Free guide
There is no single thing that replaces an egg, and that is why the swaps people are given so often fail. An egg binds, it rises, it enriches, it glazes and it thickens. Work out which of those you need and the answer is usually already in the kitchen.
Egg free and egg allergy are not the same job. If you are cooking for an allergy, read the label on the package every time, and treat anything made in a shared kitchen as a question rather than an answer.
Binding, as in kofta, burgers, fritters. Replace with something starchy or sticky: breadcrumbs soaked in water, mashed potato, a spoon of flour, ground flax left in water until it goes thick.
Rising, as in a cake. Baking soda with something acidic. Yogurt, vinegar, lemon. A teaspoon of each does more than most egg substitutes.
Richness, as in custard or brioche. Fat and starch together. Full fat milk or coconut milk with cornstarch, cooked out properly.
Glazing, as in the shine on pastry. Milk, or plant milk, or olive oil. None will go as dark, so give it a few more minutes rather than more glaze.
Thickening, as in a sauce. Cornstarch slaked in cold water first, or a roux, or simply reducing it further.
Three swaps do most of the work and they are worth knowing by heart.
Flax. One tablespoon ground, three tablespoons water, left ten minutes. Binds well. Good in anything brown: burgers, spiced cakes, oat cookies. It shows in a pale sponge.
Yogurt or its plant version. Three tablespoons per egg. Adds moisture and acidity, so it works with baking soda. Best in cakes and pancakes.
Aquafaba. The water from a can of chickpeas. Three tablespoons per egg, and it whips like egg white if you keep going past the point it seems pointless. The only common swap that does meringue.
Mashed banana and applesauce both work and both taste of themselves. Fine in a spiced cake, obvious in a plain one.
Most savory food does not need eggs at all, and the easiest egg free dinner is the one that never had one. If dairy is on the list too, the dinners that were never built on butter or cream are most of the same list.
Fresh pasta, almost always. Dried pasta usually not, but check.
Mayonnaise, and everything built on it. Coleslaw, potato salad, many sandwich fillings, tartare.
Breadcrumbs on anything fried, because egg is what made them stick.
Shiny bread and pastry, where the glaze is egg even though the dough is not.
Some ice creams, the custard based ones especially.
Meringue, mousse, and most things called light.
The words on a label are albumin, ovalbumin, globulin, lysozyme, lecithin where it says it comes from egg, and simply egg powder.
Be honest about the ones that do not convert. A plain omelette is eggs. So is a soufflé, and so is proper mayonnaise made in front of you.
Cook something else rather than a bad version of those. There is more food that never needed an egg than there is food that does.
Breakfast is the hard meal, because eggs are most of it. Protein, fat and something slow is the rule that gets you through a morning, and only one of the three has to come from an egg.
Tell Cook Without what you avoid, dairy, nuts, anything, and get a recipe in a minute that already works around it.
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