Hey there people just a hygiene question for you, im wantin to change our chocolate mousse from a normal egg white, chocolate and cream mousse to a yolk,chocolate and cream one (for a individual served plated mousse out of a mould) ok now the head chef is worried about using raw egg yolks in a mousse,fair enough its his butt on the line. But i have heard that if you whisk your egg yolks with a boiled sugar syrup it will pasturize the yolks hmmmmm makes sense to me do any of you out there do this or have heard plus or negatives about it i would be interested to hear back
Cheers Mike

By momoreg on Saturday, September 02, 2000 - 03:48 am: Edit

Yes, that would make the yolks safe. So would heating them over a water bath with the sugar.

By Cheftim (Cheftim) on Saturday, September 02, 2000 - 11:25 am: Edit

The Yolks have to reach a temp of 155.

By Ramodeo (Ramodeo) on Saturday, September 02, 2000 - 09:18 pm: Edit

Why not use the pasteurized yolks? I've had difficulty with the pasteurized whites, but the yolks have worked really well for me - in tiramisu, especially. We're using them now for Hollandaise and cream pies. We use so many yolks on a daily basis that separating them is impractical.

A sideline question - against the advice on the carton we put some of the yolks in the freezer. When they thawed, they were extremely thick, like mayonnaise. Out of necessity, we used them for the hollandaise, and it came out great - incredibly thick and stable. It even reheated in the microwave w/o breaking! Anyone understand the science behind what happens to the yolks when they freeze?

By d. on Monday, September 04, 2000 - 01:07 am: Edit

I use frozen yolks all the time. For mousses, creme brulee, etc. I do heat the yolks(or whole eggs)with the sugar over a water bath to 140 F. Make sure to take out the half-gallon carton out 2 days before to thaw. I know that the yolks are thicker because of the 10% sugar added by weight. If sugar were not added, I think the protein bonds in the yolk would break down upon freezing and thawing. Just remember to take into account the 10% sugar added if you are using a large amount of the frozen yolks and subtract this amount from the total sugar added in the recipe.

By Ramodeo (Ramodeo) on Monday, September 04, 2000 - 09:47 pm: Edit

The yolks we buy list only egg yolk on the ingredient label. Are your frozen yolk as thick as mayonnaise when thawed?

By Rubble (Rubble) on Tuesday, September 05, 2000 - 01:29 pm: Edit

I have used room temp yolks and whites in chocolate mousse without any problems. Just have to keep it refrigerated/frozen and not keep it out for very long. But since I have only used the recipe at home, I can understand the head chef's concerns...

By d. on Tuesday, September 05, 2000 - 04:45 pm: Edit

Ramadeo, yes the yolks are very thick upon being thawed. It's interesting, I only thought that yolks could be frozen with sugar added.

By mikebel on Tuesday, September 05, 2000 - 06:37 pm: Edit

cheers people we have the olympics starting next week and are expecting i million more people in the city and where i work at the sydney opera house we are expectining 400,000 people to come and visit (of course they arent all coming to one of our restaurants at least i hope not!!!) and i reckon a salmonella outbreak of that proportions wouldnt be all that great to go on my c.v
cheers mike .