Eggs: The Quintessential American Egg

American housewives prided themselves on their baking abilities; bake sales were (and still are) common fund-raisers for church and school groups. The advent of agricultural fairs let women compete and win ribbons for the best cake, just as their husbands collected honors for livestock. The women knew that beating eggs, either whole or after separating the whites and yolks, produced loftier cakes. Beating causes a rearrangement of the albumin proteins in the whites, allowing them to trap air and increase dramatically in volume. This air expanded in the heat of the oven and allowed cakes and other baked goods to rise. Beating eggs with a spoon was slow going; whisks are better tools, which may account for the long beating times advised in early recipes. In addition, true baking powder, a combination of an acid and an alkali that produces bubbles of carbon dioxide when moistened, was not available until about 1850, so air beaten into batters was a typical, if labor intensive, means of achieving lightness.