从精心烹饪＃101，第26-27页

有时，我很不耐烦。我喜欢尽可能地跳过步骤，尤其是如果这些步骤看起来荒谬。如果是时候做蛋糕了，并且食谱说要让食材在结合之前到达室温，我曾经想过：“来吧。肯定没有真正的理由，如果它有点牢固，我不能使用黄油吗？”与鸡蛋一样。将它们从冰箱转移到台面真的会有所作为吗？

当涉及烘焙科学时，答案是肯定的。烤蛋糕和冰冻的黄油和鸡蛋，您最终会得到类似煎饼的东西。这就是为什么一些食谱要求“室温”成分，这是一个令人沮丧的一般概念，尤其是从科学的角度来看。考虑一下：房间的温度根据位置，季节和加热或冷却系统的可用性而差异。必须有一种更聪明的方法来衡量温度，对吗？

Better lift with butter

首先，看看我们想要黄油和鸡蛋做什么。首先是蝙蝠，黄油。将其与液体脂肪（如油）区分开的一件事是，黄油具有持有空气的能力。许多蛋糕和饼干食谱告诉您将糖打成“黄油”，直到淡淡而蓬松，这会产生气泡。（这称为奶油方法。）您的气泡越多，甜点越高。但是，如果您的黄油太冷，脂肪和糖就不会混合，从而产生了几个气泡。（太热的黄油也不好 - 它会融化，因此气泡不会得到任何支持，并且会消失。）

Research shows that it’s best to bake with butter that’s about 65°F, which is actually cooler than room temperature in most homes. So how do you tell if your butter is the right temp? Short of using an instantread thermometer in a stick of butter, I like to use the thumb method. I learned this from master baker Carole Walter, author of the cookbooks Great Cakes and Great Cookies. She suggests holding a wrapped stick of butter in your hand and pressing firmly with your thumb. There should be a slight indentation. She refers to this butter as “slightly firm,” a more descriptive (and practical) phrase than “room temperature.”

(A pie aside: If you’re making a piecrust, your butter needs are completely different. You want the butter very cold so that it remains in small solid pieces while being worked into the flour. These small pieces ensure a flaky crust, because they melt in the oven and leave steam pockets.)

To chill or not to chill Talk of leaving eggs or butter out at room temperature tends to raise red flags in the food safety department. Here’s the straight story. 黄油can be left out on the counter (for easier spreading) without fear of food poisoning. However, most butter makers recommend refrigerating to maintain the best flavor. (It’s pretty easy to spot rancid butter: It turns a deeper color and becomes less opaque.) 蛋can carry salmonella, so the risks of not refrigerating are a bit higher. Markets in other countries regularly store eggs at room temperature, but the USDA recommends refrigerating them, because a colder temperature will inhibit the growth of bacteria. Since it’s a simple matter of a quick soak in warm tap water to bring eggs in the shell up to temperature for baking (see Quick rescue), it’s best to keep them chilled.

鸡蛋还升起

鸡蛋对于给烘焙食品的阁楼也至关重要。卵的白色为90％的水和10％的蛋白质；当您打一个鸡蛋时，是蛋白质会困住气泡，并且将其掺入烘焙食品中时，这些气泡在烤箱的热量中膨胀。蛋清的体积最多可以搅拌八倍，但是这种最大的空气捕获只有在鸡蛋温暖时才发生。在温暖的鸡蛋中，白色和蛋黄更宽松，因此将空气融入其中更容易（这是重点）。

Warmer eggs are also better when you’re mixing batter for cakes and cookies, because if you introduce cold eggs to a warmer butter-sugar mixture, the fat in the butter could harden. That would impede integration of the butter and eggs, which is why you’re creaming them to begin with.

But you do want your eggs to be cold if you need to separate the whites and yolks. Cold eggs are easier to separate, so if your recipe calls for the yolks and whites to be separated, do it before warming the eggs.

Quick rescue

好消息是，如果您的鸡蛋和黄油很冷，那么很快就将它们带到可观的烘焙温度。

了解成分温度背后的科学使我在混合蛋糕的时候同样不耐烦。但是，知道冷鸡蛋和黄油会导致我匆忙的浓密，柔软的蛋糕脾气暴躁，尤其是当等待比一集萤火虫短时。