On Food and Cooking

If the transformation of eggs by heat seems
remarkable, consider what beating can do!
Physical agitation normally breaks down and
destroys structure. But beat eggs and you
create structure. Begin with a single dense,
sticky egg white, work it with a whisk, and in
a few minutes you have a cupful of snowy
white foam, a cohesive structure that clings to
the bowl when you turn it upside down, and
holds its own when mixed and cooked. Thanks
to egg whites we’re able to harvest the air, and
make it an integral part of meringues and
mousses, gin fizzes and soufflés and
sabayons.
The full foaming power of egg white
seems to have burst forth in the early 17th
century. Cooks had noticed the egg’s
readiness to foam long before then, and by
Renaissance times were exploiting it in two
fanciful dishes: imitation snow and the
confectioner’s miniature loaves and biscuits.
But in those days the fork was still a novelty,