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How to beat egg whites

Name: How to beat egg whites
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 4 eggs whites
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 4 egg whites; ½ teaspoon lemon juice

Beat egg whites is very common in cooking and pastry, here are some tips to get there easily.

575 K 3.5/5 (109 reviews)

5 min.

Easy

0.40 €

4 eggs whites

2 Ingredients

Last modified on: February 21^th 2011

For 4 eggs whites, you will need:

1 4 egg whites
2 ½ teaspoon lemon juice (optional)
Total weight: 120 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 5 min.

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 5 min.

Whisk at high speed.

You can add a teaspoon of lemon juice before you start beating to prevent them from "graining" (forming small grains), which can happen with very fresh egg whites.

If the egg whites are to be sweetened (for meringues, for example), add 2 tablespoons of the sugar halfway through the whipping, to support them and help them rise.

Stage 2

Beating egg whites incorporates air, which creates a foam made up of ever smaller bubbles of air and drops of white (albumen + water), see the microscope photo on right.

This fact give us some rules for egg whites:

Fresh egg whites give better results that old ones, because they contain more water.
If you add water or a liquid which contains some (fruit juice, ...) to egg whites to be beaten, you will have a greater volume of foam.
Fat is the enemy when beating egg whites, because it obstructs or prevents the formation of foam, so it's necessary to be sure that the egg whites contain no traces of yolk (not a drop), and that the container that you're going to use is completely clean (be particularly careful with plastic bowls).

Remarks

Contrary to popular belief, adding a pinch of salt to the egg whites before beating them doesn't help.

Keeping: 1 hour bfore use.

Source: Home made.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	6 RDI=2 %	0	0	30 RDI=1 %	110 RDI: 1 %
Per 100 g	5 RDI=2 %	0	0	20 RDI=1 %	90 RDI: 1 %
Per egg whites	1 RDI=1 %	0	0	6 RDI=0 %	30 RDI: 0 %

Possible allergens in this recipe: egg

How much will it cost?

For 4 eggs whites : 0.35 €
Per egg whites : 0.10 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

This recipe uses (among others)

Egg white

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