How to make egg drop soup?

[Fat Guy]

Might one of you kind people be able to provide me with instruction in the matter of making egg drop soup? Of course there is the essential technique of adding the egg to the stock, and I have no idea how to do it correctly, but I wouldn't be averse to hearing about how to make the underlying stock as well. I wish to do everything from scratch, and preferably without corn starch.

Thank you very much.

[=Mark]

Essentially Egg Drop Soup is simply chicken broth with some soy sauce and beaten egg added and garnished with some green onions.  One can get more involved by adding chicken meat (if you intend on making you're own stock you'll presumably have plenty of that available) mushrooms, onions and some other seasonings.

Here's mine:

1 5 lb. roasting chicken

4 qts water

6 eggs, beaten

2 onions, diced

1 lb. mushrooms (any kind you like, I lean to shitakes or straw mushrooms to maintain the Asian slant)

1/3 cup soy sauce (Good stuff, none of that caramel colored fake crap)

white pepper to taste

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1. Roast chicken till done.  Let cool

2.  Remove meat from chicken, toss bones, giblets and onion peelings, mushroom butts and any other veggie detrius laying about the kitchen that can be used to flavor stock (My Bro keeps a baggie in the freezer to which he adds veggie peelings and stuff to be saved for stock) to stockpot, add water and simmer for a few hours.  Strain and return to pot.

3 Add mushroom and diced onion to the pot along with soy sauce.  Simmer until veggies are done.  Add as much of the chicken as you want and bring back to a simmer.  Add white pepper to taste.

4. With the soup at a slow simmer, slowly pour a thin stream of the beated ess into the pot, crossing back and forth across the pot evenly.  let sit for 10 - 15 seconds, then stir gently.  Add sesame oil.

5.  Serve with a garnish of diced green onion.

[Fat Guy]

Can we go into more detail regarding step 4? This is where I'm failing miserably. I just can't seem to get those long eggy ribbons the way they do in restaurants. I just kind of get egg particulation, or clumps.

[Rachel Perlow]

From what I recall, you should stir the stock in one direction (let's say clockwise) to get the liquid moving continuously, then pour in the beaten egg in a thin stream, holding the pouring vehicle still. The momentum of the stock will pull the egg into ribbons.

Give it a try with some plain water and one egg to see if this works for you before you waste anymore homemade stock.

[Sandra Levine]

I think it also helps if you stir the eggs in with a fork.

[Jinmyo]

Re: step 4.

I generally whip the eggs in a rice bowl with the tips of hashi. Hashi are Japanese style "chopsticks" which are slender and come to a point, unlike the blunt ends of Chinese "chopstricks". The opening the ends of the hashi slighlty, I gently pour the egg from the bowl between the hashi in a thin stream, moving the bowl and hashi simultaneously.

[Kent Wang]

Any luck with this? I have also tried several times and failed miserably.

What vessel do you pour from? A rice bowl?

[Shalmanese]

To me, it seems like the cornstarch is necessary. You have to get the right viscosity to get the egg to fan out into the right texture.

The way I do it is to keep the soup stirring in a constant circular motion and pour the egg in a thin stream. I think a common error lots of people make is letting the soup get too cold. Even a minor drop in temperature makes the egg take longer to coagulate which causes over dispersion. The combination of stirring and dropping in cold egg will lose a lot of heat so you really need to have the burner cranked up to at least medium. A cook's instinct is you never want a soup to go past simmer so they'll usually have the burner on a whisper which won't work.

[scubadoo97]

Was just watching an episode of American Test Kitchen and the item discussed was hot and sour soup. They recommended mixing corn starch with the egg which would improve texture and keep it from clumping or something to that effect.

[ojisan]

No cornstarch.

Add a Tbl. cold water to the egg then beat well w/ hashi.

Jinmyo has it right. If you can't picture it, try this:

- beaten egg/water in rice bowl, held in left hand: little and ring fingers under bottom; middle and index fingers against side of bowl; thumb holds hashi across/against rim of bowl.

- slowly pour egg in thin stream, flowing off the tips of hashi, while stirring simmering broth w/ right hand.

The only clumpy part will be from the unbeaten white thingy that eggs have. When making chawanmushi, the beaten egg mixture is strained to get rid of it.

[HVRobinson]

In my experience there are a couple of tricks... first and foremost... the soup has to be spinning. No "slight current" stuff. Get a whirl going there. Don't slop it over the sides,,, but a serious 10 rpm or so. Do add some water to the eggs. I usually have about a gallon of total volume in the stock pot when I do this (I love leftovers). To the gallon I'll do about 4 or 5 eggs. Extra Jumbo will be 4. Anything smaller will be 5. I thin this down with about a tablespoon less a 1/4 teaspoon (about) of water. I prefer my eggs at room temp... right out of the fridge helps promote clumping. Whisk the heck out of these poor unborn chickens with water in a coffee cup (a measuring cup focuses the stream too tightly). Once all the white clumps are broken up and you're looking down into a whirling pot, start adding the stream from the outside edge moving towards the inside (center of the whirlpool). The goal is not to overlap... while running out just about the time you reach the middle. It's a timing thing. The hotter the soup, the more the eggs will become like "rags" (the Italian term for it)... and then just let it cook until it is done spinning.... and serve. Final garnishes for me include a touch of sesame oil (dark) and a little green onion or cilantro. But I'm quai-loh so what do I know? Let me know how this works out for you.

hvr

[rezcook]

Just my 2c...

I think Robinson has the directions down pat. I prety much follow these steps and get the ribbon effect.

I do like to thicken the soup a bit with a cornstarch slurry before adding the egg. I also love the addition of frozen peas at the end of cooking. Pretty much defrost them at room temp and drop them in as a last step when I turn off the heat.