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What temp to avoid solidifying an egg yolk dropped into a hot cream soup?


Caruso

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So I saw this great looking recipe for Billi Bi (mussel and cream soup) at nytimes this week (can be found here, but with annoying auto-opening accompanying video) At the end of the recipe they have you drop an egg yolk in the hot soup, but warn you if the soup is too hot, the yolk will cook into strands instead of acting as a thickener. I've got a thermapen, so wonder if anyone here can tell me what temp I need to make sure the soup is down to before dropping in the egg. Thanks.

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Yolks start to cook around 58C / 135F, but it'll take a while for them to set up. If you incorporate them quickly, they won't have a chance to curdle. If you want to be extra careful, you can temper them with a small amount of the hot soup base (whisking it in slowly) and then add that mixture to the main pot. If thickening is the goal, you do want the yolks to cook, you just don't want them to scramble into defined curds.

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btbyrd is right; it sounds like you want to cook it like a crème anglaise.  The recipe says to add the yolk and reheat- I'd temper the yolk in and cook it no higher than 84°C.

 

ETA: If you're scared of overheating and curdling it, you can always add a touch of starch.

Edited by jmacnaughtan (log)
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So I saw this great looking recipe for Billi Bi (mussel and cream soup) at nytimes this week (can be found here, but with annoying auto-opening accompanying video) At the end of the recipe they have you drop an egg yolk in the hot soup, but warn you if the soup is too hot, the yolk will cook into strands instead of acting as a thickener. I've got a thermapen, so wonder if anyone here can tell me what temp I need to make sure the soup is down to before dropping in the egg. Thanks.

You don't want to add egg directly to hot liquid if you don't want it to cook/curdle. You temper the egg (room temp, btw) with a little hot liquid, then add the tempered egg into the hot liquid.

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