EGG POWDERS. DESICCATED EGGS. AND EGG SUBSTITUTES. Several methods of evaporating or desiccating eggs have been proposed. and product: which claim to be prepared in these ways are now on the market. The egg is dried in or out of a vaenum, usually by a gentle heat or by currents of air. Before being placed on the market. the material is usually ground. Sometimes salt and sugar are used as preserva tives. As will be seen by reference to the above table of composition, such product: are merely eggs from which the bulk of water has been removed. If the process of manufacture be such that the resulting product is palatable and keeps well, the value of evaporated eggs for many purposes is evident. This material is used by bakers, to some extent, as being cheaper. when fresh eggs are high in price. Since, if all the water be removed in preparing evaporated eggs, one pound of the dried product will furnish ma terial equivalent to about four 1)01111(1: of fresh eggs, and since desiccated foods have the advan tage over the fresh substances of reduced bulk, evaporated eggs are used in provisioning camps and expeditions.
Egg substitutes have been devised which con sist of mixtures of animal or vegetable fats. albumen, starch or flour, eoloring matter. and
some leavening powder in addition to the min eral matters similar to those found in the egg.
Such products are designed to resemble eggs in composition. tine has been manufactured skim-milk containing the casein and albumen of the milk, mixed with a little tlour. It is put up in the form of a paste or powder. Other egg substitutes have been marketed which contain little or no albumen, lint apparently e(msist largely of starch. more or less colored. with some yellow substance. These goods, sometimes ()ailed 'pudding' or 'custard powder,' are spe cially recommended for making custards and pud dings similar in appearance to those in which fresh eggs are used. There is no reason to sup pose that such products cannot lie made so that they will be wholesome and perfectly harmless; hut the fact must riot be overlooked that in the diet they cannot replace fresh eggs, sine() they do not contain much nitrogenous nuttier or fat. This may lie an important matter if such an egg substitute lie used in the diet of invalids, especially if the composition of the egg substitute is not known, and it be employed with the belief that, like eggs, it contains an abundance of protein.