posted
I love it. I wish I could make it correctly. But whenever I "drop" eggs into a soup, they get "curdley" rather than "whispy" the way it's supposed to be.
Are there any suggestions on why this keeps happening to me, even when I vary my methods slightly?
What is the trick?
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Get your chicken stock simmering and stir it furiously in a circular motion. Then take your egg/water mixture and drizzle it on the sides of the vortex you've created.
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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You know, I can find tons of egg drop soup recipes on the internet, but I've never seen one that mentions getting it moving first. Maybe they just expect me to know this? Grrrrr.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I read it in an Asian food cookbook. I think I only made it once, but I seem to remember it working. That actually sounds pretty good. . . but I'd have to go shopping if I was gonna make it tonight, and I have leftovers to eat anyway.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
My secret Chinese culinary advisor taught me to thicken the soup with corn starch before adding the eggs.
You have to mix water into the cornstarch, in a separate bowl, whisk well, and only then add it to the soup. For some reason, any variance has disastrous effects. Then, let it cook for a while, whisking a lot, and bring it to a full rolling boil.
Only then can you safely add the eggs.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
I make avgolemono soup, which is similar, but with lemon. I add spoonfuls of heated broth to the beaten eggs before adding them to the soup.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Tempering the eggs like Elizabeth suggests may or may not work. Because you're slowly bringing up the heat in the eggs before you add them to the dish, they may cook and clump faster, causing, well, curds rather than threads.
At the Chinese restaurant I worked in in high school, they mixed a bit of cold water in with the eggs and used a ladel to pour a thin stream of the egg wash into the swirling, boiling broth. One hand poured while the other hand stirred.
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
I just want y'all to know that I successfully made egg drop soup for the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE!
Thank you! Once again, Hatrack makes my life better.
The only thing I did wrong, I went "crazy" with the eggs. Three eggs for maybe 4-5 cups of broth. By the time the vortex stopped, I still had a lot of eggs to pour, and I was afraid to make another vortex--you know, messing up what was already there. So I just kinda poured the rest in. They made big eggy clumps. But the rest had the *perrrrfect* texture. I savored every bite.
I can state uncategorically that Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup is MUCH better with an egg whisked into it. Not the traditional recipe for egg-drop soup, of course, but really, not bad at all.
I also beat my eggs with a bit of liquid (water or milk) -- not much, maybe a tablespoon with a couple eggs -- before adding to the soup.
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I read it in an Asian food cookbook. I think I only made it once, but I seem to remember it working. That actually sounds pretty good. . . but I'd have to go shopping if I was gonna make it tonight, and I have leftovers to eat anyway.
