Someone advised that eggs and milk should sit out a while and get to
room temp before using in a recipe. Any validity to this?
val - about to make cranberry muffins and wondering

wrote in message
ps.com...
Someone advised that eggs and milk should sit out a while and get to
room temp before using in a recipe. Any validity to this?
val - about to make cranberry muffins and wondering


It's something I fall back on when things go wrong. In general, I don't
bother but it is the IDEAL standard. Rather than letting things sit at room
temperature, I just warm them quickly. I'm often a spontaneous baker. To
warm liquids, I just put them in the microwave for a few seconds. I put eggs
(in the shell of course) into a container of hot tap water for a few minutes
or until I need to add them to the batter or dough.

I've heard the only reason for eggs is that they incorporate better when
warm, than they do when they are cold. Haven't heard it about milk though..
just eggs or butter
lucy

"Vox Humana" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
ps.com...
Someone advised that eggs and milk should sit out a while and get to
room temp before using in a recipe. Any validity to this?
val - about to make cranberry muffins and wondering


It's something I fall back on when things go wrong. In general, I don't
bother but it is the IDEAL standard. Rather than letting things sit at
room
temperature, I just warm them quickly. I'm often a spontaneous baker. To
warm liquids, I just put them in the microwave for a few seconds. I put
eggs
(in the shell of course) into a container of hot tap water for a few
minutes
or until I need to add them to the batter or dough.

"Lucy" wrote in message
m...
I've heard the only reason for eggs is that they incorporate better when
warm, than they do when they are cold. Haven't heard it about milk
though..
just eggs or butter
lucy

The other reason is that very cold things tend to brown too much on the
surface before the interior gets done. This is true of meat also. If I
have a large cut of meat that I am going to roast, I try to let it sit at
room temp for about an hour before roasting it. An exception is pie pastry
and puff pastry. It is best to bake them while they are very cold.

"Lucy" wrote in message
m...
I've heard the only reason for eggs is that they incorporate better when
warm, than they do when they are cold. Haven't heard it about milk
though..
just eggs or butter
lucy

The other reason is that very cold things tend to brown too much on the
surface before the interior gets done. This is true of meat also. If I
have a large cut of meat that I am going to roast, I try to let it sit at
room temp for about an hour before roasting it. An exception is pie pastry
and puff pastry. It is best to bake them while they are very cold.

Thanks, Vox.. you explained why my roasts turn out like they do.
lucy

"Vox Humana" wrote in message
...

"Lucy" wrote in message
m...
I've heard the only reason for eggs is that they incorporate better when
warm, than they do when they are cold. Haven't heard it about milk
though..
just eggs or butter
lucy

The other reason is that very cold things tend to brown too much on the
surface before the interior gets done. This is true of meat also. If I
have a large cut of meat that I am going to roast, I try to let it sit at
room temp for about an hour before roasting it. An exception is pie
pastry
and puff pastry. It is best to bake them while they are very cold.

at Wed, 22 Dec 2004 19:15:00 GMT in
, (Vox
Humana) wrote :


wrote in message
ups.com...
Someone advised that eggs and milk should sit out a while and get to
room temp before using in a recipe. Any validity to this?
val - about to make cranberry muffins and wondering

It's something I fall back on when things go wrong. In general, I don't
bother but it is the IDEAL standard...

I'd also make a bit of an exception for cookies and cakes that use creamed
butter, especially if something warm is added to them (such as melted
chocolate). In that case, the warm thing may partially melt the butter, and
it's best if the butter not melt. Thus adding any eggs and/or milk cold
will bring the temperature down, offsetting the addition of heat from the
melted item and thus minimising melting.

The other case is if you have a very warm house (e.g. non-air-conditioned
Southern-State house in the middle of the summer). Again, in that case I'd
prefer to keep everything cold until the last minute.

With muffins, however, generally it's best to have things at RT. The
ingredients will disperse more uniformly, and you won't have to mix so
long, which reduces the risk of hockey-puck or foam-mattress muffins.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

at Wed, 22 Dec 2004 19:15:00 GMT in
, (Vox
Humana) wrote :


wrote in message
ups.com...
Someone advised that eggs and milk should sit out a while and get to
room temp before using in a recipe. Any validity to this?
val - about to make cranberry muffins and wondering

It's something I fall back on when things go wrong. In general, I don't
bother but it is the IDEAL standard...

I'd also make a bit of an exception for cookies and cakes that use creamed
butter, especially if something warm is added to them (such as melted
chocolate). In that case, the warm thing may partially melt the butter, and
it's best if the butter not melt. Thus adding any eggs and/or milk cold
will bring the temperature down, offsetting the addition of heat from the
melted item and thus minimising melting.

The other case is if you have a very warm house (e.g. non-air-conditioned
Southern-State house in the middle of the summer). Again, in that case I'd
prefer to keep everything cold until the last minute.

With muffins, however, generally it's best to have things at RT. The
ingredients will disperse more uniformly, and you won't have to mix so
long, which reduces the risk of hockey-puck or foam-mattress muffins.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

For simple cake baking operation that is the norm....all ingredients
should be at room temperature.
But....
Technically it is still feasible to use cold eggs or milk as long as
the other ingredients are warm enough . The critical thing is that the
finished batter temperature is still within the limit that allow the
leavening components to interact with each other.. A cold batter will
slow down the intial release of CO2 from the baking powder .
The main difficulty with using cold eggs is that it rakes time to
aerate it, but when its aerated at that conditions the foam is more
finer resulting in cakes of more uniform crumb grain than eggs used
at room temperature. Besides there is more tolerance to overbeating
with cold eggs thatn with eggs whipped at slightly temperature.(
room temperature to warm termperatures.
But with muffins wiher the mixing involved is not that strenous and
the resuting batter temperature change is not significant, it is best
to have all ingredients at romm temperature before use.
Roy