When scaling recipes up or down, you’ll usually won’t have difficulties calculating how much you need of any ingredient (if you cannot multiply or divide small number, we should have a talk). There are a few ingredients, that may give you pause and eggs are one of them.
How do we measure eggs? A tape measure may give you an idea of how big an egg’s circumference is, but that’s about it. We need to figure out how to split an egg in half or may be even less than half an egg, especially when you talk about baking recipes.
When you need half an egg, you’ll need half of the egg white and half of the egg yolk. Or even when you need only half of the egg white it may sounds tricky to do so, but it is actually quite simple.
How to halve a whole egg?
Break an egg into a small bowl and whisk the egg into a homogeneous mixture, using a mixer or a fork. Split that mixture in half, by weighing it or by volume.
An egg measures close to 1/4 cup by volume and approximately 1.75 ounces in weight (without the shell of course). So, half an egg will amount to 2 tablespoons by volume or 0.875 ounce. You might want to round 0.875 to 1 oz. These measurements apply to large eggs, which is the most commonly used egg size in baking.
How to halve an egg white or yolk?
The same concept applies when you only need half an egg white, or half a yolk. Separate the yolk from the white and then gently whisk the white or yolk in a small bowl.
Whisking an egg white, will incorporate air into the white and that’s fine. Whisk it until the ‘jelly-ish’ consistency becomes more liquid/foamy and can be measured. An egg white is about 2 tablespoons or weights approx. 1 ounce. Obviously, to halve an egg white, you’ll need 1 tablespoon or 0.5 oz.
An egg yolk measures the same as an egg white, so you halve a egg yolk the same way as halving an egg white.
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