The Best Way to Bring Eggs to Room Temperature

By lorik

Ingredients

• From Food 52

Details

Adapted from food52.com

Preparation

Step 1

If the eggs will be used whole, simply break them into a stainless steel bowl. Stainless steel warms up faster than glass when you set the bowl in the warm water and does not retain heat as long as glass after it is removed, so the bowl does not continue to warm the eggs once you’ve taken it from the water. It’s all about control!

If the recipe calls for whole eggs, stir to mix the yolks and whites, then set the bowl in a larger pan of very warm tap water. From time to time -- over the next 1 to 2 minutes -- stir the eggs and dip your finger (or a thermometer) into them to gauge their temperature. (To be honest, I kill two birds with one stone by stirring them with my index finger!) Remove the bowl from the water as soon as the eggs are between 68 and 70° F (if using your finger, they'll feel neither cool nor warm).

If the recipe calls for adding eggs one at time and you have four eggs mixed together in the bowl, no worries: Just pour a quarter of the mixture into the batter at a time. Easy peasy.

If the eggs are to be separated, do so while they are still cold (because cold yolks are firmer and easier to separate without breakage). Put whites and yolks into two separate stainless steel bowls. Set bowls in warm water as described above.