1000 Eggs

How do you separate 1000 egg yolks in a timely manner? That’s the problem I find myself faced with. The old “crack the egg, split the shell into halves, toss the yolk back and forth between the shell and let the white fall away” method is just a little too slow, unfortunately. I have to admit, that method is still my tried-and-true way to get really clean whites with no yolk particles. It also involves three containers: one for the spent shells, one for the whites, and one to crack each individual white into before adding it to the others. Cracking the whites individually into a small dish ensures that, if you do get a little yolk with the white, you don’t risk ruining the entire batch. If you do get a little yolk in there, just pick it out with a piece of egg shell, or if it’s botched really bad, then set it aside for scrambled eggs. However, if I’m not going to be using the whites for anything** and thus don’t need to keep the whites free of a little yolk, then there is another method that I prefer.

I learned this method for separating yolks and whites while doing my stage at Del Posto. For the setup, you need a tall container to crack the eggs into, two bowls to throw the spent shells into, and a smaller container for the yolks after you separate them. Also, a piece of parchment paper folded in half and put down in front of you helps to soak up some of the whites that are going to leak out as you crack the eggs. Put your tall container in the center in front of you, on top of the parchment paper. Put one bowl on each side of the parchment paper, one on your left and one on your right. If your eggs are in cartons, open them up and set them on the table in front of you, behind your container and bowls. You can save space by stacking them side-by-side; put the bottom of one carton into the top of the already opened carton. You end up with a daisy chain of egg cartons. If your eggs are in flats (like most restaurants receive them), then just set a few flats in front of you. Ready to get started? Good.

Now take an egg in your hand. Give the shell one firm rap on the table in front of you, on the parchment paper. You’re looking to crack the shell enough to puncture the outer membrane lining the shell, but not so hard that it breaks the vitelline membrane surrounding the yolk, or worse, it explodes on the table. Try to do it with one fell swoop; none of this gentle tap-tap-tap stuff like you would do if you’re trying to get two clean halves of egg shell. Just give it a good hard drop onto the table to flatten the shell out on one side.

Now hold the egg above the bottom of the container and – this is the tricky part that takes some practice to get right – spread open the egg shell with your one hand and dump the contents of the egg into the container, all without breaking open the yolk sac. Don’t worry, with some practice you’ll get the hang of it. But now you have to do that entire process with your other hand. And repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Re… you get the idea. After some practice, you get a rhythm down where you are grabbing for the next egg with your free hand while your other hand is in the process of cracking an egg. Keep your focus on the egg your cracking and not the egg your reaching for. It’s easier to use your peripheral vision and to feel around for the next egg than it is to open the cracked shell and empty the contents without breaking them, all while not looking.

Okay, now you have a few hundred eggs in a container all floating around. Yes, you’ve broken a couple of the yolk sacs in the process, but that really can’t be helped (at least, I can’t seem to score a perfect unbroken yolk record above the 3-4 dozen mark). Now comes the fun part. And by fun, I mean messy. Setup the container for yolks next to your big container of eggs. Dip your hands into the eggs and lift one out. Now gently pass the egg between your hands, all the while letting the white slip through your fingers. After some practice, you should be able to clean the whites off the yolk in just a couple seconds. Put the yolk in its container. Repeat until all the yolks are out. Personally, I find it helps to start with the yolk sacs that have broken open slightly. You can usually save some bit of the yolk while getting most of the white off of it before it just totally disintegrates in your hands. If you don’t do them first, then the yolks tend to get broken up into the whites while your digging around in the mass of eggs. If you pick out the broken ones first and deal with them up front, then you stand a better chance of getting more yolk out.

So that is my large volume egg separating method. There is another method that is popular with other cooks at the restaurant. It is very similar but differs in that they crack one egg at a time, put it in their hand, and then pass it back and forth to separate out the yolk. For a dozen or so eggs, I think this is a fine method; there is less setup. However, when you’re faced with hundreds of eggs to separate, I think my method yields the fastest results with little additional yolk loss.

I’d be interested to hear any other approaches that people take to this. What works for you?

** Yes, unfortunately we do not have a use for 1000 egg whites and they end up getting composted. If for some reason you would like to have a few hundred egg whites a week (with a little yolk mixed in) then let me know and I’ll save them for you. Need to make egg white omelets for 300 people?