Avgolemono Soup Advise

[amieroogie]

I am trying to figure out the best way to make Avgolemono soup and have the following questions: Most recipes say to whip the egg whites to peaks, but different recipes say whip to soft, medium or stiff peaks. My question is do i NEED to whip the whites to peaks, and if so, what stiffness is the best to achieve the best consistancy of soup, and why? Second, once the soup is made I am getting froth on top. Is there a way to make the soup so you don't get the froth, or is this supposed to happen and I just need to skim the frothy top off? Thanks in advance for your advise!

[kattyeyes]

I've used this easy recipe from Cooking Light countless times. It doesn't call for separating the eggs. It's one of my very favorites and fairly foolproof:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/rec...

[amieroogie]

Thanks for the advise. Do you have any idea what is the purpose of whipping the egg whites, as opposed to the recipe from kattyeyes that dooes not call for the egg whites to be whipped or seperated but simply blended? I assume its to create thinkness?? Thanks again.

[emilief]

I have been making egg lemon soup for 35+ years as taught by my MIL in Greece and you whisk whole eggs with the lemon juice before adding to the broth. No need to whip egg whites. It seems like alot of work for nothing.

[Joebob]

I second that.

[ziggylu]

Yes, this is how we make it in our family too.

[MikeG]

You don't have to whip the eggs separately but - to my surprise the first time I tried it - you do get a noticeably smoother, maybe even slightly creamier, end result if you do. It's not a huge difference and may not be worth the extra, albeit minor, effort to you, but I think it's worth trying once anyway.

As to where this separating-of-eggs business came from, I don't know, though I tend to doubt it was dreamed up by a non-Greek. After all, how many non-Greeks even know what avgolemono is, let alone spend time perfecting it (lol). My maternal grandparents were Greek and like emilief's MIL, my mother never separated the eggs when I was growing up either. Maybe it's a regional thing or perhaps a "Greek nouveau" development...

[PBSF]

If you are making the soup using the separated egg method for the avgolemono sauce, it doesn't really matter much how stiff you beat the egg whites (I usually do medium stiff) because by the time you whisk in the egg yolks and lemon juice, the egg white will lose much of it's air. And you should not have any 'froth' on top of the soup by the time you temper the egg mixture with a little hot soup, then whisking the tempered egg mixture back into the hot soup. The finished soup should be smooth and lightly thickened.