The Art of Scrambled Eggs and French Omelets: A Guide to Mastering Two Classic Breakfast Dishes

When it comes to scrambled eggs, one must approach with caution and attention to detail. The key is to create a homogeneous mixture of egg whites and yolks that cooks together seamlessly into a luscious, silky, and dense texture. To achieve this, one must start by whisking the eggs gently without overbeating them. This will help prevent the formation of air pockets, which can result in a spongy texture. As for salt, it's essential to add it just before cooking to avoid a glassy, thin look that can occur if added too far ahead.

A good starting point for scrambled eggs is butter – yes, plain old butter is best. Fresh and high-quality is crucial, as a mediocre butter will not yield the desired results. In terms of the pan itself, a nonstick surface is ideal, as it allows for a gentle melting of the butter without creating too much heat or sizzling noise. The objective here is to cook the eggs with minimal fuss, so a medium heat setting is perfect.

Once the butter has melted and the foam has died down, the eggs can be added. Here's where the technique comes in – gently pouring the egg mixture into the pan while stirring around the edges helps distribute the ingredients evenly. The key is to scrape the sides of the pan regularly and push the egg back and forth along the bottom of the surface, allowing it to cook slowly and uniformly. As the eggs approach doneness, a gentle stirring motion will help prevent them from becoming too dense or rubbery.

To achieve silky, large curd scrambled eggs, one must listen carefully for signs that they are almost cooked. This includes paying attention to any fat bubbles forming around the edges of the pan – if these appear, it's a sign that the heat is too high and the eggs need more time to cook. When done correctly, the top layer should still have just a hint of moisture, giving way to a smooth, creamy texture.

Moving on to French omelets, this dish presents an entirely different challenge. Unlike scrambled eggs, which require minimal effort to create, making a perfect French omelet demands precision and finesse. The key is to start with the same homogeneous mixture as before – whisking the eggs until they are perfectly combined, then adding a pinch of salt just before cooking.

Here's where things can get tricky: one must add a tablespoon of grated cheese, which should be melted to perfection, before attempting to roll the omelet over. This is where an expert technique comes into play – using a spatula or omelet turner (if available), one must gently coax the egg mixture into a smooth, even ball shape. It's essential to listen carefully for signs that the cheese has melted completely and the eggs are cooked to the desired doneness.

One notable feature of French omelets is their lack of color – they should be pale yellow in hue, with no browning or drying out occurring along the edges. This is achieved by cooking the egg mixture over low heat, allowing it to cook slowly and evenly. When the cheese has melted, one can attempt to roll the omelet over, carefully coaxing the edge of the pan towards the center.

In our culinary journey, we've experimented with both scrambled eggs and French omelets, honing our skills and learning from each experience. While they may seem like simple dishes at first glance, mastering these two techniques requires patience, attention to detail, and a willingness to experiment until perfection is achieved.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enChris do you want to see my perfect omelet guys this video is all about eggs one egg four ways first I'm gonna poach it then I'm gonna fry it then I'm gonna scramble it then I'm gonna make it omelet out of it the same egg all the way through it's magic now it'll be different eggs first of all let's talk about an egg we use large eggs in the bon appetit Test Kitchen I prefer an organic egg a pastured egg is probably these days considered the most eco beautiful happiest chicken kind of an egg if you do one thing just buy a fresh large egg rules for poaching an egg you have your large egg fridge cold pan of water a lot of recipes are gonna tell you that into this water or somewhere involved you need vinegar I'm gonna tell you now so the two things that you need to remember about the letter V our vinegar no and vortex yes okay vinegar helps the egg white coagulate which is why a lot of recipes say to put it into the water or to put the egg in the vinegar in my experience when you put in enough vinegar for it to actually have an effect on coagulating the white you taste the vinegar so I experimented and this method works great it is a pan of barely simmering water and with this spoon very scientifically I'm making a vortex and then into there goes the egg 2 minutes 30 seconds you need to be precise with the cooking of the egg a very small amount of time to make a very big amount of difference flip it over a couple of times you just want to have the white sort of wrapping around the yolk as much as possible double-check your egg just pull it out of the water what you want to see is that the white is set but not super hard it still looks luscious and you can actually just press on the yolk and make sure that it has some give to it that means it's still going to be runny this to me looks slightly translucent over the top of the yolk give them a couple more spins all right so I'm going right on to a buttered English muffin which is my favorite way to enjoy a poached egg sometimes I make poached eggs for breakfast for my 14 year old son and people say oh you're insane you're crazy or one of those crazy food magazine people it makes poached eggs it takes two and a half minutes it's like why wouldn't you poach an egg water egg ooh perfect do you want to fry an egg right now let's look fine egg I like to fry an egg so that it has a lot of crunchy texture and I also like to eat eggs for dinner and I like to eat the look green so before I even make my egg I'm gonna make some greens the first thing is Swiss chard stems and it's kind of amazing the amount of greens that you need for a portion and this is gonna be the bed for my crispy fried egg and now the pans already heated up I'm also putting enough oil to completely coat the bottom of the pan and that's key and it's gonna seem like a lot and I can already hear about it but most of its gonna stay in the pan nothing's gonna stick it's gonna add a lot of flavor and you will see towards the end I need an excess of oil to make sure that the white is cooked I like to crack my eggs right on the surface of a flat surface because when it shatters it doesn't push egg inside of the shell the way cracking on the edge of a bowl you know pushes the egg in so I always smack it on a flat surface so right away a lot of puffing a lot of snapping and crackling and I already have some Brown edges and that's what I'm going for so this hot oil which there's a little extra I'm just gonna spoon onto the white of the egg and I'm trying to avoid the yolk look it's so dramatic and puffy and crispy and you see but it's not overcooked and that should take less than two minutes and it's done if you were to try to do this with butter and you didn't have olive oil because the heat in the pan is getting up so high the butter would absolutely burn blacken char it would be a smoky mess it would not taste good at all I'm gonna have another bite there's it very delicious all right we're making scrambled eggs I am making scrambled eggs I think a good rule of thumb unless you have a like hungry-man breakfast that you need to put together is two eggs for one person two eggs smacked on the surface cracked in you're not adding milk or cream or sour cream or stuffed to the uncooked egg mixture you can add stuff later but to go into the pan it's just the eggs and what you're going for with the scrambling is a completely homogeneous mixture egg whites and egg yolks cook at different rates so in order for them to cook together into something that is really luscious and really silky and really dense and velvety they need to be well combined there's a little bit of air getting beaten into these but I'm trying not to beat in a ton of air because if it's a very airy and this is true for omelets too you'll get more of a spongy texture and less of a dense and silky texture I always put a little bit of salt into my eggs before I start cooking them but like right before if you do it far too far ahead something weird happens and they get this kind of glassy thin look to them so just salt them and then go in so the best medium for scrambled eggs in my book is butter just nice butter make sure it's fresh and this time I am using the nonstick pan I'm not looking for a big sizzle I'm not looking for a big heat like seizing up thing when these go in it's very gentle we're being gentle to ourselves or being gentle to the egg gently melting the butter so as soon as this foam kind of dies down my pretty eggs are gonna go in and what I'm going for in this technique is very silky soft large curd scrambled eggs there's another style of scrambled eggs where it's a very small curd and it's almost creamy it almost looks like cottage cheese that's not what I'm going for I'm stirring around I'm scraping the sides I'm sort of pushing the egg back and forth along the bottom of the pan and then I'm waiting again in between stirring I'm just kind of letting it go keeping an eye on it listening to hear any kind of fat bubbling around the side which would be an indication that it was hot and watching the egg setup it should look just a little bit still wet on the top I'm gonna stop I'm gonna put a little bit of cilantro you could put ricotta in these you could put parm that would be really nice this is the texture egg that I would like inside of a breakfast burrito that would be pretty ideal so scrambling an egg is so easy my child can do it the next thing I'm going to do is a perfect French omelette which is so difficult to do that maybe I myself will not be able to do it but it will be fun to watch gonna recognize the beginning of this omelette making from scrambled egg making because they start the same way you want a very homogeneous mixture of the white and the yolk so unlike a frittata a French omelette should have no color on it perfectly golden absolutely no browning going on no drying out creamy crisps Morocco know so much about this Bevis right babos means dog drool it literally means dog drool and that's how the center of your omelet should be truly frankly I'm feeling a little bit of anxiety I'm not gonna lie tablespoon of butter medium heat lovely not too frothy but completely homogeneous couple of eggs with my patented rubbing my belly and patting my head at the same time maneuver stirring scraping and then a couple of taps just get settle settle down all right so I'm gonna take about an ounce of borscht Sam or any other melty cheese and now I'm going to attempt to roll over haha this is it very good good I don't know what accent that was that was like French and like weird guy on the street you know I'm going to roll over mm-hmm well it's a ball all right this is one of those things if I were to go on QVC right now and they had an omelet turner over ER I would buy it I'm very humbled right now all right let's just do it okay okay I'm not gonna beat myself up too much it's pale yellow it has no color it's shiny AF it has a little crack in it but into the crack I put glitch Ives no one knows hereby concludes egg for ways and if you count the four times I had to do the poached eggs and the four omelets that I made then that's like eggs ten or eleven ways so all of the ways there's eggs in the morning there's easy eggs there's eggs that children should do there's eggs that only people who are born in France should do and we've done them all and now you can do them all and you can show us how it goes and tell us everything I did wrong and you know put an egg on it no that's gross tada merciChris do you want to see my perfect omelet guys this video is all about eggs one egg four ways first I'm gonna poach it then I'm gonna fry it then I'm gonna scramble it then I'm gonna make it omelet out of it the same egg all the way through it's magic now it'll be different eggs first of all let's talk about an egg we use large eggs in the bon appetit Test Kitchen I prefer an organic egg a pastured egg is probably these days considered the most eco beautiful happiest chicken kind of an egg if you do one thing just buy a fresh large egg rules for poaching an egg you have your large egg fridge cold pan of water a lot of recipes are gonna tell you that into this water or somewhere involved you need vinegar I'm gonna tell you now so the two things that you need to remember about the letter V our vinegar no and vortex yes okay vinegar helps the egg white coagulate which is why a lot of recipes say to put it into the water or to put the egg in the vinegar in my experience when you put in enough vinegar for it to actually have an effect on coagulating the white you taste the vinegar so I experimented and this method works great it is a pan of barely simmering water and with this spoon very scientifically I'm making a vortex and then into there goes the egg 2 minutes 30 seconds you need to be precise with the cooking of the egg a very small amount of time to make a very big amount of difference flip it over a couple of times you just want to have the white sort of wrapping around the yolk as much as possible double-check your egg just pull it out of the water what you want to see is that the white is set but not super hard it still looks luscious and you can actually just press on the yolk and make sure that it has some give to it that means it's still going to be runny this to me looks slightly translucent over the top of the yolk give them a couple more spins all right so I'm going right on to a buttered English muffin which is my favorite way to enjoy a poached egg sometimes I make poached eggs for breakfast for my 14 year old son and people say oh you're insane you're crazy or one of those crazy food magazine people it makes poached eggs it takes two and a half minutes it's like why wouldn't you poach an egg water egg ooh perfect do you want to fry an egg right now let's look fine egg I like to fry an egg so that it has a lot of crunchy texture and I also like to eat eggs for dinner and I like to eat the look green so before I even make my egg I'm gonna make some greens the first thing is Swiss chard stems and it's kind of amazing the amount of greens that you need for a portion and this is gonna be the bed for my crispy fried egg and now the pans already heated up I'm also putting enough oil to completely coat the bottom of the pan and that's key and it's gonna seem like a lot and I can already hear about it but most of its gonna stay in the pan nothing's gonna stick it's gonna add a lot of flavor and you will see towards the end I need an excess of oil to make sure that the white is cooked I like to crack my eggs right on the surface of a flat surface because when it shatters it doesn't push egg inside of the shell the way cracking on the edge of a bowl you know pushes the egg in so I always smack it on a flat surface so right away a lot of puffing a lot of snapping and crackling and I already have some Brown edges and that's what I'm going for so this hot oil which there's a little extra I'm just gonna spoon onto the white of the egg and I'm trying to avoid the yolk look it's so dramatic and puffy and crispy and you see but it's not overcooked and that should take less than two minutes and it's done if you were to try to do this with butter and you didn't have olive oil because the heat in the pan is getting up so high the butter would absolutely burn blacken char it would be a smoky mess it would not taste good at all I'm gonna have another bite there's it very delicious all right we're making scrambled eggs I am making scrambled eggs I think a good rule of thumb unless you have a like hungry-man breakfast that you need to put together is two eggs for one person two eggs smacked on the surface cracked in you're not adding milk or cream or sour cream or stuffed to the uncooked egg mixture you can add stuff later but to go into the pan it's just the eggs and what you're going for with the scrambling is a completely homogeneous mixture egg whites and egg yolks cook at different rates so in order for them to cook together into something that is really luscious and really silky and really dense and velvety they need to be well combined there's a little bit of air getting beaten into these but I'm trying not to beat in a ton of air because if it's a very airy and this is true for omelets too you'll get more of a spongy texture and less of a dense and silky texture I always put a little bit of salt into my eggs before I start cooking them but like right before if you do it far too far ahead something weird happens and they get this kind of glassy thin look to them so just salt them and then go in so the best medium for scrambled eggs in my book is butter just nice butter make sure it's fresh and this time I am using the nonstick pan I'm not looking for a big sizzle I'm not looking for a big heat like seizing up thing when these go in it's very gentle we're being gentle to ourselves or being gentle to the egg gently melting the butter so as soon as this foam kind of dies down my pretty eggs are gonna go in and what I'm going for in this technique is very silky soft large curd scrambled eggs there's another style of scrambled eggs where it's a very small curd and it's almost creamy it almost looks like cottage cheese that's not what I'm going for I'm stirring around I'm scraping the sides I'm sort of pushing the egg back and forth along the bottom of the pan and then I'm waiting again in between stirring I'm just kind of letting it go keeping an eye on it listening to hear any kind of fat bubbling around the side which would be an indication that it was hot and watching the egg setup it should look just a little bit still wet on the top I'm gonna stop I'm gonna put a little bit of cilantro you could put ricotta in these you could put parm that would be really nice this is the texture egg that I would like inside of a breakfast burrito that would be pretty ideal so scrambling an egg is so easy my child can do it the next thing I'm going to do is a perfect French omelette which is so difficult to do that maybe I myself will not be able to do it but it will be fun to watch gonna recognize the beginning of this omelette making from scrambled egg making because they start the same way you want a very homogeneous mixture of the white and the yolk so unlike a frittata a French omelette should have no color on it perfectly golden absolutely no browning going on no drying out creamy crisps Morocco know so much about this Bevis right babos means dog drool it literally means dog drool and that's how the center of your omelet should be truly frankly I'm feeling a little bit of anxiety I'm not gonna lie tablespoon of butter medium heat lovely not too frothy but completely homogeneous couple of eggs with my patented rubbing my belly and patting my head at the same time maneuver stirring scraping and then a couple of taps just get settle settle down all right so I'm gonna take about an ounce of borscht Sam or any other melty cheese and now I'm going to attempt to roll over haha this is it very good good I don't know what accent that was that was like French and like weird guy on the street you know I'm going to roll over mm-hmm well it's a ball all right this is one of those things if I were to go on QVC right now and they had an omelet turner over ER I would buy it I'm very humbled right now all right let's just do it okay okay I'm not gonna beat myself up too much it's pale yellow it has no color it's shiny AF it has a little crack in it but into the crack I put glitch Ives no one knows hereby concludes egg for ways and if you count the four times I had to do the poached eggs and the four omelets that I made then that's like eggs ten or eleven ways so all of the ways there's eggs in the morning there's easy eggs there's eggs that children should do there's eggs that only people who are born in France should do and we've done them all and now you can do them all and you can show us how it goes and tell us everything I did wrong and you know put an egg on it no that's gross tada merci\n"