I have always wondered why baking with refrigerated eggs VS room temperature eggs comes out much better. Can anyone explain why please?
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1Do you really mean "not stored in the fridge"? I store all of my eggs in the fridge but if a recipe calls for eggs at room temp, I take them out and leave them on the counter for an hour... as far as I know, there's no difference between an egg never refrigerated and one left to come to room temp... Also, this depends extremely on what you're baking... some recipes aren't affected and some specifically call for cold eggs.– CatijaCommented May 17, 2016 at 3:55
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1 Answer
This isn't at all exclusive to eggs, searing off a really cold (fresh, not frozen) steak will get you a tough steak. Unless the recipe depends on the behavior of a protein as refrigerated, proteins are better to work with at room temperature.
Think of the egg yolk and white sort of like ice cream; the warmer it becomes, the more distinctly the viscosity changes. Beating cold egg whites to stiff peaks is one heck of a workout :) Cold yolks are also very likely to result in 'broken' emulsions.
In your specific case, cold eggs simply won't incorporate into the mix in a manner that's consistent with what the recipe previously produced. The difference would depend on the recipe, but in most cases, not subtle. Things would be denser than ideal, or just simply not hold together very well. It really depends on what you're doing.
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1+1 for the egg bits, but not for the steak analogy -- America's Test Kitchen found that cooking from frozen was better than allowing a frozen steak to thaw before cooking. See cooking.stackexchange.com/a/46565/67– JoeCommented May 17, 2016 at 15:17
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@Joe I try not to freeze steaks (I buy them the day, or a few days before I intend to cook them) and they can get incredibly tough and dry if you sear them while they're cold. But I think an edit to indicate that would be helpful, thank you :)– user293Commented May 17, 2016 at 18:34
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I'm convinced the "warm whites beat better" thing is a myth. Direct-from-the-fridge egg whites beat up just fine, in my experience, and more importantly, they're less likely to collapse when you start adding other ingredients (such as ground nuts for a torte).– MartiCommented May 17, 2016 at 19:49
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