10:02 p.m. - 05 March 2003
Y is for Yolk
Y is for yolk
I’m here today to stand up for the humble, much-maligned egg yolk. Yes, it has fat. Yes, it has cholesterol. But it also has some other things that make it very handy in the kitchen.
Like, say, lecithin, which is an emulsifier. Why do you get hollandaise sauce when you mix egg yolks with melted butter? Lecithin. Why do you get mayonnaise when you mix egg yolks and oil? Lecithin. Why do you get lemon curd when you mix egg yolks, lemon juice, and butter? Lecithin. It’s one of those wonder chemicals that the French figured out years ago and have been taking advantage of in their kitchens ever since.
And the fat in egg yolks is mostly unsaturated fat: the good kind. So while it’s not a good idea to eat lots and lots of them – mostly because if you’re like me, they’ll just end up on your hips anyway – eggs a couple of times a week in various shapes won’t kill you. Hell, it may make you feel a little better.
What about cholesterol, you say? Well, some cholesterol is necessary. It’s only when you eat too much that you have trouble. Cholesterol is one of those nutritional lubricants: it makes everything work better, but again, too much is when it starts to get gunky and clog up your arteries. Plus, scientists are realizing more and more that genetics is as much, if not more of, a factor in whether or not you get heart disease as what you eat.
The richness in egg yolks also helps a lot of things taste better: cakes, sauces, soufflés, the list goes on and on. Face it, without eggs, and specifically egg yolks, life would be bland and boring. And who wants that?
Damn. Singing the praises of egg yolks made me hungry. I think I need to go fix myself a fried egg or two.
This has been an entry for AlphaBytes. I'm going backwards through the alphabet just because I can.
