The Expansive Egg White

If you like to experiment with food, nothing is more fun than messing around with eggs, and one of the best things to mess with is the egg white. The ability of this combination of proteins and water to trap air is its most dramatic use. Other, more subtle uses, such as the impact of the egg white on a cocktail or its ability to give solidity to a fish or chicken purée, should not be overlooked.

The primary characteristic to know about an egg white is that it has two components: a thin watery part and a thick cohesive part. The thin watery part is what swirls away when you poach an egg (it doesn’t matter how much vinegar you put in the water, a common practice I don’t recommend). To avoid the unsightly flurry of loose egg white in poaching water, Harold McGee, an authority on the science of cooking, suggests pouring the egg into a large slotted spoon to allow the loose white to fall off, leaving only the viscous part of the white and, as a result, a prettier poached egg. It’s a great technique.