Abstract
Egg gels were prepared by adding a salt solution of NaCl and/or KCl, MgCl2 or CaCl2 at various concentrations to the egg sol and then heating. The taste and properties of each gels were then investigated. The gels with KCl added had the same hardness as those with NaCl and were light yellowish-green in color. Less than a 19.7% KCl molar concentration to NaCl was added to achieve a practically useful egg gel. The gels with MgCl2 added were hard and dark-colored. They had a bitter after-taste, so the addition of MgCl2 to NaCl had little useful effect on the properties of the egg gels. The gels with CaCl2 were soft, released more water, and were dark-colored. The addition of a little CaCl2 to NaCl had an acceptable effect on the taste of the egg gel, but the breaking stress of the gel decreased with increasing amount of CaCl2 added, giving a soft gel. Hence, less than a 6.5% CaCl2 molar concentration to NaCl was added to give a suitable gel.
