On tempura day it is possible to become confused and celebrate the wrong thing. I’ve decided to help you by pointing out the differences between tempura and tempera. The differences may not be all that obvious to start with, but we’re going to take a little time to compare the two and hopefully after you’ve read this posting you will have a better understanding for what we are celebrating every January 7th.
For starters, when making tempura you will use a whole egg; while tempera typically uses only the yolk.
Tempera can be used to make just about anything into art where as tempura works best when used only for mixed vegetables and shrimp.
The last difference we will cover today is how long each can last. Tempura can last approximately 15-20 minutes after drying before it becomes completely worthless where as you can find tempera today which date back to the 1st century AD.
Well, if all of these facts haven’t cleared it up for you, perhaps we can use pictures instead. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words…
Don’t eat paint….Happy Tempura Day!
