176 - Copper's influence on the formation of egg white foams

Guilherme C. Meira, gmeira@student.framingham.edu, Guy Crosby, Sarah Pilkenton. Dept. of Chemistry and Food Science, Framingham State University, Framingham, MA 01701-9101, United States

Egg white foams are widely used as structuring materials in foods such as soufflés, sponge cakes, and meringue toppings. Many cooking protocols call for the egg white foams to be prepared in copper vessels instead of vessels made of other materials such as glass and stainless steel. It has been shown that foams whipped in copper bowls or prepared by the addition of copper ions as either a copper (II) sulfate or copper (II) chloride are more stable than foams prepared in vessels made of glass or stainless steel alone. In this work, egg white foams prepared in both copper and stainless steel bowls were analyzed for stability and the copper content was quantified using atomic absorption spectroscopy. The resulting data suggests that the low concentration of copper incorporated into the egg whites during the foam production in copper bowls had a substantial effect on the foam stability.

Monday, March 26, 2012 08:00 PM
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