Posted on 04/17/2021 1:32:39 PM PDT by be-baw
Scrambled eggs are just one of those foods. You know, the type that seem simple enough in theory, and yet have somehow generated many tutorials, hacks, and recipes — each only slightly tweaked from the last but still garnering their own loyal following. Perhaps Chrissy Teigen’s recipe is your holy grail, or you swear by Anthony Bourdain’s. Well, I’m sorry to tell you that there’s a new contender in town: J. Kenji López-Alt’s viral recipe that promises the fluffiest, creamiest scrambled eggs with the help of one unexpected ingredient. Maybe it’s time to reconsider your favourite?
The American chef’s secret trick? Adding starch. In an article for the New York Times, López-Alt explains that he stumbled upon this hack by way of Mandy Lee, a Vancouver-based Taiwanese food blogger who runs the website Lady & Pups. Cooking for her sick puppy, Lee found that adding cornstarch to her eggs allowed them to remain silky and soft. Multiple experiments with starch were able to replicate this result, even when the eggs were cooked over high heat.
In fact, the use of starch to enhance egg recipes is not entirely a new phenomenon. It is a common ingredient used in Chinese cooking to keep omelettes fluffy on the outside while crispy on the outside.
But how does this figure into your morning scrambled eggs? López-Alt claims that applying this technique speeds up cooking time, writing that, “it takes on new life when combined with Mr. Boulud’s cold cubed butter and my own modest evaporation method of gauging proper pan temperature...now even my weekday morning eggs can be as velvety and tender as I’d like.”
Without further ado, here’s López-Alt’s recipe.
What you’ll need: two teaspoons of starch (potato, tapioca or cornstarch will do), four tablespoons of cold unsalted butter (cut into quarter inch cubes), four eggs and a pinch of salt.
He then adds the starch to one and a half tablespoons of water to form a slurry. He adds half the butter cubes, eggs and salt to this slurry and whisks it till it’s combined and frothy.
To properly gauge the heat of the pan, he adds a little water — roughly a tablespoon — to it. The water helps to regulate the heat of the pan, and once it’s almost fully evaporated, that’s a sign that your pan is at the right temperature, just above 100 degrees celsius or 212 degrees fahrenheit.
In the pan, melt the remaining butter until it is almost fully melted, which should take about 10 seconds. Take caution to ensure the butter doesn’t brown. Add the egg mixture to the melted butter, and using a spatula, push and fold the eggs. Do so until they just slightly underdone compared to how you usually take your eggs, because the remaining heat will continue cooking them. It should only take about a minute or two, depending on your preferred doneness. Et voilà — scrambled eggs!
It sounds simple enough doesn’t it? And it looks delectable too — López-Alt pairs his luscious eggs with two slices of toasted bread. A perfect breakfast. Why not give it a try? You can thank us later.
There was a book or an article long ago about the simple dishes being the true test. Looked for it on Amazon but couldn’t find it. Maybe Alice Waters’s book is good.
Butternut squash soup was a big thing in restaurants a few years ago. But then I had a really good one. Some restaurant on the third floor of the Time Warner Building. A very simple dish. I don’t know what the chef did right but it was transforming. And not gussied up. Probably the quality of the squash at least.
Bookmark.
Earlier on FR, there were some other scrambled egg recipes. One called for putting the raw scrambled eggs through a strainer. I've tried that several times and it really does help with creating an excellent texture. It takes quite a bit of pushing with your fingers to get the eggs through the strainer. The recipes on FR also both added a bit of creme fraiche which I have not tried yet. I've cut the milk out of my scrambled eggs and switched to melted butter as this recipe calls for.
Thomas Keller's Scrambled Eggs, Williams-Sonoma.
Gordon Ramsay Shows How To Make Perfect Fluffy Scrambled Eggs, Sweet & Savory.
Indeed. I really don’t fuss too much with cooking. Chicken - bake it. Steak - broil it or grill it. Fish - steam it. Not much else maybe some garlic salt rub. And with fish, I sometimes put some fruit juice in the water for flavor. With the chicken, potatoes in the pot. Wife also puts carrots and I like carrots but don’t like them chicken-fat cooked.
For vegetables my dad told me as a kid, use the vegetable that the animal will eat. So with meat, I’ll make broccoli or green beans or spinach. With fowl, peas or corn. For fish, well I don’t want to eat what fish eat.
I turn it up all the way, and whn the smoke is thick enough in the house that I can’t see the stove, I know the eggs are done.
“since the freshest eggs are the BEST.”
That’s for sure. Down the road there is a university that raises a lot of animals for research. They have a poultry farm where I used to go get probably small to medium fresh eggs for 75 cents/dz. They eggs weren’t clean so they had chicken crap on them. Plus you needed to bring your own container to put them in. So I would save the styrofoam carton from store bought eggs and put the farm eggs in that. I need to back to see if they still do that, and if so, get a dozen or two. The freshness of the eggs makes a big difference if you want the best tasting eggs.
One thing about fresh eggs, though, they don’t peel very easily when hard-cooked.
Dude, you are full of it and you clearly do not know how to make scrambled eggs. Sheeesh, you can’t even describe how to make them.
Finally a use for corn starch.
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If my memory serves me and it may not, my mom used to put moistened corn starch on bee/wasp stings.
The secret is being competent enough with a spat that ‘over easy’ is actually a thing and doesn’t become scrambled.
3 farm fresh jumbos every morning with meat. It’s been Jimmy Deans sausage lately but I am kinda going a little carnivore/lion diet with a thin steak or sirloin burger with A-1.
Yum yum.
...and real butter.
Bacon grease is the only answer.
Or you could use it as a floor wax. I just use bacon grease.
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I’m betting she used baking soda on bee stings.
Yes, you’re right.
I’m old.
In my humble opinion, corn starch is preferred for homemade gravies. Much smoother than flour, and harder to screw up.
*** I’m old.***
Young at heart, though, right?
Yeah after my mother died, every day my father fried two eggs in bacon grease cast iron skillet. You have to have a well seasoned skillet in order to fry eggs without them sticking. He never washed it and always left some bacon grease in it.
Oh that was what my mother did also. I got in trouble as a young teenager doing dishes and I scooped out the grease and washed her skillet!
Same here.
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