[Sca-cooks] beating egg whites

[Gwynydd Of Culloden]

I have also found that if I use the wrong beaters on my electric mixer, the
egg whites won't take, but if I swap over to the wire hoop ones (instead of
the little plastic ones), they do very nicely.  I was making a lemon mousse
the other day and couldn't work out why my egg whites were only whipping so
far and no further; in desperation, I tried the other beaters and lo!  the
egg whites took beautifully.  I suspect that the littler beaters just
weren't incorporating enough air.

Oh, and one trick I saw on Nigella Bites (oh, be still my beating heart!)
was to rub the (stainless steel or glass, not plastic - grease sticks to
plastic) bowl with a partially used up lemon (which, she assured us, she
always seems to have just lurking in the 'fridge!).  This gets rid of any
trace of fat, she said.  Frankly, I don't care what she said - just watching
her cook ...  *grin*

Gwynydd