Breaded Zucchini Question

[Toody]

Hi, I hope someone can help answer a question.

I recently breaded some zucchini slices: first with flour, then egg mixed with a little water, and finally with bread crumbs. The first time everything worked out great, then a couple days later when I breaded the second zucchini, I ran into problems.

After dredging the zucchini in flour and shaking off the excess, I then dipped the zucchini in the scrambled egg/water mixture. At this time, the egg, which did originally cover the entire slice of zucchini, pulled away from the flour, leaving big spots of zucchini that were difficult to bread. I even tried to redip the zucchini parts that didn't get covered by eggs back into the eggs, but they still didn't stick. What happened?

As I said before, the first time everything worked out fine, but the second time didn't.

[Suzanne]

Zucchini has a very high water content. Maybe the moisture was seeping through the flour and preventing the egg from adhering to it. Or more likely you had too much water mixed into the egg. I don't usually mix in any water, because then the steam that's created can cause the crumb coating to separate from the food during cooking.

The problem you describe can happen with any food you treat "à l'anglais" -- coat with flour, then egg, then crumb. When it happens to me, I just use a finger to spread the egg over the gap, so that it seals itself as well as adheres to the flour.

And a little secret: this is the one way that Egg Beaters or other "egg substitutes" work really, really well; definitely "better than eggs."

[Toody]

Suzanne,

Thanks for the hints! Next time, I'll have to try the egg substitute.

Jackie

[tigerwoman]

Suzanne - would egg substitutes include the eggs already mixed in a carton that you can wholesale? Have used those sometimes for frittattas or huge cheap cooked breakfasts with scrambled eggs. WOndering if that would be a good idea when there is a ton of breading to be done rather than mixing fresh eggs for the egg wash???

[kuan]

Egg Beaters actually work well. They're mostly eggwhite with some food coloring and maybe a trace of yolk.

Kuan

[Suzanne]

Tigerwoman (hi, haven't seen you in a while! ),

When I said "egg substitutes" I meant the stuff that Kuan described -- what I think of as phony eggs -- that stuff for people who are afraid to eat a real omelet.

But now that you bring up those whole egg products -- the pre-mixed real eggs in half-gallon cartons or 10-gallon buckets -- I think they'd probably work, too, as long as they are thoroughly blended. They save a lot of time, have virtually no waste, and are safer than shell eggs (pasteurized). I'd look at a few questions to help decide which to use --

• Do I want the eggwash to contribute any flavor?
• What are the comparative costs of each product? (Egg products are generally more expensive than shell eggs on a per-egg basis, but maybe not if you factor in time and waste.)
• What are the health concerns of the intended customers?

And I'm sure you can come up with other questions for the analysis.