[Sca-cooks] beating egg whites

[Sue Clemenger]

That's actually kinda cool...I sometimes wonder about stuff like that,
but have no real science background to help me explain it....
--Maire

"Pixel, Queen of Cats" wrote:
>
> It occurred to me, this weekend, while making up shortbread biscuit for
> dinner, that nobody had posted as to the chemistry behind the beating of
> egg whites. In case anybody still cares. ;-)
>
> Basically, egg white is protein, yolk is fat. When you beat whites, you
> are doing the same thing to them as you do to gluten when you knead
> bread--forming long protein chains. The whisk also incorporates air into
> the process, which is trapped by the framework of protein chains, and thus
> you get foam. As fat does to gluten, so it does to egg whites--keeps the
> proteins from sticking to each other. Soap does the same thing.
>
> Perhaps, although someone who knows more about food chemistry than I do
> could probably answer this better, the acid in the lemon juice or the
> cream of tartar neutralizes any wandering alkalines in addition to helping
> the proteins stick together.
>
> Margaret FitzWilliam
>
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