bowl before adding them to a mixing bowl with other ingredients. This way, is a shell shard sneaks in, or if the eggs is bunk for some reason, you haven’t ruined you whole batter. These are things you learn by ruining large batches of Blueberry Muffin batter while working in a bakery.
How not to crack an egg: Try to refrain from the age-old method of cracking an egg on the side on the mixing bowl. This will shove (technical term) egg shell shards up in the egg white and yolk, possibly getting egg shell in your batter. This method may also break the egg yolk and cause all sorts of problems if you’re trying to separate an egg.
Note: Will cracking an egg on the side of a mixing bowl be the end of the world? No, and definitely yes.
Also helpful: Why We Use Large Eggs In Baking
Let’s talk about how to separate an egg. When we talk about separating an egg, we mean that we’re going to separate the egg white from the egg yolk. We’re separating protein (the white) from fat (the yolk). This will come in handy when you want to use egg yolks to make ice cream or egg whites to make angel food cake.
How to separate an egg: Set up two small bowls. Gently but firmly crack an egg on a flat surface. Use two hands to confidently pull the two halves of the shell apart over one small bowl. We’re going to use the edges of the shell to help us separate egg white from egg yolk so try to create two even halves with the egg shell. As the shell separates, bring the shell half in your right hand to face cracked side up. The yolk will rest in the shell and some of the egg white will fall into the bowl. Carefully transfer the yolk and remaining white to the shell half in your left hand, allowing the remaining egg white to fall away from the yolk. Gently place the yolk in the second bowl.
Another way to separate an egg: Set up two small bowls. Gently but firmly crack an egg on a flat surface. Place one hand over a bowl. Use the other hand to open the egg shell, dumping what’s inside the cracked egg directly into your hand over the bowl. Cracking an egg with one hand will take some practice. Allow the egg whites to fall between your fingers into the bowl and gently cradle the egg yolk. Gently transfer the egg yolk to the second bowl.
Also helpful in this series: How To Read A Recipe
And one of my favorite egg recipes: Sausage Cheddar and Grits Frittata
It’s always nice to review the basics! Happy baking!
Photographs with and by Jon Melendez.
mrsmichellegoldsmith
I have a question regarding food safety and hand-separation. In the US, we wash and coat our eggs before they go to market and they are kept refrigerated, so the exterior of the egg is fairly clean. This means using your hands to separate the eggs after handling the shell is probably okay.
However, now that I have moved to the UK, I have decided to use an egg separator. Why? Because in the UK and most of Europe, eggs are not washed, coated, or refrigerated. This means contaminates, such as salmonella bacteria, may be present on the shell. So unless you are very careful with the hand-separation method, using the left hand to handle the eggs and the (clean) right-hand to separate, you could end up with contamination in your food.
I simply use the egg separator so that I only touch the handle and never the white or yolk with my hands. Then a quick wash-up of both the separator and my hands before doing anything else keeps bacteria at bay. Sounds a bit OCD, but better that than a batch of salmonella muffins!
mrsmichellegoldsmith
Hiya, I am also “gonna be that girl” and mention a quick correction required:
This way, is a shell shard sneaks in, or if the eggs is bunk for some reason, you haven’t ruined you whole batter.
This has several typos:
third word: “is” should be “if”
twelf word: “eggs” should be “egg” (or… thirteenth word: “is” should be “are”)
twenty-first word: you should be your
This way, if a shell shard sneaks in, or if the egg is bunk for some reason, you haven’t ruined your whole batter.
Nice clear nails, by the way! ;-)
Kara Chin
Hand method is the best if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty! That way you know you got all the white off.
Savannah
I really appreciate this revisitation of the basics. I’ve been reading your blog since high school and lurk primarily for food porn and your writing (Tron too if we’re being honest about the content I’m looking for).
I’m a shit cook/baker (can I say shit here?) and this helps so much – I hate being in the midst of a culinary endeavor not knowing how to do something (leading to a frantic Google search which only churns out schmancy NYT tutorials).
I’m looking forward to the progression of this series – any and all of the basics would be genuinely appreciated so I don’t continue to like a fool in front of my husband when I butcher a bell pepper like a psycho…. apparently we can’t live on spaetzle and corned beef hash (separately – unless that’s a thing?).
Morgan
Hi! I realize this post is a couple days old, but I’m just catching up on reading! Ok, ok fine…I scrolled past it the other day because I “obviously know how to crack an egg”. But…..I was just scrolling through your blog and decided to give this post a read and shoot – I DIDN’T know! I was totally a crack it on the edge of the bowl girl and just as you said, I always had little shards of shell in my egg. So, thanks for practical tips – seriously!
The point of me leaving a comment, however, is a question. I read some article/post/blurb the other day (can’t remember where) but it was discussing refrigerating vs not refrigerating eggs. I saw at the beginning of the post you mentioned something about not shoving them in the fridge…so do you not refrigerate them? I’m super curious because I am wondering what I should be doing :)
a
Whether or not the outside of the eggs have been washed is the key to knowing whether or not they need to be refrigerated. In the USA, eggs are washed, and they must be refrigerated. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/11/336330502/why-the-u-s-chills-its-eggs-and-most-of-the-world-doesnt
alyssa breed
Joy! My mom taught me how to use the water bottle just a couple weeks ago! You would love it!! It’s definitely a good magic trick for guests…that are into cooking and weird tricks lol
You’ll need a clean empty water bottle…pour the water into a cup maybe? Crack the egg into a bowl. Squeeze the empty water bottle (with no cap) a bit with the top down towards the egg. Place the opening of the water bottle (while still squeezing), onto the egg yolk. Stop squeezing and watch the yolk SUCTION into the bottle. Now you have a bowl with egg whites, and can put the yolk wherever you want!! I’m telling you it’s magic. Also I probably explained that terribly….just YouTube it ;-)
naveen
when i read the title i really thought
“wow really”
people really dont know how to break egg
when i finished reading i felt
itsa good post
Lizzie
I admit, I was all “pssh, I know how to crack eggs,” but nope! I didn’t know the flat-surface thing or the one about cracking eggs into their own bowl first. Now I feel like a fancy grownup. Thanks Joy!
nathaliya01
What a helpful post! :) Thank you and even I did not have any problems until now I am so glad for all these extra tips and tricks :)
http://potsofsmiles.blogspot.com/
xxx
Genie | savorytouch
Thank you for this great post! I am still trying to learn to crack the egg so that the edges of each shell halves are all around (or almost) straight. I couldn’t agree more about the importance of developing good kitchen habits very early on. I find these ‘back to the basic’ posts to be very refreshing.
•.•°•.• savorytouch •.•°•.•
Kavita Goyal
I was always cracking the egg at the sides of the bowl. Gonna try the new technique of cracking it on the flat surface. Don’t you think using hands to separate the yolk from the egg white is so messy?
Tori
I love your baking tips Joy, thanks for sharing!