How do you "egg drop" in soup?

13 years ago

After reading the Ramen thread, I decided to give some of the suggestions a try. I have never eaten ramen noodles before, but I keep them in the pantry because DH loves them.

I pitched the flavor packet and instead cooked the noodles in a cup of chicken broth and a cup of beef broth which were loitering in the fridge. I added some thin slices of ann_t's souvlaki chicken leftover from earlier in the week. And tossed in 2 scallions, thinly sliced. Before seasoning the pot with a drizzle of sesame oil and a bit of soy sauce, I tried to add "egg drop."

After beating the egg, I attempted to drizzle it into the hot broth. Instead of making the ribbons I was going for, it dispersed in the broth. The taste was fine, but no ribbons of egg.

Here is the order of my preparation:

bring broths to boil

add noodles; cook 3 minutes according to package

turn off heat

add chicken and scallions

bring broth back to quick simmer

drizzle beaten egg into simmering broth

turn off heat

add soy sauce, sesame oil, and a squirt of lime juice

I added a bit of peanut butter to mine; DH threw some cashews into his. We both poured a small puddle of Tiger Sauce on the side (we are heat-wimps). We both enjoyed it and will probably have it again.

How do I make egg drop ribbons next time?

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Comments (10)

donna_loomis
13 years ago
I take a wooden spoon and get the water swirling, then slowly pour in the beaten egg and keep stirring.
bbstx
Original Author
13 years ago
donna, I could have sworn I did that. Was my timing off? Should the egg have been added to the broth before the noodles? I can't imagine boiling the egg ribbons for the 3 minutes that the package says to boil the noodles.

When I drizzled the egg in, my pot already had more solid ingredients than broth in it. Was that the problem?
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lindac
13 years ago
Just what you did should make egg ribbons....perhaps you had so much other stuff in the soup you couldn't see the egg.
Egg drop soup is usually pretty well just a broth with maybe a few slivers of a veggie and egg.
donna_loomis
13 years ago
It sounds like you did it right. No, you don't want to cook the egg for long. Maybe there WAS too much other solids in the soup already. Next time, maybe you need to remove some of the solids before adding the egg, then add the solids back in.
John Liu
13 years ago
If there is lots of other stuff in the soup the egg will get mechanically dispersed rather than being able to form curdled threads. Otherwise you seem to have done it just right. Soup is very hot (simmering), get it swirling, pour in the beaten egg very slowly in a thin drizzle.
jimster
13 years ago
It's like a terribly failed poached egg. ::)

Jim
bbstx
Original Author
13 years ago
arrgghh, apparently I can fail at both egg poaching AND egg dropping. I am one of those people who uses cups to poach my eggs because I end up with egg drop not-quite-soup. But when I try to make an egg drop soup, I end up with egg-thickened broth.

I may just scratch the egg from the soup next time. After all, if you believe the latest report, I might as well just have a loaded gun on the table next to my soup bowl (I would have said a smoking cigarette, but I couldn't get past the mental/olfactory image).
jadeite
13 years ago
I think you may not be swirling the soup slowly when you add the egg. If you stir it too quickly, or the soup is boiling fast, the egg will break up. Try it again, it isn't hard.

Cheryl
ruthanna_gw
13 years ago
I pour the beaten egg into a tea strainer held over the pot of soup and stir the egg with a small wire whisk while moving the strainer in a circular motion. I guess I'm swirling the strainer instead of the soup.
Lars
13 years ago
I do not swirl the soup at all when I pour in the egg, but I do pour the egg in a circle around the pan. I do not pour all of it in at once, and I let it cook for a while before I stir it, and then I add more egg into the still soup.

Lars

How do you "egg drop" in soup?

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donna_loomis

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How do you "egg drop" in soup?

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