Have you ever been discouraged when faced with a recipe that required only egg-whites or just the egg yolks, because it seemed tedious or just too difficult? Think it needs some special equipment? While I understand there is a utensil out there that allows you to do this, it is not absolutely necessary. I keep thinking Rocky Balboa would have been even more lean and muscular had he separated out the egg whites before drinking them. Here are two practical ways to do it. This should have you separating out the yolks like a pro in no time.
Method One
Materials: one egg, bowl, sink (or a second bowl)
1) Hold the egg (wide part down) in the right hand, fingers wrapped gently around the “waist” or equator of the egg. Tap this part firmly against the lip of the bowl to make a crack-line. It doesn’t have to be perfectly at the middle, in fact it works better when the line is a bit off-center. While some of you prefer to be a bit cautious and make several mini-taps on the egg and slowly build a neat and orderly crack, I actually like to rap the bowl once, and create that line in one quick strike. The trick is to get the crack to make at least an inch of opening, but not so wide that everything falls out prematurely. This is going to be a controlled release of the contents
2) Now with the left fingertips, take the cracked egg from the bottom and hold it over the bowl. I recommend that you place the left fingertips very close to the crack-line, just below it.
3)Bring the right hand away, and then re-approach the egg from above. Place the right fingertips gently on the egg near the same crack (but just above it this time). Keep both hands, as well as the egg, above the mouth of the bowl.
4) Think of the upper part (being held in your right hand) as the “lid” of the egg. This makes the area near your thumbs the hinge. Very carefully pry up the “lid” until it comes off in your hand. Keeping that shell in your right fingertips, turn your palm up so you are holding half a shell, cuplike, in each hand.
5) Here’s the fun part: Pour the egg yolk from the left-hand shell to the right. Be careful not to break the yolk during this phase. You might get a little egg-white on your fingers but don’t worry. Now carefully pour the egg-yolk back to the left. Repeat until you have gotten a satisfactory amount of egg-white out of the shells.
The beauty of this is, in the act of pouring back and forth into unequal containers, some egg-white will have to spill out. Also, the act of pouring itself forces some egg-white to drip down between the shells.
6) You might coax a little bit more egg-white out of an otherwise-empty shell by taking your pinky and lightly scraping around the inside. I prefer to just make little circles in the deepest part of the shell, which disengages pretty much the last of the stuff inside. Tilt the shell, and collect in the bowl.
7) Deposit the yolk into a second bowl, or if you prefer, dump into the sink. Grab another egg and repeat until you have enough for your recipe.
8) If you accidentally drip any yolk or bits of shell into the bowl, simply take them out with a small spoon.
Method Two
This was shown to me years ago by my wife.
Same Materials as Method #1.
1) Break the egg as in Method #1 by creating a crack-line near or above the center.
2) Gently remove the top half of the eggshell with your right hand.
3) Discard that half into the trash and ignore your husband complaining about leaving that kind of stuff in the sink.
4) Hold your right open palm over a bowl.
5) Dump the entire egg into that right palm.
6) Let the egg-white dribble through between your fingers. Cup the hand slightly to keep the yolk from sliding off.
7) When you have collected enough egg-white from this egg, dump the yolk into a second bowl.
8) Repeat with another egg.
This one sounds much simpler, but the drawback is that your hands have to absolutely be clean to directly handle the egg, then thoroughly wash your hands afterward. Also, I think that any little tilt with your hand will cause the entire egg yolk to make a splashdown into the bowl, and possibly break out into a mess. My wife’s hands are rock-steady in the kitchen, so her way seems better.
Of course I like mine better because I’m more used to it: you keep your hands moving to get as much as possible out of the egg (plus you don’t get bored staring at your hand). And any yolk-breakage is contained, then only drips a bit into the bowl. For my purposes, I can ignore a little bit of that; besides, Rocky could drink the whole thing, couldn’t he?
