Egg yolk

Crack the egg over a bowl and pass the yolk gently between the two shell halves, letting the white fall away. For a cleaner method, break it into your cupped, clean hand and let the white slip through your fingers.

Use a very fresh egg and crack it into a small cup first. Slide it into gently simmering water, not a rolling boil; cook for about 3 minutes for a runny yolk.

Yes, but they thicken and turn gel-like unless you mix in a little salt for savoury dishes or sugar for baking before freezing. Label which you used, freeze in a sealed container, and thaw in the fridge.

Whisk them into mayonnaise, hollandaise or custard, or use them to enrich pasta dough and shortcrust pastry. For a quick dessert, make crème anglaise by slowly whisking yolks with warm milk and sugar, then stirring over low heat until it coats a spoon.

Not as a direct swap: yolk adds richness and helps bind, but lacks the white’s water and structure. Use it in recipes designed for yolks, such as custard, pastry cream or enriched biscuits.

The yolk contains most of the egg’s fat and several micronutrients, while the white provides protein with very little fat. Egg yolk has 16 g of protein per 100 g; a whole egg has 14.1 g.

Yes. Egg yolk has 28 g of fat per 100 g, including 8.1 g of saturated fat; a typical yolk from a large hen’s egg weighs roughly 17 g.

Raw yolk can carry harmful bacteria, so use pasteurised eggs for dishes served uncooked, such as mayonnaise or tiramisu. Keep the dish chilled and avoid leaving it at room temperature for long.