garlichead
Über Member
None of this makes much sense to me, but it's fascinating to read. 
Vegan egg substitutes
- Thread starter TastyReuben
- Start date
This rather irritating video seems to have it nailed - including using the black salt to get an eggy taste:
View: https://youtu.be/8ZrOOBShO-g
Yep, looks great with the glossy film and all but the tasters thought it didn't taste like egg.
I made an attempt to create a vegan egg yolk (without a round form or that special transparent coating which seem to be the biggest challenges). I won't post a (tagged) recipe as this is a mere experiment. I used the following ingredients (not seen anywhere): 100 ml water, 1 tsp potato starch, 1 tsp white miso paste, 1 tsp tomato ketchup and the tiniest pinch of saffron combined in a small saucepan (medium heat) and mixed until the mixture thickens, then submerged (for a couple of seconds) in hot sunflower oil in a tiny sieve coated with potato starch. My hubby's opinion (a tribute to Crocodile Dundee): "Tastes like shit but you can live on it". My opinion was that the taste resembled egg yolk and the texture was silky but the saffron came through. The saffron would have to be substituted with food coloring or else.
Result (with a pinch of salt and pepper):
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Bravo! If you can get that black Kala Namak salt it really does taste of egg so may enhance your idea. Its quite a useful store cupboard ingredient. You could use turmeric rather than saffron.
. Black salt (Kala Namak) seems to have the sulfurous hue present in egg yolks but I'd love to substitute it with another ingredient/flavo(u)r (due to excess salinity). Miso paste is rich in umami and holds yeast-like bitterness and sourness (which resembles sulfur) and also a fishy hue present in some eggs (at least the ones fed with fishmeal/ground fish), so I'll continue experimenting with it. Many vegan egg recipes contain nori/seaweed, sodium alginate or agar (made of seaweed), so a slightly fishy or maritime hue is probably sought after in addition to the congealing/jellifying effect.Both sodium alginate and calcium lactate (used in the video) are salts, so I'm sure they have an effect on the taste - and so would aquafaba (chick pea juice) or bittersweet pectin (a carbohydrate emulsifier derived from fruit and/or veggies). That said, one egg yolk naturally contains 8 g sodium, so a tiny pinch of sodium is ok in vegan recipes; (e.g. miso paste is pre-salted). There is a slight hue of sweetness (0.61 g carbohydrates and 0.1 g plain sugar) in an egg yolk, so in that sense pectin sounds good.
Potato starch seems to work well as a neutral emulsifier. In my mind it tastes more "eggy" than corn starch or artificial additives and emulsifiers. I think it's better to deep-fry the mush in the starch-dredged sieve for a while than to pour some oil on top. The frying method keeps the oil nicely on the surface and forms a steadier glaze. Even though my yolk didn't form a sphere/ball, it was moist and smooth and could be shaped lightly with a fork without the mush spreading all over.
I thought of turmeric before choosing saffron (I saw turmeric being used in many vegan egg recipes as a colorant) but I think the slightly bitter (almost sulfuric) taste of saffron is closer to egg flavor than the stronger, acidic and earthy flavor of turmeric root. Food colorings have an unpleasant artificial ring, so maybe I just have to cut the saffron down to minimum: a microscopic pinch.
I love these kinds of challenges
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