By Jackie Burrell
Bay Area News Group
Bay Area–She may not be able to tell you which came first, the chicken or the egg, but food writer Lisa Steele is an expert on everything else poultry related. Her new “Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook” (Harper Horizon, $28) dishes on not just recipes — more than 100 of them — but common mistakes you may be making in the kitchen.
Here are five to avoid.
1. Using Old Eggs
Fresh eggs — no more than two to three weeks old — not only taste better, they’re easier to handle. That’s because both the egg white and the thin membrane holding the yolk together thin out as an egg ages. Old eggs result in wispy poached eggs or fried eggs whose yolks break in the pan. And because old eggs have more time for air to seep through the shell, your hard-boiled eggs may be easier to peel, but they’re likelier to have big dimples at one end, which makes for lopsided deviled eggs.
“Fresh eggs will peel perfectly,” Steele says, “if you steam them in a double boiler for 12 minutes, then put them into a bowl of ice water until they’re cool enough to handle.”
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