In making a pudding, can you replace yolks with whole eggs?

Question

Can I use six whole eggs instead of six yolks.

The recipe calls for:

• 6 yolks
• 1.5 c sugar
• 4 heaping T cornstarch
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 can regular milk (fill the above can)
• 1 T vanilla

Answer 1

You certainly can replace the yolks with whole eggs but you wouldn't do one-to-one as that would give you too much volume. The average egg has more volume in whites than in yolks (it's about 60% white and 30% yolk) so you'd want to use three whole eggs, not six.

Unfortunately, whites may give your pudding a texture that you won't like - one site calls it "jellyish" (meaning like gelatin), so you may want to use a combination of whole eggs and yolks alone, say, two whole eggs and two yolks. This would be about equivalent to using six yolks but will reduce the gumminess.

Answer 2

I don't make pudding very often, but I did last night. I didn't realize I had put in three whole eggs instead of three yolks until all cooking was done, and the assembled pudding was cooling off. I couldn't tell any obvious difference, so nothing clued me in I did anything wrong, until it randomly crossed my mind. No gumminess. Just pure, creamy yumminess. Though if the correct and goofed recipes were side by side, maybe I could sense a difference, for all I know.

I used the Joy of Cooking recipe (1c sugar, 3 Tbsp cornstarch, 1/4tsp salt, 3c whole milk, 3-4 large egg yolks, 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, 1.5tsp vanilla, wafers, banana)