Abstract
As simple as some baking recipes may seem, it is imperative for the cook to realize that baking is a complex phenomenon where scientific insight may provide a significant benefit. At the same time, scientists have to embrace the notion that cooking and baking are deemed of serious and systematic investigation—as they continue to be clouded with plenty of culinary mysticism. With this contribution, we aim to offer an example as to support these statements. Egg white proteins are the main structural components of meringues and as such, their chemistry and the way they behave during whipping in the presence of sugar(s), acid(s) and cations, notwithstanding the effect of the age of egg-whites and their whipping temperature, will affect the quality of the foams produced and ultimately of the dish they form a part of. We critically review the available and relevant body of knowledge around the biophysics and chemistry of culinary egg white-based foams. In doing so, we also propose a series of experiments that will help elucidate the mechanism(s) by which copper and cream of tartar stabilize egg white foams.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
E.L. Smith, in But the Crackling is Superb—An Anthology on Food and Drink by Fellows and Foreign Members of The Royal Society, ed. by N. Kurti, G. Kurti (Institute of Physics Publishing, London, 1988)
M. Ruhlman, Ratio—The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking (Scribner, New York, 2009)
P. Reinhart, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice—Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread (Ten Speed Press, New York, 2001)
P. Figoni, How Baking Works, 3rd edn. (Wiley, New Jersey, 2011)
S. Corriher, Bakewise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2008)
H. McGee, On Food and Cooking—The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (Scribner, New York, 2004)
S. Corriher, Cookwise—The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking (HarperCollins, New York, 1997)
H. Blumenthal, Further Adventures in Search of Perfection—Reinventing Kitchen Classics (Bloomsbury, London, 2007)
H. McGee, Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes (The Penguin Press, New York, 2010)
M. Parloa, Miss Parloa’s New Cookbook: A Guide to Marketing and Cooking (C.T. Dillingham, New York, 1880)
C.W. Pernell et al., Heat-induced changes in angel food cakes containing egg-white protein or whey protein isolate. J. Food Sci. 67(8), 2945–2951 (2002)
A.E. Foegeding, P.J. Luck, J.P. Davis, Factors determining the physical properties of protein foams. Food Hydrocolloids 20(284–292), 284 (2006)
M.A. Barmore, The influence of chemical and physical factors of egg-white foams, in Technical Bulletin No. 9. (Fort Collins, 1934)
J.M. Rodriguez Patino, M. Dolores Naranjo Delgado, J. Linares Fernandez, Stability and mechanical strength of aqueous foams containing food proteins. Colloids Surf., A Physicochem. Eng. Asp. 99(1), 65–78 (1995)
C.K. Lau, E. Dickinson, Instability and structural change in an aerated system containing egg albumen and invert sugar. Food Hydrocolloids 19(1), 111–121 (2005)
O.R. Fennema (ed.), Food Chemistry (CRC Press, Taylor and Francis group, Florida, 1996)
Y. Mine, Recent advances in the understanding of egg white protein functionality. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 6, 225–236 (1995)
D. Langevin, Aqueous foams: a field of investigation at the frontier between chemistry and physics. ChemPhysChem 9, 510–522 (2008)
A. Saint-James, Physical chemistry in foam drainage and coarsening. Soft Matter 2, 836–849 (2006)
P. Walstra, Physical Chemistry of Foods (Marcel Dekker, New York, 2003)
B. Lowe, Experimental Cookery—From the Chemical and Physical Standpoint, 3rd edn. (Wiley, New York, 1943)
X. Yang, T.K. Berry, A.E. Foegeding, Foams prepared from whey protein isolate and egg white protein: 1. Physical, microstructural, and interfacial properties. J. Food Sci. 74(5), E259–E268 (2009)
P.J. Luck, N. Bray, A.E. Foegeding, Factors determining yield stress and overrun of whey protein foams. J. Food Sci. 67(5), 1677–1681 (2001)
Y. Mine, T. Noutomi, N. Haga, Thermally induced changes in egg white proteins. J. Agric. Food Chem. 38, 2122–2125 (1990)
T.M. Johnson, M.E. Zabik, Egg Albumen proteins interactions in an angel food cake system. J. Food Sci. 46, 1231–1236 (1981)
L.M.C. Sagis et al., Effect of copper ions on the drainage stability of foams prepared from egg white. Colloids Surf., A Physicochem. Eng. Asp. 180(1–2), 163–172 (2001)
Y. Mine, Recent advances in egg protein functionality in the food system. World’s Poultry Sci. J. 58, 31–39 (2002)
H.J. McGee, S.R. Long, W.R. Briggs, Why whip egg whites in copper bowls? Nature 308, 667–668 (1984)
L.R. MacDonnell et al., The functional properties of the egg white proteins. Food Technol. 9, 49–53 (1955)
B.R. Min et al., Effect of irradiating shell eggs on quality attributes and functional properties of yolk and white. Poult. Sci. 84, 1791–1796 (2005)
J.F. Zayas, Functionality of Proteins in food (Springer, New York, 1997)
S. Damodaran, A. Paraf. (eds.), Food Proteins and their Applications. (Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1997)
H.D. Belitz, W. Grosch, P. Schieberle (eds.), Food Chemistry, 4th edn. (Springer, 2009)
F.E. Cunningham, Properties of egg white foam drainage. Poult. Sci. 55, 738–743 (1976)
K. Lomakina, K. Míková, A study of the factors affecting the foaming properties of egg white—a review. Czech J. Food Sci. 24(3), 110–118 (2006)
H. This, Molecular Gastronomy—Exploring the Science of Flavor (Columbia University Press, New York, 2006)
P. Wierenga, et al. Variations in meringues. In Proceedings of the Euro Food Chem XIV. (Paris, France, 2007)
L.W. Hunt, J.L. St. John, Angel food cake form the thick and thin portions of egg white. J. Home Econ. 23, 1151–1156 (1931)
W.E. Pyke, G. Johnson, Relationships between certain physical measurements upon fresh and stored eggs and their behavior in the preparation and baking of cake. (Poultry Science, 1941) pp. 125–138
I.M. Bailey, Foaming of egg white. Ind. Eng. Chem. 27(8), 973–976 (1935)
M.A. Barmore, The influence of various factors, including altitude, in the production of angel food cake. Technical Bulletin No. 15 (1936)
E.L. Miller, G.E. Vail, Angel food cakes made from fresh and frozen egg whites. Cereal Chem. 20, 528–535 (1943)
A. Kamozawa, A. Talbot, Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work (Clarkson Potter, New York, 2010)
G. Wang, T. Wang, Effects of yolk contamination, shearing, and heating on foaming properties of fresh egg white. J. Food Sci. 74(2), C147–C156 (2009)
G.A. van Aken, Aeration of emulsions by whipping. Colloids Surf., A Physicochem. Eng. Asp. 190(3), 334–354 (2001)
V. Lechevalier et al., Ovalbumin, ovotransferrin, lysozyme: three model proteins for structural modifications at the air-water interface. J. Agric. Food Chem. 51(21), 6354–6361 (2003)
A.M. Oldham, D.R. McComber, D.F. Cox, Effect of cream of tartar level and egg white temperature on angel food cake quality. Fam. Consum. Sci. Res. J. 29(2), 111–124 (2000)
I. Van der Plancken, A. Van Loey, M.E. Hendrickx, Foaming properties of egg white proteins affected by heat or high pressure treatment. J. Food Eng. 78, 1410–1426 (2007)
I. Van der Plancken, A. Van Loey, M.E.G. Hendrickx, Changes in sulfhydryl content of egg white proteins due to heat and pressure treatment. J. Agric. Food Chem. 53, 5726–5733 (2005)
I. Van der Plancken, A. Van Loey, M.E.G. Hendrickx, Effect of moisture content during dry-heating on selected physicochemical and functional properties of dried egg white. J. Agric. Food Chem. 55, 127–135 (2007)
L. Campbell, V. Raikos, S.R. Euston, Modification of functional properties of egg-white proteins. Die Nahrung 47, 369–376 (2003)
W.J. Stadelman, O.J. Cotterill (eds.), Egg Science and Technology, 4th edn. (The Haworth Press Inc., New York, 1994)
T.K. Berry, X. Yang, A.E. Foegeding, Foams prepared from whey protein isolate and egg white protein: 2. Changes associated with angel food cake functionality. J. Food Sci. 74(5), E269–E277 (2009)
T. Arakawa, S.N. Timasheff, Stabilization of protein structure by sugars. Biochemistry 21(25), 6536–6544 (1982)
P.J. Luck, A.E. Foegeding, The role of copper in protein foams. Food Biophys. 3, 255–260 (2008)
O.J. Cotterill, et al., Metallic cations affect functional performance of spray-dried heat-treated egg white. J. Food Sci. 57(6) (1992)
F.J. Monahan, J.B. German, J.E. Kinsella, Effect of pH and temperature on protein unfolding and thiol/disulfide interchange reactions during heat-induced gelation of whey proteins. J. Agric. Food Chem. 43, 46–52 (1995)
N. Myrhvold, C. Young, M. Bilet, Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking (The Cooking Lab, Seattle, 2011)
Available from: http://allrecipes.com/
A. Brown, Available from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/angel-food-cake-recipe/index.html
Available from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/printpages/AngelFoodCakeprint.html
D. Allen, Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe Cookery Course (London: Ted Smart Publishers, 2005)
Available from: http://www.epicurious.com/
Acknowledgements
We appreciate the critical comments from Dr. Johannes Schlebusch and Andy Johnston during the preparation of this manuscript and the insightful comments from the reviewers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vega, C., Sanghvi, A. Cooking Literacy: Meringues as Culinary Scaffoldings. Food Biophysics 7, 103–113 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11483-011-9247-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11483-011-9247-7