SC - Help with old recipe (OOP)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Jeff Gedney wrote:
> 
> Adamntius wrote:
> 
> > As for the egg whites
> > going in last, it's possible, but I'm not sure what effect it'll have
> > with the butter. Trapped air might not make it into the finished product.
> 
> Three words for you, Andmantius:  "Pound Cake"
> 
> If that was true, all pound cakes would be flat, dense, and chewey!
> I think that the Egg yolk helps keep the whites together, or is it that
> the flour binds to the fat? I am not sure, but these kinds of sponges
> seem to hold the air in the egg whites just fine...

Pound cake isn't a sponge, it's what's known as a cream cake (as in
creaming the butter and sugar together). There may be recipes that call
for the eggs to be beaten to a sponge, but the earliest recipes under
the name seem not to include that step. For that matter, neither do the
modern ones I've seen. The main change to pound cake recipes I've seen
has been the addition of a failsafe chemical leavening, and you'll note
that this recipe already contains that, in spite of its age.
 
> Oh, and isnt Chocolate mousse chock full of fat? That does not fall!
> Souflles are another such item, IIRC
> 
> What seems important to me is to "temper" the whites by folding a little of
> the batter into the whites before folding the whites into the batter.
> That seems to helps avoid the whites falling.

There may be batters/sludges which are thick enough before the addition
of the egg whites to allow them to trap air before the egg white
structure alone would collapse. Mousse could be an example of this, but
then mousse recipes vary also. The fact is, though, that fat does act as
a shortening which in turn adversely affects the extensibility of
protein strands, and cookbooks are full of dire warnings about not
letting a drop of oil or even any yolk fall into the egg whites you're
beating. Yes, it can be done, but the technology (and the technique) are
different. Witness the difference (and the increased difficulty) of
making, say, genoise sponge versus angel food cake.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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