4 Levels of Scrambled Eggs: Amateur to Food Scientist

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I'm Hannah, and I'm a level one chef.

Hi, I'm Gabrielle, and I'm a level two chef.

Hi, I'm Palak, and I'm a chef at the Institute

of Culinary Education.

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My scrambled egg recipe is very simple,

it's always the same every time,

and it's always very good.

We are going to add in a little bit of Asian flavor

into these scrambled eggs, and serve them up

a little bit differently than your traditional

breakfast-style scrambled eggs.

My scrambled eggs has a very unique technique

where the eggs never hit a pan.

You actually cook them in a whirlpool of water.

You should be making your scrambled eggs like this

because you'll never go back to a pan ever again.

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So first step is to get the eggs in a bowl,

get them mixed up, so I'll take an egg,

I'll use the side of the bowl to crack it.

I typically like to crack eggs on not quite so thin

of a rim, the thinner it is, it may puncture

the egg shell a little bit more and leave

more little bitlets and stuff, so I actually like

to really crack mine on the corner of like a stove

or even the pan itself.

Give it a good whack so it definitely cracks through

all the way and then just peel it open.

Of course I did just get a shell in the bowl.

I'm like hyper afraid of salmonella.

When I'm making eggs, I probably wash

my hands like 15 times.

I'm pretty relaxed with getting my shells out,

I have my hands washed, I'm very sanitary.

I like to break the yolks first, you really want

to beat the heck out of them so that a lot of the egg white

disappears, because that's what's gonna make

the eggs really creamy and fluffy and delicious.

We are gonna take the scrambled eggs

and put them right back in the shell,

so in order to get a clean cut,

you need a little device, it's called an egg topper

and you're gonna hold it, pull up the lever,

and what that does is it's gonna create a crease

right around the egg and then with a sharp paring knife,

just kind of work your way around and get a clean cut.

And before we can use the eggshell,

we have to sterilize it, so I just have some boiling water,

drop that shell in there.

Usually I make about two eggs per person

so let's say this is for a breakfast for two,

if you know what I mean, you add in the water,

you can add a pinch of salt.

Some people really don't like adding salt

into their eggs before they cook because they say

it dehydrates it.

And a little jush of pepper.

My first ingredient is my mirin,

which is a sweet rice wine.

It's going to really nicely tie together

my soy and my ginger.

And then I have just a little bit of soy,

I really want to add in this soy now,

rather than later so that it's nice and uniform

throughout my eggs.

My last ingredient is going to be my fresh ginger.

It has such a nice, delicious, pungent flavor,

so you really don't need a lot of it.

My rule of thumb is to go at it for about 30 seconds,

maybe tilt the bowl a little bit to get that whipping

in circular motion.

It's been five minutes, my eggshells have sterilized.

Now we have two perfectly sterilized eggshells.

That's gonna be the vessel for our scrambled eggs.

I tend to make more cheese than I need just in case.

You can never go wrong with cheese,

unless you're lactose intolerant.

I'm gonna make a cucumber salad

with a little honey and rice vinegar.

I have my Persian cucumbers, which are

the little baby cucumbers.

So next step is to get the bacon started.

I like when the bacon goes on and there's like

already that sizzle.

Probably should've waited like a minute longer.

And I'm just laying them vertically next to each other.

So I'm just gonna like very quickly

chop the very end off, then I'm going to take my mandoline.

Rather than individually chopping all of

these cucumbers and it makes it really nice and uniform.

Thing about the mandoline is you have to be really,

really careful with your hands and your fingers,

so be careful, kids.

Bacon smells so good.

Now I'm gonna go ahead and add in my rice vinegar

and my honey.

I'm just going to combine it until the honey

is pretty much totally dissolved in the vinegar.

They're gonna have this little bit of

a pungent, acidic flavor.

Add a little bit of salt just to kinda tie it all together.

While that's cooking, I'm gonna sort of prep

some of my chives. Chives.

That's gonna add a bright green color

and a little bit of extra.

Chive party.

So now we're gonna make the cream topping for the eggs.

We want to zest a whole Meyer lemon,

and then to that we're gonna add some creme fraiche.

Creme fraiche has a little bit of tang,

and we're gonna mix this with the whipped cream.

Season with a little salt.

Next I'm gonna whip my heavy cream.

I wanna start with cold cream so that

you wanna make sure it doesn't separate

when you're whipping it, and go for soft peaks.

It's a decadent dish so you need to work out.

Watched bacon never cooks, I think that's the saying.

One of my other toppings that I want to add

are some fresh scallions.

I think they taste great on anything.

They're a little pop of flavor, pop of color.

Ooh, we got some popping bacon, yummy.

Be careful of flying oil, I feel like every time

I eat eggs, I get injured.

Throw some sesame in a dry pan,

and you know, and then it gets this nice golden color

and it adds a nice little crunch nuttiness to the dish.

All right, so I've got my bacon done,

I'm gonna go ahead and put it on some paper towel,

just let some of the grease dry off there.

Four beautiful bacon slices.

Now I'm gonna add one more ingredient to this,

and that's vodka.

I'm just not trying to be fancy,

there is a purpose for this.

The vodka helps stabilize the cream mixture,

plus there's caviar in the dish, I need vodka.

Take the creme fraiche, and you want to gently

fold it into the whipped cream because you just spent

all that time adding air, so you don't want

to deflate your cream.

Little cayenne, because why not?

I'm gonna put it into a pastry bag.

This makes it easier to pipe the cream mixture

on top of the eggs.

Finally we're at the eggs, the main event.

We're gonna drop a little square of butter on the pan.

I'm going to add in ghee rather than butter,

tying in again more of the Asian theme.

And while that's cooking, I'm just gonna

mix up my eggs a little more.

Sometimes the like, the salt and the pepper

can separate a little and we want it

to be like really together when we start scrambling.

You don't wanna make too much of a sizzle sound,

I feel like every time I pour the eggs in

and it's like actively sizzling, it burns.

The secret, in my opinion, to great scrambled eggs

is cooking them low and slow.

It cooks so quickly, you don't wanna overdo it

too quickly or they're gonna dry out and be gross.

Eggs cook really fast and you don't want

to overcook them so I would rather have

a lower heat for longer than just fry the crap out of them.

Once it kinda sets around the edges

a little bit, I'm gonna start pulling it in

so that the egg kinda fills in all the places

where it's already cooked.

Ooh, I can smell the ginger.

I really break them up a lot

instead of just having sort of an omelet-like egg,

flipped over.

I want to make sure that I'm not overcooking them

because they're gonna do the rest of their job

as I plate them.

You don't want a rapid boil, you do want

a very gentle boil.

You're gonna take the back of a spatula

and just clockwise, create a whirlpool.

Once I take the scrambled egg mixture

and put it with the hot water, those pockets of air

are just gonna expand and the egg size

is gonna double.

Lid, count to 20.

Gonna go ahead and grab my cheddar cheese,

mix that in a little bit, let that melt.

I just love cheese so much so I'm gonna add

a little bit more, but that's totally your preference.

These are starting to look really good,

starting to smell really good,

I feel like we're almost there.

You can smell the ghee, you can smell the mirin,

you can smell the soy, everything is actually

already kind of incorporated.

When you get to the end, just put it through a strainer.

They're just so soft and airy, that's the fastest

scrambled egg you'll ever make.

So for my side I have a piece of toast.

I do like two eggs a person so I put about half

on this plate, going to sprinkle a few of the chives

over that, go ahead and grab my bacon slices.

I'm actually going to be serving mine

with some white rice.

It's adding a little bit more than just

your typical breakfast toast.

So I'm just gonna go ahead and put this

right on top of my rice, I'm going to give

my cucumbers one more stir, and then I'm just going

to go ahead and sprinkle a few on top,

sprinkle my scallions on, last but not least

my toasted sesame.

Take a little of that fluffy scrambled egg,

some finishing salt, this will give it a nice texture

and it's a milder salt, a little bit of olive oil,

our cream mixture, the decadent part,

little bit of chives, and last but not least, caviar.

Because you know, every day is special.

And here are my scrambled eggs.

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And here are my scrambled eggs.

[camera clicks]

And that is your fancy everyday scrambled egg.

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Okay, moment of truth, let's see how this went.

Let's go for it.

Oh my gosh.

That tastes exactly like they taste every single time,

which I love, very consistent,

they're like that friend that's always

gonna pick up the phone.

It has a lot of great balance, you have salty,

you have a tiny bit of sweetness, you have the ginger

and the cucumber and a crunchiness,

so I'm really happy [laughs].

The eggs are the heaviest part of this dish

and then when they hit the cream,

you get a burst of citrus and then

the saltiness from the caviar,

and then a little pop of chive.

This is perfection.

Eggs are one of the most versatile

and functional ingredients in any dish,

whether as an addition or a main ingredient.

Let's see how each of our chefs scrambled theirs.

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Hannah took four eggs and cracked them

directly into her bowl and used a fork

to mix together with a little water.

Be careful when you do this, since you might

crack part of the shell into your eggs.

The shell is a complex of calcium carbonate,

deposited in a protein matrix,

which is harmless if eaten but not digestible.

It happens to the best of us.

Water creates steam, making very tender scrambled eggs,

but it's not necessary if your eggs

are cooked correctly.

She added salt during egg preparation,

which isn't recommended since salt is a coagulant.

It can make your eggs less tender.

It's better to add salt just prior to eating your eggs.

She used brown eggs which are no different from white eggs

when it comes to structure and functionality.

Brown eggs simply come from red hens

while white eggs come from white hens.

Gabrielle used a whisk to mix her eggs.

A whisk adds more air than the fork that Hannah used

because of its structure due to its special design.

Forks can mix ingredients thoroughly

but a whisk is designed to create a more smooth texture

as the whisk moves through the bowl.

The viscosity of egg whites in particular

helps them to cling to the tines of the whisk,

allowing the protein structure to trap more air,

creating a lighter, fluffier egg.

Palak was very careful to use fresh eggs.

My eggs are fresh.

One indicator of freshness is the thickness

of the albumin or egg white.

The thicker it is, the fresher the egg

due to the presence of a protein called ovomucin,

which degrades and becomes thinner as the egg ages.

She kept her shells intact for later service,

but sterilized them by boiling

to reduce the levels of potential pathogens

such as salmonella or campylobacter jejuni.

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Hannah and Gabrielle both used nonstick pans

to scramble their eggs.

Hannah used whole melted butter

which includes the milk solids while Gabrielle used ghee,

which has the milk solids removed.

Ghee can get hotter than whole butter

yet won't burn.

It's a better alternative than regular butter.

Both slowly cooked their eggs over medium heat

and used a spatula to stir.

Hannah had some marbling when she initially

mixed her eggs, which means the egg whites

and the yolks were not completely blended.

You don't want to overmix it 'cause then

it will be just like too tough.

Since they coagulate at different temperatures,

she may have some uneven cooking in her eggs.

Coagulation at lower temperatures

yields a soft, tender egg, so medium heat

works very well here.

The approximate temperature of coagulation

of whole eggs is 176 degrees.

Gabrielle added mirin, ginger, and soy

prior to cooking.

The soy will raise the temperature of coagulation

and season the eggs along with the complex blend

of mirin, which is a low alcohol, high sugar rice wine,

and ginger imparting an acidic, sweet, salty

and slight spiciness to the eggs.

Palak poached her eggs very quickly, only 20 seconds.

20.

This is so interesting and unusual.

Just being in water prevents burning and crust formation

and keeping the water below boiling point

keeps the egg from being torn apart by turbulence.

Because she left the lid on her eggs,

she created a closed steaming vessel

which heated the eggs from the top and the bottom,

making eggs that were extremely tender.

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Hannah went classic with cheddar cheese in her eggs

and a side of bacon and toast.

Additions like cheese may raise the coagulation temperature

of eggs because added fat has the impact

of increasing the heat stability of egg proteins.

This cheese can't fit in the bowl, so I'll just.

She used a toaster which is a radiant heat source

that crisps and browns the bread

and served them with butter.

As an extra step, she added chives

which are bright green with a hint of raw onion flavor

from the compound allicin.

Gabrielle served her soft scrambled eggs

over white rice, which is a starchy and satiating

complement to the high-protein eggs she made.

She topped her eggs with sesame seeds,

which are nutty in flavor and add a subtle crunch

to her dish.

She served her eggs and rice with a side of crunchy,

sweet, and sour pickled cucumbers, sliced perfectly thin,

giving her dish an added depth of flavor.

Palak carefully spooned her soft scrambled eggs

back into the sterilized eggshell,

which makes a beautiful presentation

and she topped it with olive oil which adds

a layer of richness.

She also made an indulgent whipped cream

by blending creme fraiche, which is a fermented,

high-fat dairy item with heavy cream and Meyer lemon zest.

Meyer lemons from California are large, juicy,

and sweeter than other varieties of lemons.

She used vodka and cayenne pepper to flavor this cream.

The vodka may look like water,

but it's mostly alcohol so it doesn't hydrate

the other molecules in this complex emulsion.

The vodka also breaks down fat

and prevents it from separating.

The cayenne pepper adds heat and color to the cream.

Bowfin caviar is salt-cured roe.

It's expensive and decadent with a wonderful taste.

Maldon salt is English sea salt.

It's flaked so it adds crunch,

as well as a very pure salt taste

and the perfect way to finish her scrambled eggs.

Whether you're making breakfast, brunch, or dinner,

eggs offer many possibilities.

Each of our chefs took a different take

on this staple dish with three very different

but delicious outcomes.