Molde para huevo hilado
-
Mould for Egg Yolk Threads
Mould used in Spain for making egg yolk threads
Length: approx. 25 cm
Width: approx. 15 cm
Donated by
Linda Challis
Oxford 2013
Vicky Hayward
from Madrid sent us the following information:
"Usually the eggs are sold as
huevo hilado
though there are other names for it. There's a very good film on Youtube called "Huevo Hilado con Fernando Canales". He uses a syringe and other people use baby's milk bottles filled up with the egg yolks.
The cooking liquid should be a syrup cooked to thread stage, usually made with 2:1 volume of sugar to water. In theory the egg thread cooks on the foam on the top, so it's crucial to let the foam form and even test it out before you start with your threads.
Today the threads are made just with the egg yolk, no white, well separated.
The cooked threads are lifted into a bath of iced water to stop cooking, then drained on kitchen towel. There are very varied cooking times given, from a few seconds to a minute or three minutes, which I imagine reflects the difference of cooking a few threads eg 3 yolks and many threads eg 30 yolks.
These moulds are always made of stainless steel today and
are found in professional kitchens or semiprofessional ones that supply food to restaurants, tea rooms and pastelerias.
The most common use for
huevo hilado
today is as a garnish for smoked salmon blinis. I cannot eat it this way! The only way I like it is on a very dark chocolate cake, when the threads glow gold, and the sweetness works alongside the dark chocolate.
The history: There is a great deal of myth, for sure, although equally they were made from at least the 16th century and some claim from Visigothic times. What is clear is the Iberian origin: hence they are still made in Portugal and Brazil (as
fios de huevos
).
And probably, I would say, as with other Iberian egg yolk candies ,the origin lies in:
a) the tradition of fining wines with egg whites: therefore there were surplus yolks in large quantities in certain areas of Iberia.
b) the cheapness of cane sugar in Spain before other areas of Europe, thanks to sugar cane growing in Andalusia and later Valencia, then cheap colonial imports. Sydney Mintz makes this point well."
