1,515 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

Preserving egg yolks

If you're using only the egg whites in a recipe (such as meringues ), you'll need to store the yolks until you're ready to use them again.
There's nothing very complicated about this in principle - all you have to do is chill them, but there are a few pitfalls to be avoided in practice.

6,182 5/5 (35 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Yolk Egg Storage Fridge Cold

Last modified on: June 18^th 2024

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

Preserving egg yolks

Intact yolks if possible

Here's something to keep in mind: whole, or intact, yolks keep much better than if they're punctured, or liquid.
This is because the thin film that forms them, the membrane, also protects them from the outside, and prevents them from drying out.
So, as long as possible, keep them in their intact form, even if in your next recipe you'll have to crack them to incorporate them. It's best to do this at the last minute.

The enemy of yolks: dryness

The simplest and most natural way to chill yolks is to put them in a ramekin (or other small container), and place it in the fridge.

jaunes d'oeufs récipient frigo

But there are two small errors here: yolks fear dryness, and as the membrane is very fragile and thin, it will quickly dry out and stick, especially if left in the open air, and even more so if left in the cold, which tends to dry everything out.

Well-preserved yolks

So how do you keep your yolks in good condition?
You just need to do 2 things:

1) Put 1 teaspoon of neutral oil or even water in the bottom of the container before the yolks, then pour in the yolks.

jaunes d’œufs huilés pour le frigo

This will prevent them from drying out on contact with the container and sticking to the bottom.

2) Wrap the container with the yolks at all costs, or use a container with a lid, to isolate them from the air as much as possible.

Don't worry either, if you get one or more yolks punctured, it's no big deal, just a little less easy to handle, as the liquid yolks are very thick and sticky, and you'll have a bit of trouble emptying the container completely without loss (a maryse will be almost indispensable).

jaunes d'oeufs crevés et intacts

To sum up: try to keep your yolks intact, in a filmed or closed container, over a teaspoon of oil or water to prevent them from sticking.

Lasts posts

The grease spray

As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...
August 26^th 20251,2725

Cake moulds

When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?
August 25^th 20253,8845

Thinning out herbs

If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...
August 8^th 20252,0995

Add a bay leaf

Bay leaf: small in size, but big in flavor. You'll find it in hundreds of recipes, and it's often added to cooking meat, in a sauce or broth, usually accompanied by other herbs or products. It's a staple of Provençal, Mediterranean and Oriental cuisine, but not the only one. Usually, in a...
July 31^th 20252,2025

Parsley stems

Parsley, whether curly or flat, is a delicious ingredient in many recipes, where it is used both raw and cooked. When used raw, in a salad for example, where it always provides, alone or with other herbs, a remarkable freshness, only the leaves are kept. And when used cooked?
July 28^th 20252,385 13

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

The grease spray

A few tips for effective kneading at home

When you have to knead dough for bread or some other recipe, you may well use a food processor or the type of machine known as a stand mixer. The best-known brands are Kenwood and KitchenAid. They are useful tools, but here are a few tips to help you get the best out of them.
June 23^th 2021279 K 23.7

The window-pane test in bread-making

The home bread-makers often ask themselves “Have I kneaded my dough long enough?” . A good question, as dough that is insufficiently kneaded will not rise properly or will fall flat when the top is slashed, which is very frustrating. To know when the dough is ready, one can rely on the length...
June 16^th 202193 K 23.9

The art of the charlotte

In cooking, a charlotte is a delicious moulded dessert, with biscuits around the outside that have been soaked in a flavoured syrup, filled with a light cream or mousse. The charlotte is left to set in the fridge before being turned out and served in slices. It is very light and a lovely sweet...
February 27^th 201343 K4.3

The Holy Grail of French bakers

While browsing through the recipes on this site, you may have noticed that while I adore cooking (everything, in fact, to do with eating and drinking), I am particularly drawn to bakery: bread, viennoiseries and all that goes with them – it’s a real passion of mine; I love making them and I...
March 24^th 201818 K 34.7