When I saw a recipe for an egg substitute in then the Church's 1978 Essentials of Home Production and Storage, I've been wanting to try it, and I finally got the stuff and tried it.
The recipe calls for...
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
3 tablespoons cold water
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon boiling water
The recipe didn't give much more instruction than saying to make the egg substitute before you start making cookies, cake, etc.
I used the egg substitution for making cookies. While making the egg substitute, I thought that maybe eggs over thirty years ago must have been a lot bigger because the recipe asks for a lot of water. By the time I needed the egg substitute, the mixture had a slight egg white texture, but it was still watery. I needed to add more flour.
When all was said and done, the cookies were still soft and chewy (how we like'em), but the taste was definitely off. Not bad. The cookie still tasted good, but it was definitely different.
I quickly looked up reasons why, and I bet you can already guess why the taste would be off.
The yoke.
The yoke adds a definite flavor to what your baking, and most egg substitutes, including the unflavored gelatin one above, are imitating the effect egg whites have in baking, not egg yokes.
The recipe calls for...
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
3 tablespoons cold water
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon boiling water
The recipe didn't give much more instruction than saying to make the egg substitute before you start making cookies, cake, etc.
I used the egg substitution for making cookies. While making the egg substitute, I thought that maybe eggs over thirty years ago must have been a lot bigger because the recipe asks for a lot of water. By the time I needed the egg substitute, the mixture had a slight egg white texture, but it was still watery. I needed to add more flour.
When all was said and done, the cookies were still soft and chewy (how we like'em), but the taste was definitely off. Not bad. The cookie still tasted good, but it was definitely different.
I quickly looked up reasons why, and I bet you can already guess why the taste would be off.
The yoke.
The yoke adds a definite flavor to what your baking, and most egg substitutes, including the unflavored gelatin one above, are imitating the effect egg whites have in baking, not egg yokes.
In researching more online, websites people have recommended using I/2 mashed banana or 1/4 cup apple sauce as a substitute for 1 egg in baking sweet goods. Obviously, these substitutions affect the flavor of what you're baking, but being able to store apple sauce, bananas (when dehydrated or freeze dried), and unflavored gelatin in one's pantry is a plus in the case of emergency or whatever.
Another random, but applicable comment I read online is that "you do not need eggs for most cakes." Think about it. Not using eggs at all in making cakes. The problem with that is I don't think I have enough guts to try making a cake without eggs. What if the cake I'm making doesn't fall under the "most cakes" category? I can't afford at the moment to be unpleasantly surprised when the cake comes out.
Here's the websites I looked at if you're interested.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_can_be_used_as_a_substitute_for_eggs_when_making_a_cake
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianvegan101/f/eggsubstitute.htm
http://www.thecookinginn.com/eggsub.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Replace-Eggs-in-Your-Cooking
If you learn just one thing from reading these websites, it's that there are a lot of egg substitutes out there.
So...Which ones have you done, tried and/or swear by?
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