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Love Eggs, Avoiding Yolks

Egg Beaters are a disgusting tasting product with questionable ingredients.

Separating my own whites from yolks is time consuming and wasteful.

I'd imagine commercial pasturized whites are pretty yucky (and less nutritious, too).

Is there a delicious but viable alternative out there?

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  1. Not actually an alternative, but try using fewer as opposed to no yolks. Take your usual 3-egg omelette and make it with two yolks and three whites. when you get used to that, split the second yolk. Eventually, go to 1:3. you can do the same with over easy/ssu and with egg salad.

    Sort of like going from whole milk to 1%, eventually the full-fat seems too rich.

    2 Replies
    1. re: nc213

      Thanks, but I'm not looking for ways to reconcile to not eating yolks. That's not the issue.

      1. re: nc213

        Maybe someone who tried these can say how they taste, but next to the organic cream cheese I was buying there was a pint sized container of Organic Valley egg whites.

        They are pasturized ... but in their favor they are organic. It was $4.99

        Don't know if they sell on the East Coast. Late for an appointent, or I'd check.

        Moved this up as far as I could in the thread hoping people will comment on brands rather than advice on how to separate your own egg whites ... which is what you requested.

        I'm telling you, the week before this topic I saw about three new brands of egg whites. Just saw the linked whites today.

      2. Eggology bottles organic egg whites. I used them once when making a massive quanity of meringue and was completely satisfied:

        1 Reply
        1. re: amenidad

          I have used these as well to make omelets. I find that if you add fresh herbs (or even just as simple as adding herbs de provence) and veggies to the omelet - you don't miss the yolks as much.

        2. short answer, no. my wife is a baker, and has tried most of the alternatives. while some perform fine in baking, none match the taste of fresh for stand alone use.

          i understand the time aspect of separating your own, but suggest that with practice & technique, it's not really an issue. i break an egg into my hand, let the white stream through, and toss the yolk; i wash my hands after handling eggs anyway, so there's very little added time.

          as to the waste, that depends upon how you look at it. strictly speaking, yes it's wasteful to pitch the yolks. but consider all the additional processing and transport costs something like eggbeaters accrue, then comapre those costs with what fresh eggs go through. if you look at the whole cost, then i think it's less wasteful to toss the yolk than pay all the hidden costs of the commercial product. plus, a dozen fresh eggs are cheaper than a container of eggbeaters (at least where i shop). and it tastes better.

          also, yolks freeze well. you could accumulate them until you have enough for a yolk-heavy recipe (key lime pie, for example), then use 'em up. if you're avoiding yolks, your friends (assuming you cook/bake well enough) will be happy with your largesse.

          only other suggestion i have, and i have not tried this, would be to combine a whole egg with one of the alternatives to extend it. you'll be eating a yolk that way, but only one, and if you're lucky, it'll make the commercial product palatable.

          3 Replies
          1. re: mark

            I think egg whites also freeze well - you could do a large batch and then freeze however many you want in individual ziplock bags.

            1. re: mark

              Hope someone has a good suggestion. I didn't find a product in the market that I liked, but there seem to be new ones out there recently.

              If the commercial egg whites don't work for you, it is easy to separate eggs by using a funnel.

              For me, it works better than an egg separator and you can break a few eggs and walk away. Looked around on the web to see if anyone else does this and found this from Hormel (scroll down).

              What I do different is put the funnel on the top of an old quart glass mayo jar. That way I don't need to hold the funnel. The mouth of the jar supports the funnel and the whites just drain into the jar. I do 2-3 eggs at a time. After that I've had yolks breaking.

              Then I just put the lid on the jar and I have egg whites for a week ... I was on a diet thing for a while. Don't know if they keep longer than a week. Never kept them that long.

              If you were a woman I'd say use the yolks for a facial mask or as a conditioner for hair .. but ...

              They can always be zapped in the microwave and the cooked yolk fed to wild birds.

              1. re: mark

                I agree. And I think that not wanting to throw away the yolks to not be wasteful is great in theory, but that chances are the that there is more waste overall (energy, packaging, possibly even tossing yolks) if we buy egg white that is pre-processed.

                It would be great if gelato places would sell their leftover whites -- my gelato always takes a bunch of yolks and I always enjoy an eggwhite omelette while the gelato churns. If my local gelataria would sell me their whites I'd be really happy. Maybe I'll ask... :)

              2. The original comment has been removed
                1. Mark and MM and rw bring excellent points to the discussion.

                  I'd like to amplify those comments, and will base it on the assumption that a person is seeking to have a three-eggwhite-omelet as often and easily as they'd like, without waste and hassle. I enjoyed a period of egg-whites-only, and used the following system.

                  First, unless you want to pay ConAgra Foods to do the work for you and accept their inferior EggBeater product, you have to reconcile yourself to the fact that to make an eggwhite omelet, you have to break a few eggs, even if it is "time consuming and wasteful." The home cook has to "add the manufactured value" to those extremely efficient and tasty ovoid packages of perfect protein, delivered at an extremely low cost.

                  My system is based on minimal tools, minimal cleanup, and minimal hassle, with a good throughput for the "wasted" yolks.

                  Get an egg separator, a cheap but efficient tool, easily stored. You can of course use your undulating fingers to separate, or do the half-shell-shuffle back and forth to drip the desired white to the bowl below without puncturing the yolk. But, having the easily rinsed tool that gives repeatable results is my choice. Available here:
                  (rw's idea of a funnel seems like an interesting solution for "walk away while the funnel oes the work." Egg separator works for "get it done now."

                  Put two side-by-side jars on the work counter. (I'm a heavy user of one pint wide mouth Masons for all sorts of storage, from cabinet grains to refrigerated staples). Put the egg-separator tool over the jar to receive the egg whites. Crack egg, separate with a little rolling agitation of the plastic tool, then lift and flip the nestled yolk into the yolk jar.

                  Stopping at three eggs, for today's omelet only? Just use the separator to stir the whites and drop in the pan. Wanting to do a full run of one or two dozen eggs to freeze the whites (whites DO freeze well), then just take a ziploc-type thin gauge sandwich bag and put it into the clean white-receiving jar, with the top edge of bag peeled down over the sides of the jar, before placing the tool across the jar.

                  So you are now left with yolks. While they are a perfect package of nutrition for the developing organism, they are a real pain to dispose of. They coat the walls of pipes if sent down the sink; they find ways to sully your trash can; they are too concentrated to compost without problems. My solution: freeze the yolks, using the jar over and over until it is full, then give them to a neighbor who has 3 yapping Chihuahuas who wag their tails and identify me solely as the Egg Yolk Provider. Sadly, yolks do NOT freeze well to offer to human neighbors who use fresh yolks (they require salt or sugar stirred in, to raise solute concentration or they will become rubbery.) My sweet buddy Chihuahuas are however content with less discriminant texture thresholds. So, find a neighbor who is willing to accept your frozen yolks in return for dog-love. It is a great way to surmount the problem of "time consuming and wasteful"

                  If someone wants to freeze the yolks, try these links for info on freezing methods and which uses are suited for the frozen product: