No. 54

To Beat Up the White of Eggs

Pour Fouetter les Blancs d'Œufs

Although the eggs intended for beating up the white should be perfectly fresh, still they must not be newly laid, for when these are used they are liable to become a greenish color, while baking. Procure an egg-beater or a whip made for this purpose, and a small untinned basin, separate most carefully the yolks from the whites, and put these into the basin with a very little salt, then begin to whip, slowly at the beginning but proceed gradually to increase the velocity of the motion as the volume increases so as to allow them to absorb all the air possible, which gives them their consistency. Should the whites threaten to turn, they must be whipped again until smooth, adding to them a handful of powdered sugar or a few drops of citric acid.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is describing the copper-bowl method, still the standard in professional pastry kitchens. A few of his details are chemistry, and one or two are habit.

"A small untinned basin"This means an unlined copper bowl. Trace copper binds with the ovotransferrin in the white and produces a foam that is more stable and far harder to overbeat. Stainless or glass works but is less forgiving; never use plastic, which holds a film of fat that will keep the whites from mounting.
The saltSalt was traditional but modern testing suggests it slightly weakens the foam and lengthens whipping time. If you are not using copper, a pinch of cream of tartar or a few drops of lemon juice will give some of the same insurance against overbeating, though by acidifying the white rather than by the copper reaction.
"Perfectly fresh, still not newly laid"Sound advice. The thick albumen of a just-laid egg resists breaking down and whips slowly; whites a week or so old are thinner and mount faster, though very old whites make a foam that weeps. Supermarket eggs are already in the useful window.
SeparatingYolk is fat, and a speck of it will cut the volume badly. Separate each white into a small cup before adding it to the bowl so one broken yolk does not spoil the batch.
Slow, then fastThe hinge of the whole method. Starting slowly builds a fine, even bubble structure that the later fast whipping expands; starting at full speed gives large bubbles that collapse in the oven.
"Should the whites threaten to turn"He means the grainy, curdled look of overbeaten whites, where the protein has bonded too tightly and begun to squeeze out water. The sugar or acid he adds is a genuine repair, but it only works at the first sign; once the foam has broken into lumps and liquid it will not come back.
TemperatureWhites at room temperature, around 68-70F, whip to greater volume than cold ones. Take them from the refrigerator half an hour ahead, or set the bowl briefly in warm water.
YieldOne large white gives roughly three-quarters of a cup to a cup of soft-peak foam, a little less at stiff peak. Use the whites immediately; a beaten foam begins to drain within minutes.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its opening "Elementary Methods" section exists because he was writing for cooks who would go on to attempt the several thousand recipes that follow. The insistence on an untinned copper bowl is one of the oldest pieces of received wisdom in the pastry kitchen, recorded in French kitchen manuals well before anyone could explain it; the copper-protein reaction was not described in chemical terms until the twentieth century, so Ranhofer, like his predecessors, simply passes on that it works. His warning about greenish whites reflects a period when eggs came from a known flock rather than a carton, and a cook could reasonably be offered a basket collected that morning.