Eggs - Room Temp For Buttercream?

Decorating By jlh Updated 9 Jul 2007 , 11:29pm by JoanneK

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jlh Posted 9 Jul 2007 , 10:35pm
post #1 of 7

I am going to try two new buttercream recipes tonight. Should I use cold eggs or room temp? Thanks!!

Swiss meringue BC
egg whites
gran. sugar
butter
cream of tartar
salt

French BC Menagere
butter
egg yolks
salt
vanilla
conf. sugar

6 replies
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indydebi Posted 9 Jul 2007 , 10:37pm
post #2 of 7

Indiana HD has a no-no on room temp eggs. The gentleman who taught the food safety course said, when I specifically asked about this, that no chef has ever been able to explain to him what makes the difference between a cold and a room-temp egg.

In my kitchen, eggs are not ever room-temp.

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jlh Posted 9 Jul 2007 , 11:01pm
post #3 of 7

I know a lot of folks use room temps eggs. Anyone else out there able to help me. thanks

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BakingGirl Posted 9 Jul 2007 , 11:01pm
post #4 of 7

I think the idea of room temp egg whites is that they whip up more than cold egg whites. I have never tested it side by side, but I do think it is true. But in the interest of food safety it is probably better to take them straight out of the fridge.

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KoryAK Posted 9 Jul 2007 , 11:11pm
post #5 of 7

Well, for SMBC it is a moot point, because you are going to heat them anyway so it won't hurt anything (except take more time) to start them cold.

Sometimes eggs need to be at room temp so as not to break an emulsion like in pound cake. You can always cover the unbroken eggs in warm water for 10 minutes to achieve this. Eggs in the shell are not going to have any problem sitting out at room temp, there are whole countries that store their eggs this way and when I worked at a grocery store a long time ago the eggs were displayed in a cooler... but stored in the back out of one.

Eggs are the first thing to go out of my fridge if I run out of room. In Europe I know they recommend letting the whites sit out overnight before making royal icing. The time and temperature denature the proteins. Whites are mostly water, but yolks are another story... if the eggs are cracked keep the yolks cold.

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Kim_m_kk Posted 9 Jul 2007 , 11:26pm
post #6 of 7

Well I am living in Australia at the moment and when I first moved here it freaked me out that the eggs were not in the fridge but they aren't. In the grocery store the eggs are stored on the shelf. At home we do put ours in the fridge but there are people who don't. Anyway I think whole uncracked eggs left out to come to room temperature would not hurt anything

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JoanneK Posted 9 Jul 2007 , 11:29pm
post #7 of 7

Whenever I watch the Food Network and they are baking anything they always say start with room temp eggs and butter. So I always leave mine out for an hour or so. Never had a problem.

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