A reader sends along some ideas he calls "Kitchen MacGuyvering":
Previously I'd suggested softening butter in a bowl of warm water (which works in minutes). Further kitchen MacGuyvering yields the following tips:To butter a pan (particularly an ornate cake mold), put the pan in the freezer and melt the butter in a microwave. Swirld the butter around in the pan vigorously; it freezes quickly.
An alternative way of separating egg whites is to cut the corner out of a sandwich bag and break the egg into it. Blow into the bag as you would a balloon and squeeze, and the white is expelled leaving the yolk intact.
I haven't any need of the trick myself any more, but you can also, if you need fast egg-white separation, clean your hands very well and then crack the egg into your palm and let the whites run out through your fingers. And if you want a no-mess way to butter and flour your cake pans, there are now cooking sprays that do this; Pillsbury and Crisco make one, and there's another kind called "Baker's Joy". Especially good for bundt pans.
I'm at work on a squash/coconut curry for this week's libertarian movie night. If it turns out well, I'll post the recipe on the blog.
What's a vegan doing melting butter and separating eggs? I thought those days were long gone.
I no longer do these things, but I know how to do them, and I assume many of my readers would like to.
Who on earth has space in their freezer to put a pan. Every freezer I've ever seen has been packed to the gills.
Forget kitchen MacGuyvering--I'm dying to know what sort of films are watched on a libertarian movie night.
"I'm dying to know what sort of films are watched on a libertarian movie night."
Everyone watches their own movie on their iPod; someone picking a movie would be coercion and that can't be allowed.
Why does one want the butter to freeze?
If you are doing a large volume of egg separation, and don't want gook all over your fingers, there are devices (basically strainers with holes large enough for the egg whites but not the yokes to pass through) for that purpose. My daughter bought me one, and it works fine, but I personally have found the traditional method of dumping the yoke from one half shell to the other while letting the whites drip into the bowl to be adequate. I think one would have to be making a huge amount of custard or meringue to worry about the time spent separating the eggs as opposed to the other tasks.
The quickest way to soften butter is to place the stick of cold butter in the microwave and heat on the lowest setting (usually #1) for one minute. That makes it spreadable without actually melting the butter.
meaghan, thanks for the advise.
i never know before that you can melt butter by heating it up somehow. i used to bash it with my club.
i never know that to separate a egg you put it in a plastic bag. now i no. thank you