Posted on 07/20/2022 10:41:58 AM PDT by mylife
Like a mother with her children, I have a hard time picking favorites when it comes to egg preparation methods. As my esteemed colleague Stephen Johnson has pointed out, cooking eggs can literally teach you how to cook. They truly give us so many gifts.
I’ve been on a bit of a scramble kick recently. I enjoy cooking scrambles because they take well to last minute tweaks and additions: You can dash and sprinkle them with a wide variety of sauces and seasonings, impulsively and without much measuring (my favorite style of cooking).
As you may know, I am a big fan of umami, and that enthusiasm been reflected in my most recent scrambles. Here are a few of the impulsive, last-minute, umami-boosting additions I’ve been playing around with.
Add onion powder for subtle savoriness On a lark, I added the last bit of onion powder from an almost empty jar, and was rewarded with deeply savory eggs, with lovely notes of toasted allium. The effect was delicious, but subtle enough to qualify as a “secret ingredient.” You, and anyone else you feed these eggs to, will notice that they taste better, but the yolk tempers the onion so it doesn’t scream “onion powder.” A pinch or two per egg is all you need (depending on how fresh your onion powder is, of course).
Add soy sauce for deep, rich saltiness Unlike onion powder, soy sauce isn’t subtle. It barges into your scramble screaming “UMAMI” and “SALT,” and honestly your eggs are the better for it. Just a splash adds dark saltiness and a touch of fermented umami that punctuates the richness of the egg. I prefer to do a low and slow scramble when soy sauce is involved; sometimes I add a little mirin for sweetness.
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Add salt to your scrambled eggs mixture and let sit 10-15 minutes at room temperature for the salt to dissolve, then cook.
I, myself, like the French creamed method...but kids always liked a larger curd which I make with a little of the bacon or sausage grease left.
Bacon grease in a cast iron skillet is best, but will settle for olive oil in a non-stick pan...:)
As you say, take off before completely done. You have to pay attention to get them off at the right instant so they don't dry out; you want them moist. There are no large hard curds, just soft creamy eggs. I've become a real fan of this technique.
The other tip I ran across somewhere is to use a "saucier" pan rather than a regular frying pan. The saucier has a gentle transition from the flat bottom to the sides, so you get some cooking up the sides of the pan and it is a lot easier to scrape the bottom and sides using a silicone spatula. Nothing hides out in the sharp corner between sides and bottom. I didn't buy a special saucier, but we have a small nonstick frying pan shaped much like one with the curved transition from bottom to sides. It works really well.
My go-to soy sauce is San-J Tamari — I love it. I’ve also splurged for $30/bottle aged soy sauces. There’s just something about a good soy sauce that makes me happy. :-)
I haven’t mixed it with mirin, but I will definitely give that a try! Thanks, Jeff!
Is Umami the same thing as monosodium glutamate?
I never heard of that before. Just looked it up on Amazon and found Homtiem Black Garlic, Whole Black Garlic Fermented for 90 Days. People love the stuff! So I just bought a bottle to try in my eggs. Thanks.
Amen. Virtually no food that Tabasco or its cousins can’t improve or fix, and eggs are a prime example. Most of my adult life living near the border, and it’s getting harder to find sauces or peppers that can overpower the palate. Without them, most dishes taste like cardboard.
Cowboy Kent Rollins is genius.
I put that $h** on everything.
Soy sauce on scrambled eggs or plain ol fried eggs, YES. Big umami right there. I like sriracha too on them along with the soy. With well fried potatoes (more umami) on the side.
The way the world is going, we are so screwed here in the US. With Biden and open borders. With mad Vlad invading Ukraine, we might get some WW3 nuke launches. So at least eat some good umami laden chow in the interim.
“”When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around” -— Sting / Police
I have some Valentina hot sauce made in Mexico that is very thick and serviceable. Not too hot also. The last thing I want is very hot, hot sauce.
later
later
nothing wrong there
My 4 ingredients:
1 Cholula sauce
2 Cholula sauce
3 Cholula sauce
And last but not least
4 Cholula sauce
Try dash of cayenne pepper
Gives them some zip .......
I like mine dry and well done with A1 sauce on the side.
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