Re: conservation of albumen

[Alberto Novo <alt.list@albertonovo.it>]

I would remark (see my previous stanford.edu citation) that a week only at 
room temperature may not be enough for the complete destruction of albumen 
glucose:
"Fresh egg white was beaten in a household blender for 1-1 / 2 minutes on 
high speed, allowed to settle back to liquid form, then incubated in loosely 
covered containers at 30°C. Fermentation of egg white in this manner was 
described in an article by Stuart and Goresline and in several places in the 
19th-century literature on albumen paper manufacturing. Unless speeded up by 
inoculation with appropriate bacteria, the process takes about 10 days".
"The pH of the albumen falls during the process from approximately 9.0 to 
6.0-6.5 [at] completion".
"After 6 days the pH was 8.5"... "After 10 days, the albumen tested negative 
for glucose and the pH was 6.42". 
Alberto 

> > I always thought that yellowing is the function of sensitizing /
> > incomplete fixing and non ideal storage conditions... You say that non
> > sensitized paper also will yellow with time?
> See http://albumen.stanford.edu/library/c20/reilly1982a.html
> The non-smelling brands of albumen paper were those which developed 
> yellowing in the highlights (also in the shadows, but the effect was 
> overwhelmed by the silver layer) more than smelling (albumen aged before 
> coating) papers.
> The Maillard reaction has recently been revised also in cooking. It is the 
> responsible of the brown and tasty crust of the bread, of the outer part 
> of a grilled steak, and so on. It is fast at high temperature, but with 
> times long enough it works also at room temperature.  
> Alberto