Author: Richard Collett / Source: Atlas Obscura
“Did you know that our churches are made from eggs?” asks April Evangelista, a local food guide, as we walk through the towering doorway of the Philippines’ Holy Rosary Church in Angeles City.
“That’s how they’ve survived typhoons and volcanic eruptions.”The Holy Rosary Church dates back to 1877 and the Spanish colonial era, a period when, Evangelista explains, “Local churches were built with egg whites.” As evangelizing Spanish colonists built churches across the islands, laborers used egg whites as an emulsifier in the concrete. “Food is in the foundations here,” Evangelista adds.
As the well-attended Holy Rosary Church attests, this had a lasting influence on the country’s architecture and spiritual life. But its legacy is also on display in Filipino bakeries and home kitchens. Because what else is there to do with millions of leftover egg yolks but bake delicious desserts?
Just outside of Angeles, local chef Atching Lillian is hosting a historical cooking class. Her recipes date from the 16th century, and the most prominent ingredient is egg yolk. This curious relationship between egg whites, desserts, and Filipino churches can be traced back to the arrival of the first Spaniards, who brought not only Christianity but cooking techniques too.
Pia Lim-Castillo, a culinary historian from the Philippines, emphasizes that after the arrival from New Spain of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565, who later became the first governor of the Spanish Philippines, religious orders such as the Augustinians, Franciscans, and Jesuits were quick to follow.
These religious orders built grand stone churches across the islands, as the Spanish looked to impose their religious beliefs across the archipelago.The Spanish presence was a heavy one. For the Spanish Empire, the Philippines were an important trading center, connecting Chinese ports, the Spice Islands, and other parts of Asia to Spain through its territory in Mexico. The Spanish colonial era lasted from 1521 to 1898—time enough to build plenty of churches. “Taking into account all the churches built then,” writes Lim-Castillo, “the number of eggs used ran into the millions.”
The egg whites were needed to form a sort of mortar, known as argamasa, which binded and protected the building materials used to construct the churches. Egg whites were meant to make the mixture “more durable,” and historical records…
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