pasteurized carton egg yolks

[cakedecorator1968]

Hi Everybody,

Switched to pasteurized carton egg yolks (containg 10 %) sugar for our brulee's....they are taking forever to bake and just barely set.

Any ideas why???

[JeanneCake]

I use Papetti brand yolks - they don't contain any sugar, though - and when I use them for curds, custards, and the like, I do notice that whatever it is I'm making doesn't set as firmly as when I use shell egg yolks. Curd especially, stays very loose - and I had started to think it was my imagination. So I don't have an explanation other than agreeing with you that they behave differently as a result of the pasteurization process.

[Melanger]

I'm so glad to hear that I am not losing my mind. I tried to make Gianduja brulee with them and it was horrible. Pistachio is hit and miss. It seems that any of the recipes where there is added fat (as if there isn't enough already!) bake especially strange. They tend to souffle a bit and look somewhat broken.

I'm in banquets so I don't really have a choice when it comes to vanilla, we make quite a bit and I don't really have enough staff to go separating a case of eggs everytime we need more brulee.

I bake them in a Blodgett at 200 degrees, no water bath. As crazy at it sounds baking them only in the bottom ovens yields a better result than baking them in the top ovens. It shouldn 't make a difference being that there is a thermostat and all but it really helps them from getting really strange while baking. The other theory is that the majority of cooks are too lazy to bend down and use the bottom so they are in a better state of calibration than the top ones.

[Patrick S]

I think the creme brulees made with pasteurized yolks didn't set well for the same reason that my attempts at stovetop creme brulees didnt set well.

One possibility is that during the pasteurization process the egg proteins are partially denatured, and since the yolks are being stirred during the process, the denatured proteins don't get a chance to coagulate with each other. Thus when you make up your brulee and cook it, some of the proteins are already denatured and can not help form the protein structure that otherwise would make the custard "set."

I think the same thing is going on with stovetop creme brulees. You're cooking the yolks and denaturing the proteins, but because you keep stirring the proteins cant connect with each other and form big stable structures, and you get something more like a pastry cream. You get a bunch of tiny coagulates instead of one big coagulate.

Alternatively, maybe it is just a matter of the sugar being pre-mixed with the yolks, and the sugar is denaturing some of the yolk proteins? But since Jeannecake has the same problems with unsweetened pasteurized yolks, maybe not.

Edited November 26, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[yourmyboyblue]

i use liquid egg yolks for all my brulee bases and my ice creams. no problem whatsoever. they are pasturized and no added sugar. melanger...200* no water bath?????? why no water??? my ovens are all out of whack, i bake mine a shade above 300 (slow) in water and they take about an hour i guess... some bake faster than others.

top ovens are always a touch hotter because heat rises from the bottom one. at least ours are like that

what do you guys consider a long time to bake a brulee???

[devinf]

I use a combination of whole eggs/fresh yolks for my brulee. I've only used the pasteurized yolks for making ice cream bases. I just prefer fresh (plus I can use the whites for souffle).

My brulees bake at 275-300 with a water bath for 50-60 minutes.

Devin

[Wendy DeBord]

I use cartons of yolks for my brulees and they set perfectly. I'll take a look at work today and see if my yolks have added sugar.............

P.S. Do a P & B search on the topic of creme brulees. We've had some very good discussions about them, such as having a hard time getting them to set........... I'm sure you'd find that thread helpful.

[nightscotsman]

We use pasturized yolks with sugar added (don't know the percentage) for all of our brulees and they set fine. We buy them in the 5 gallon buckets and consistency very thick and gel-like, not pourable at all. The brulees bake in a covection oven at 250 in a shallow water bath for about 25-30 minutes. It's possible you might have to experiment with a slight reformulation if you're used to using fresh, though. We've noticed that our pastry cream doesn't set up quite as firm when we use fresh yolks, so I think there is a difference.

[Melanger]

Come to think about it, it seems like it happens with the smaller batches where the whole quantity of cream is allowed to infuse with the vanilla rather than in the larger batches where I don't have pots that are large enough to fit the whole lot of the cream. For the larger batches we wind up making the infusion with half of the cream and then burr mixing the rest of the thing together in big lexans.

This is probably the coagulation issue that Patrick was talking about above. Even with fresh yolks if it gets too hot it is nasty, like trying to bake anglaise.

As for the lack of water bath, I've been making them that way for years and it works like a champ. Plus, not having to individually wipe off the slime line from a couple of hundred brulees is quite a labor saver. Overall, I think the "protective powers" or water baths is greatly overrated, I rarely use them at all, too much fuss...

[Wendy DeBord]

I checked my yolks today and they don't contain sugar......for what thats worth.........

[yourmyboyblue]

Come to think about it, it seems like it happens with the smaller batches where the whole quantity of cream is allowed to infuse with the vanilla rather than in the larger batches where I don't have pots that are large enough to fit the whole lot of the cream.  For the larger batches we wind up making the infusion with half of the cream and then burr mixing the rest of the thing together in big lexans. 

yea no matter what size batch im making with brulee base i always let the hot cream hang out for 30 min to an hour before i temper in the yolks.

this lets the cream cool down so it wont cook the yolks like anglaise. ice it down really well after and stir it every 5 min or so until cooled.

for me, im a firm believer in water baths. just the other day one of my cooks forgot to add the water and after just 30 min they were all curdled. total garbage!!! hopefully he wont make the same mistake