runny liquid, do nothing more than add heat,
and presto: the liquid rapidly stiffens into a
solid that you can cut with a knife. No other
ingredient is as readily and drastically
transformed as is the egg. This is the key to its
great versatility, both on its own and as a
structure builder in complex mixtures.
To what does the egg owe its constructive
powers? The answer is simple: to its proteins
and their innate capacity to bond to each
other.
Protein Coagulation
Pulling Proteins Together... The raw egg
begins as a liquid because both yolk and white
are essentially bags of water containing
dispersed protein molecules, with water
molecules outnumbering proteins 1,000 to 1.
As molecules go, a single protein is huge. It
consists of thousands of atoms bonded
together into a long chain. The chain is folded