Ingredients At Room Temp Or No?

Decorating By yummy Updated 22 Mar 2010 , 3:39am by cheeseball

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yummy Posted 21 Mar 2010 , 9:43pm
post #1 of 13

A few years ago I heard that it's best to bake using room temperture ingredients. I started doing this, then went back to baking with cool ingredients. I forgot why you should but I probably stopped because of timimg. How do you bake? What is the purpose of using room temp. ingredients?

12 replies
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marknelliesmum Posted 21 Mar 2010 , 9:51pm
post #2 of 13

Ideally I would bake with room temp ingredients but usually forget to take the eggs out of the fridge. In my experience the mix ( scratch) can split if the eggs are cold. Maybe this is just co-incidence but i'm sure one of the pros will chip in with 'the science bit' thumbs_up.gif

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cakemakerkevin Posted 21 Mar 2010 , 9:59pm
post #3 of 13

Eggs give the cake more volume when they are room temp..Only have to be out 30 min... What i do is try to remember to set eggs out first while i am getting all of my other ingredients out. HTH icon_smile.gif

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indydebi Posted 21 Mar 2010 , 10:00pm
post #4 of 13

My health dept gives a big no-no to room temp eggs. In my food safety class, I specifically asked about recipes that call for room temp eggs and the instructor (a former HD inspector) said he had asked lots of chefs to explain the difference it makes ... and none of them could; ergo it makes no difference. So the rule in my kitchen was "no room temp eggs ... ever."

If a recipe calls for "room temp butter", then to me that means "softened" which I can achieve by 22 seconds in the microwave.

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Mrs-A Posted 21 Mar 2010 , 10:05pm
post #5 of 13
Quote:
Originally Posted by indydebi

.....If a recipe calls for "room temp butter", then to me that means "softened" which I can achieve by 22 seconds in the microwave.




i just gasped outloud when i read this Indy!!! i dont own a microwave (or a toaster or a kettle for that matter) so i shudder at the thought

as far as room temp eggs are concerned - my local woollies stocks and sells them unrefrigerated so i dont see the issue. heck, eggs lay them at room temprature dont they icon_smile.gif

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indydebi Posted 21 Mar 2010 , 10:09pm
post #6 of 13
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrs-A

i just gasped outloud when i read this Indy!!! i dont own a microwave (or a toaster or a kettle for that matter) so i shudder at the thought



icon_lol.gificon_lol.gif I gasped and shuddered at the thought of someone without a microwave! icon_lol.gif

As far as eggs ..... just following the rules of the entity that gave me the permit that allowed me to be in business! thumbs_up.gif

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chrissypie Posted 21 Mar 2010 , 10:33pm
post #7 of 13

I know in England as well, Eggs are not kept refrigerated in stores, just stocked on shelves. As an American I thought that was so wierd because they are refrigerated in the dairy aisle of the store. So to me, mentally, it was the equivelant of having yogurt or butter just sit on a shelf! I couldn't wrap my head around eggs that just sat on a shelf! I think the "rule" is, if they start unrefrigerated they can stay that way, but once refrigerated, they must stay that way. For safety purposes.

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yummy Posted 22 Mar 2010 , 1:48am
post #8 of 13

Thanks everyone. How about liquids?

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katies_cakes Posted 22 Mar 2010 , 2:15am
post #9 of 13

my eggs NEVER go in the fridge, they are stored in my chicken dish on the counter. i always get my butter out of the fridge 30mins before baking and milk is always used cold. in england very few people keep eggs in the fridge. they acctualy last longer and taste fresher kept at room temp. and the shops never chill them here either.

HTH

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aundrea Posted 22 Mar 2010 , 2:32am
post #10 of 13

this is very interesting. i see alot of chefs on food network that when baking say to use room temp eggs and butter. one even says leave butter out overnight.
i will definately be watching this post to see what others are saying.

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icer101 Posted 22 Mar 2010 , 2:39am
post #11 of 13

i use a recipe from baking911. sarah uses the eggs and butter right from the frig. it makes a great cake. she shows how on a video on her site. i use several from this site to make different recipes of hers. hth . if i take eggs from frig.. i put them in pot of hot water just to cover eggs for about 10 min. then you have room temp eggs for recipes that call for such a thing. hth

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aundrea Posted 22 Mar 2010 , 2:57am
post #12 of 13

icer: doesnt that par-boil the eggs? are they still the consitancy of raw eggs?

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cheeseball Posted 22 Mar 2010 , 3:39am
post #13 of 13

It seems that room temperature was the standard before we had modern, heavy duty kitchen equipment...if you were creaming butter and sugar by hand, then you wouldn't want to create more work for yourself by using cold, hard butter. But you don't have that problem with powerful stand mixers because you can cream butter right out of the fridge in a couple of minutes. I've tried whipping room temperature and cold egg whites and got the same volume; the only difference I've ever experienced is that it's easier to separate yolks and whites when the eggs are cold.

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