Q–I have 12 large egg yolks left over from making an angel food cake. What can I bake with them? Also, can they be frozen and if so, how?
Ruth Price, Skokie
A–Unfortunately, egg yolks cannot be frozen. We suggest refrigerating your leftover, unbroken egg yolks in a covered container filled with cold water. They will keep about three days.
”The Other Half of the Egg” (out-of-print), by Jacques Pepin and the late Helen McCully, suggests placing each yolk in an individual plastic ice cube container. Seal the top of the yolk with plastic wrap so that no air can reach it; refrigerate. Yolks stored in this manner also have to be used as soon as possible.
Several edibles may be made with leftover egg yolks. Besides hollandaise or bearnaise sauce or blender mayonnaise, you may make boiled salad dressing or chocolate mousse. Many recipes for baking that call for 3 whole eggs adapt easily to 2 whole eggs and a yolk.
Any custard can be made using only egg yolks. If the custard recipe calls for whole eggs, substitute a yolk for each egg. The custard will be all the smoother and richer for it.
Meanwhile, here`s an excellent Lord Baltimore cake, which uses 5 yolks and which some say was created to accommodate the egg yolks left over from baking a Lady Baltimore cake.
The classic icing calls for 2 egg whites; so we have forgone it and substituted an egg-yolk-thickened frosting and filling.
These recipes are adapted from ”The Fanny Farmer Baking Book,” by Marion Cunningham (Knopf, $16.95).
LORD BALTIMORE CAKE
Two 9-inch layers
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Baking time: 20 to 25 minutes
1 3/4 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
5 egg yolks (about 1/3 cup)
1 whole egg
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Chocolate buttercream frosting; recipe below
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans.
2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt and sift them together onto a large piece of waxed paper. Meanwhile, place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.
3. Add sugar to butter gradually and continue beating until well blended. Add egg yolks and the whole egg and beat for about 2 minutes, until mixture is light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla and blend well. Sprinkle flour mixture over batter and stir to blend. Then beat until batter is smooth.
3. Divide batter between the prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven, let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. Fill and frost.
COOKED CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
About 1 1/2 cups
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
1/2 cup milk
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup confectioners` sugar, sifted if lumpy
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, divided into 16 tablespoons
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1. Scald milk in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. While milk heats, combine egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat vigorously until smooth and blended. Slowly pour the hot milk into the bowl containing the yolk mixture, stirring constantly with a spoon. Do not stir with a whisk or rotary beater; this would create a foamy layer on top of the sauce and prevent your seeing the consistency underneath.
2. Pour everything back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened. Do not boil. Test by putting a finger in; it should feel very hot, and you also will see whisps of steam rising. Remove from heat and add the vanilla, then beat until the mixture is cool. To hasten this step, beat with the pan set over a bowl of ice.
3. Melt chocolate in top of double boiler; set aside to cool somewhat before you add it to buttercream.
4. When buttercream is cool, begin beating in the butter by tablespoons, beating after each addition until smooth. If it begins to separate or has a curdled look, beat well with an electric mixer and it will smooth out. Add cooled, melted chocolate, beating well to incorporate. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
Q–I enjoy cooking French style, but keep running into the words tournedo and filet mignon. I know that these are expensive steaks, but I don`t know the difference between the two. Please clear this up.
B. Zechman, Highland Park
A–To do so, we consulted an out-of-print cookbook, ”A La Ritz,” by the late Louis Diat, a chef who invented vichysoisse and probably was as responsible for introducing America to French food as was Auguste Escoffier.
His answer: ”Beef filet is the tenderloin, and it is cooked whole or in slices. When the filet is sliced, it is named according to the thickness of the slice.
”A 1-inch thick slice is called tournedo; a 1 1/2-inch thick slice
(which is cut slightly thicker if cut from the narrower ends of the filet)
is called the filet mignon; and a 2-inch (or sometimes thicker) cut is a chateaubriand.
”These are usually broiled or sauteed and served with different sauces. The dish takes its name from the way the filet is cut and the sauce or garnishing that accompanies it, such as filet mignon Portugaise,” a 1 1/2-inch thick filet mignon and Portugaise sauce.
Have a question? We cannot answer questions or telephone calls directly but will address questions of general interest in this column. Write to Cook`s Dialogue, The Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611.
