Throw 'em yolk recipes at me!

November 9, 2009 8:17 AM

How can I use leftover egg yolks? I want to make a chocolate mousse from a recipe that calls for a large number of egg whites but I feel guilty about just throwing the egg yolks away. So... please give me your best ideas and recipes for what to do with the yummy yummy yolks, folks.
posted by kitchencrush to food & drink (38 comments total)

Hollondaise sauce. Pour it over poached eggs and bacon of some sort, eat with an english muffin, and you've got yourself some eggs Benedict.
posted by oinopaponton at 8:19 AM on November 9

Hollandaise sauce for eggs benedict?
posted by urbanlenny at 8:20 AM on November 9

Mayo is the obvious answer, but what about aioli?

There's not much yummier than a big platter of blanched vegetables and a bowl of garlicky creamy aioli for dipping. A little simply-prepared fish with that and you've got yourself a dinner party, kiddo.
posted by padraigin at 8:21 AM on November 9

For something sweet, zabaglione or French vanilla ice cream.
posted by jedicus at 8:24 AM on November 9

Make mayo using good quality extra virgin olive oil. It will change your life.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 8:24 AM on November 9 [1 favorite]

Fettuccine with Alfredo or Prima Vera sauce.
posted by torquemaniac at 8:24 AM on November 9

Nthing hollandaise sauce. My problem is usually what to do with the whites...
posted by bingo at 8:25 AM on November 9

You could use the egg yolk as an egg wash on top of bread or pies. You can also use the yolk to make up a mayonnaise or aioli as suggested above. This site has a ton of other suggestions including lemon curd, delicious!
posted by Meagan at 8:27 AM on November 9

I always make custard with leftover yolks. Once you have custard you can make coconut cream pie (Yum! Just add a pre-cooked pie crust, top with whipped cream and toasted coconut), creme brulee (Double yum! Bake, top with sugar and carmelize with a blowtorch) etc.
posted by Go Banana at 8:28 AM on November 9

Just drink them all at once, like Rocky.
posted by cali59 at 8:29 AM on November 9 [1 favorite]

Don't eat them - too much saturated fat. Put them in your hair.
posted by caddis at 8:32 AM on November 9

A quart of custard style ice cream (5 yolks, 2 cups cream, 1 cup milk, 3/4 cup sugar, plus whatever stuff you want to use to flavor your ice cream). Pasta made with egg yolks instead of whole eggs (1 whole egg, 3 egg yolks, 200 grams 00 flour -- serves 4).
posted by foodgeek at 8:36 AM on November 9

Not exactly what to do with leftover egg yolks but how to avoid leftover egg yolks when recipe calls for egg whites only. My grocery store sells egg whites in a milk-like carton. Two tblspns = 1 egg white and there doesn't appear (from the ingredients list on the side) to be anything untoward or unegglike added to the egg whites.
posted by dismitree at 8:36 AM on November 9

Every time I make meringues, I also cook up a batch of lemon curd.
posted by mrsshotglass at 8:41 AM on November 9

Lemon curd! Tart and rich all at once, acts as filling for both lemon meringue and lemon chiffon pie, and is an amazing spread as well.
posted by maudlin at 8:41 AM on November 9

(See? Simultaneous lemon curd suggestions. It's kismet.)
posted by maudlin at 8:42 AM on November 9

Get out of my head maudlin! =)

In my house, lemon curd is like nutella or white chocolate peanut butter: only ever eaten on a spoon. We never actually get around to spreading it on anything.
posted by mrsshotglass at 8:46 AM on November 9 [1 favorite]

Creme Brulee! (And then invite me over for dinner.)
posted by mollymayhem at 8:47 AM on November 9

Key Lime pie calls for egg yolks.
posted by jdfan at 8:52 AM on November 9

You'd have to add some more eggs, but I always make these molten chocolate cakes when I have extra egg yolks. Seriously--any excuse is good enough. So easy and really, really good.
posted by Ms. Informed at 8:55 AM on November 9 [2 favorites]

Gnocchi recipes call for egg yolks. I've made that to use up the extras before.
posted by dorey_oh at 9:07 AM on November 9

My recipe for chocolate mousse (taken from Elizabeth David) involves the whites and the yolks - melt the chocolate (1oz per egg), take off the heat, then stir in the yolks and a little coffee/cointreau. In the meantime, whisk the whites, then combine whites and chocolate/yolks carefully.

It didn't occur to me that it's possible to make chocolate mousse without egg yolks until I saw your post.
posted by altolinguistic at 9:13 AM on November 9

Supposedly, they used to use egg whites to filter red wine in bordeaux leaving a bunch of people with the exact problem you have, just scaled up. The solution was Canele. (wiki)

Disclaimer: I have enjoyed the cake but never made it.
posted by shothotbot at 9:13 AM on November 9 [1 favorite]

In my mind the perfect combination of using a large amount of egg parts is to use a bunch of whites for Angel Food Cake and use the extra yolks for creme Brulee.
posted by mmascolino at 9:16 AM on November 9

I just want to throw out there that you can freeze egg yolks. Y'know, just in case you don't have time to make all these awesome and delicious recipes right now. There's a good technique in this link about how to keep them from getting all rubbery. I've tried this with much success.
posted by purpletangerine at 9:24 AM on November 9 [1 favorite]

Homemade mayo.
posted by charlesv at 9:37 AM on November 9

If I have egg yolks I'll often make pasta carbonara with them - if your mousse recipe calls for cream & you have some left over, you can mix a little cream into the egg yolk and coat the hot pasta with the mixture (purists are against cream in carbonara but I like the texture better - it's silkier).
posted by yarrow at 9:38 AM on November 9

I hear that adding an extra yolk to chocolate chip cookies makes them better & chewier - here's one recipe that uses an extra yolk. This Alton Brown "chewy" recipe uses an extra yolk too.
posted by insectosaurus at 10:18 AM on November 9

I just skimmed but really, has no one mentioned creme brulee yet? Not hard. Lots of egg yolks. Very very tasty.

You can make it with milk or half and half instead of cream, but the texture won't be half as good.

If you're organized enough, scrape out the center of a vanilla bean into the cream and then put in the rest of the bean. Let it sit in the cream overnight. Fish out the bean the next day and THEN follow the recipe (sans vanilla extract). It's a nicer flavor, and pretty because of the speckles. When I was a kid I was told that was the only way to do it, but the thinking-ahead-aspect of it meant I didn't make creme brulee very often. Now I do it if i have an event but if I'm just making it on the spur of the moment, vanilla extract is fine.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:37 AM on November 9 [1 favorite]

Why don't you want them in the mousse? Sometime in the distant past I played around with mousse recipes, and the best one I found was like this..

Ingredients (quantities for one serving, best to do at least 2 servings at a time):

• 1 oz dark chocolate
• 1 large egg
• around 1/4 cup whipping cream (adjust to taste)

Instructions:

1. begin melting chocolate over double boiler
2. separate eggs
3. whip egg white
4. whip cream
5. when chocolate is completely melted, remove from heat and mix egg yokes (possibly also a small portion of the whipped egg white) into chocolate
6. dump chocolate/yoke mixture onto white and fold about 5 times (just a start, not completely mixed)
7. add the whipped cream and continue folding until fully mixed

See, no yokes left over :) Lots of dirty dishes, but otherwise very easy.
posted by Chuckles at 10:42 AM on November 9 [1 favorite]

Mayonnaise or aioli, absolutely. Frankly, once you make your own mayo, you are unlikely to ever want storebought again.

I have a spectacular recipe for a white chocolate creme brulee (modified slightly; the recipe calls for 5 eggs + 1yolk, but I've tried yolks only and it works)

6 yolks
375g white chocolate
100g cacao butter (I use Mycryo at work)
1L 35% cream

Bring cream to a boil, pour over chocolate and cacao butter, stir until melted. Beat into egg yolks. Pour into serving containers and bake at 212F for 27-32 minutes. Remove from oven when centres are still goopy; it will set as it cools. Brulee as you like, or serve as a pot au creme.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 10:58 AM on November 9

When I make souffles, I like to use the leftover yolks to make creme anglaise. You can pop open the souffles and pour a little in...so delicious! Or you can freeze it into ice cream, though you'd probably need a little more anglaise than that recipe makes.
posted by joshuaconner at 11:26 AM on November 9

Do you have a cat? Give one to your kitty.
posted by Soliloquy at 12:01 PM on November 9

Hollandaise Sauce Recipe Very Easy Recipe
3 Egg Yolks @ room temperature
1 Stick Butter You can use margarine but not spread
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

Melt butter on stove, keep hot & bubbly watch not to burn it though
Put 3 Yolks in blender, beat together until blended but not frothy
Turn blender to low and slowly add HOT butter and lemon juice,
Listen for the sound of the blender changing noise, it sounds like it's going down.
Turn Off blender
Use right away while it's warm, I add a pinch of cayenne pepper and I like it a little more lemony. Great over asparagus, pasta, fish, & eggs benedict.

YUM
posted by LindaLou21356 at 2:03 AM on November 10

Pasta all Carbonara and lemon curd.
posted by turkeyphant at 2:36 AM on November 10

For a thicker and richer Hollandaise you want to melt the butter into the warmed egg yolks. (The blender method is foolproof though.) Warm and beat the yolks over low heat and then slowly start melting in the butter while stirring. You can stir by holding one end of the stick and using the other end to stir while simultaneously melting. It is easier to control though if you have cut up the butter into a dozen of more small pads that you drop in one at a time. Just keep adding butter until it won't talke any more, but don't go too far because then it breaks and is ruined. Add in your lemon and cayenne at this time.
posted by caddis at 3:54 AM on November 10 [1 favorite]

Thank you all for the fantastic answers! It looks like now I am making: chocolate mousse, and zabaglione and creme brulee and custard... all at the same time :) which actually gives me the idea of making tasting portions of each in order to work out the yolk-white logistics while preventing my bum from growing so much that it secedes and becomes its own republic.
posted by kitchencrush at 7:19 AM on November 10

Please note that using margarine in Hollandaise doesn't taste anywhere near as good, and the texture is wrong.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 6:10 PM on November 10