Why Cornstarch Is Essential For Takeout-Quality Egg Drop Soup

If you've ever tried to mimic the egg drop soup from your favorite Chinese takeout restaurant, you might have found that replicating the chicken broth is relatively easy. One of the trickier parts is getting those silky ribbons of eggs consistently suspended throughout the soup. Instead, you might end up with clumps of eggs, or even just a bunch of broken-up pieces floating on top of the broth. And although the end product might still taste good, wouldn't you prefer to get just the right texture, every time?

Luckily, once you learn about the importance of cornstarch and when to use it, you'll be able to get egg drop soup right every time. It's best to beat the cornstarch in directly with the eggs before dropping them into the soup. Egg drop soup is supposed to resemble flower petals. By adding the cornstarch to the egg mixture before swirling it throughout the soup, it thickens up. This will help those petals or ribbons spread throughout the soup instead of just sitting on top.

Adding cornstarch to the egg mixture for egg drop soup works best by making a cornstarch slurry. Instead of dumping plain cornstarch directly into the eggs, you want to make sure to use a slurry in the same as you would if you were adding it directly to the broth since this will avoid any clumping. The eggs won't absorb the cornstarch very well alone and any clumps won't cook out — so adding straight cornstarch is a mistake you don't want to make. About 4 teaspoons of cornstarch should do the trick for making a slurry for your egg drop soup recipe. 

Adding the cornstarch slurry to the eggs directly instead of just to the broth might not be what you're used to, but it will make a huge difference in how the soup turns out. It will ensure that flower petal consistency every time — no unappetizing floaters. It's simple too, just whisk some of the cornstarch slurry together with the eggs as furiously as you would otherwise beat the eggs on their own.

There's another ingredient that is super important to achieving egg drop soup that will rival your favorite takeout spot, and it's sesame oil. Even more so than the seeds it's made from, sesame oil has a super strong flavor. Because of its potent, nutty, delicious flavor, it won't take much at all — but leaving it out makes all the difference in the world. There are multiple ways to use sesame oil in egg drop soup, but whichever way you choose will impart the complex flavor that's needed.

One way is to add the sesame oil directly to the broth along with some soy sauce and let it simmer before adding the eggs beaten with cornstarch. This method will allow the oil to blend into the broth, giving the finished soup a uniform taste as well as a nice sheen. Alternatively, you can add the sesame oil at the end, swirling it on top after you've added the eggs. Follow these two tips and you're well on your way to restaurant-level egg drop soup.