Dana’s Notes

We’re shredding our own cheese for two reasons: One, my grocery stores don’t carry shredded Gruyere. And two, if they did it would have the same anti-clumping additives as Starbucks’. Just run your cheese through your food processor’s shredding blade. The cheese is easier to handle if you use the fine shredding blade of your food processor, but regular-sized shreds also work.

Starbucks uses a combination of Gruyere and Monterey Jack cheeses. I like all Gruyere better — I find it more flavorful — but Monterey Jack is cheaper.

Also even cheaper — Swiss cheese, which is a reasonable substitute for Gruyere if the budget is tight.

If you wish, you can use packaged bacon bits — I’ve tried it with Oscar Mayer bacon bits, which are, indeed, made of real bacon. This is certainly far easier than cooking and crumbling bacon, a plus for what is, after all, supposed to be a convenience food. However, if you want to use nitrate-free bacon*, you’ll have to cook and crumble your own.

* Nitrate-free bacon uses celery juice instead — which is a natural source of nitrates.

Most cottage cheeses have additives. Of the grocery store brands, Daisy is the “cleanest,” containing only cultured skim milk, cream, and salt. Unsurprisingly, this also makes it lower carb than many brands, with only 3 grams of carbohydrate per half-cup rather than 5 grams, like most brands.

The xanthan gum or guar gum and butter bring these very close to the texture of the Starbucks version. You can skip the xanthan gum or guar gum if you like; your Eggums will be slightly less velvety and slightly more custardy.

Our Egg Bites do not have picturesque strips of bacon on top (which would, of course, be on the bottom in a jar). Problem? Or no? Bacon bits, especially packaged bacon bits, will be far easier. Pretty sure that to do strips people would need to par-cook them, which is kind of a pain. Though I could try it with uncooked bacon and see how it comes out some day.