egg | Michael Ruhlman

At an event to promote my new book on the mighty egg, I did a demo of some simple egg dishes with my friend and Cleveland chef, Doug Katz. He had prepared deviled eggs ahead of time, and I was struck by his decision to cut the eggs through their equator rather than lengthwise. He then sliced off some of the white at the bottom so that the eggs rested flat in a large tray. What a brilliant idea! Why hadn’t I thought of this? My only problem with deviled eggs is that I love them so much; but, because they’re so big, I can eat only so many. Doug came up with a solution: Removing a chunk of the white means that each deviled egg is a little smaller and easier to eat, and Read On »

Egg promotion is winding down, but what a lot of attention it got! (NPR’s Steve Inskeep talked to me about it on Morning Edition. It inspired an egg-centric stroll through Manhattan with NYTimes reporter Alex Witchel. It was covered favorably in Sunday’s NYTBR by William Grimes. Debbi Snook covered it for my hometown paper. And the Wall Street Journal ran an excerpt on page one of its weekend section.) But now that the fun is subsiding, I reflect on where it began: for me with this humble frittata. In fourth grade someone told me or I saw on TV how to make one. And so, home alone with only four channels to entertain me, the video game Pong a blip on the horizon, and hungry, really hungry, I made the above. It was not just the creation itself that Read On »

In honor of Mother’s Day two weeks hence, Mac has reduced the price of all our kitchen tools by 40% if you use the promo code “mothers” for this week only (ends Friday 5/2 at midnight eastern). Simply type that word in Step 2 under “Discounts” and Shopify will tabulate it. Mac Dalton and I created these tools to make cooking easier and more practical. Flat-edged wood spoons are an essential in my kitchen, as are the offset spoons and the deep all-purpose perforated spoon, aka Badass Egg Spoon (which has already changed many lives! or one at least). And I can’t keep your knives sharp for you but I can give you a place to put them. This in-drawer knife holder is one of my most valuable items—the second photo is of my knife drawer Read On »

In my ongoing celebration/promotion of the new book, I’ll be doing a series of egg-reliant cocktails. Here, images and recipe from a while back, the white gives body to a great and classic cocktail, the whiskey sour. It looks really gross coming out of the shell, doesn’t it? Don’t even need to say what it reminds me of! But man, does it turn the cocktail into something truly substantial. Bartenders will remind you that it’s important to dry shake the ingredients first to denature that snotty-looking egg white. I get better and faster results by sticking an immersion blender into the shaker, giving it a serious buzz, then adding the ice and shaking till thoroughly chilled. I love simple cocktails and this is one of the greats: whiskey, sugar, citrus. Feel free to omit the Read On »

Meringue, whipped with sugar, binds nuts and dried fruit/photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

I’m doing a lot of interviews regarding my new book, Egg: A Culinary Exploration of the World’s Most Versatile Ingredient, and one question is persistent: What did I uncover that surprised me about the egg? I was surprised—very surprised—once, and that was when I began to write about meringue. The proteins that make up the egg white have the remarkable capacity to unwind and form a kind of mesh that traps air bubbles. Once it begins to trap infinitesimal and countless bubbles, the white expands to five or more times its initial volume, becoming completely opaque and about as white as anything one can imagine. The above photo is of nougat, a French confection of egg whites and sugar, that bind a combination of nuts and fruit (photo by Donna, of course). It’s chewy. Read On »

Posts Categorized: egg

Deviled Egg Bar

It Begins When You Make a Frittata

Friday Cocktail Hour: Whiskey Sour

The Miraculous Meringue