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Chicken-Free Egg Whites
Baking has traditionally made extensive use of egg whites, especially
the way they can be beaten into a foam and then set with heat. While
I eat eggs, I have a lot of people in my life who avoid them for
ethical reasons, and this often limits what I can bake for them. I
was very excited to learn, though, that you can now buy extremely
realistic vegan egg whites!
EVERY engineered yeast to convert
sugar into ovalbumin, the main
protein in egg whites and the one responsible for most of its culinary
function. This kind
of fermentation was pioneered for insulin and microbial rennet in
the 1980s, but many companies are now applying it to producing all
kinds of vitamins, proteins, dyes, and enzymes.
EVERY has been
working with commercial customers for several years, but you can now
buy
it as a shelf
stable powder. At $24 for the equivalent of 45 egg whites ($0.53
each) it's more expensive than buying conventional ($0.21 each) or
organic ($0.33) egg whites, but not massively so.
I learned about them from a coworker who made an angel food cake, and
I've since made flourless chocolate cake and swiss buttercream
frosting. It whipped and set just like egg whites; it's really
impressive!
While this is great from a vegan perspective, it won't help most
people who are avoiding eggs for allergy reasons: it's still
ovalbumin. Labeling will generally say something like "contains: egg
allergen", and the packaging I bought has the quite wordy "although
not from eggs, the proteins may cause allergic reactions in certain
individuals, especially those sensitive to egg, due to its similarity
to real egg."
I'm now trying to figure out all the things that this now means I can
cook for my oldest (no eggs for
moral reasons). And also what sort of places that the ability to make
"less watery egg whites", by mixing the powder with less water than
normal, could let me do things I couldn't otherwise.
Comment via: facebook, mastodon, blueskyDiscuss
the way they can be beaten into a foam and then set with heat. While
I eat eggs, I have a lot of people in my life who avoid them for
ethical reasons, and this often limits what I can bake for them. I
was very excited to learn, though, that you can now buy extremely
realistic vegan egg whites!
EVERY engineered yeast to convert
sugar into ovalbumin, the main
protein in egg whites and the one responsible for most of its culinary
function. This kind
of fermentation was pioneered for insulin and microbial rennet in
the 1980s, but many companies are now applying it to producing all
kinds of vitamins, proteins, dyes, and enzymes.
EVERY has been
working with commercial customers for several years, but you can now
buy
it as a shelf
stable powder. At $24 for the equivalent of 45 egg whites ($0.53
each) it's more expensive than buying conventional ($0.21 each) or
organic ($0.33) egg whites, but not massively so.
I learned about them from a coworker who made an angel food cake, and
I've since made flourless chocolate cake and swiss buttercream
frosting. It whipped and set just like egg whites; it's really
impressive!
While this is great from a vegan perspective, it won't help most
people who are avoiding eggs for allergy reasons: it's still
ovalbumin. Labeling will generally say something like "contains: egg
allergen", and the packaging I bought has the quite wordy "although
not from eggs, the proteins may cause allergic reactions in certain
individuals, especially those sensitive to egg, due to its similarity
to real egg."
I'm now trying to figure out all the things that this now means I can
cook for my oldest (no eggs for
moral reasons). And also what sort of places that the ability to make
"less watery egg whites", by mixing the powder with less water than
normal, could let me do things I couldn't otherwise.
Comment via: facebook, mastodon, blueskyDiscuss
Anonymous