4 Levels of Scrambled Eggs: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

I'm Hannah and I'm a level 1 chef hi I'm Gabrielle and I'm a level 2 chef hi I'm Pollock and I'm a chef at the Institute of Culinary Education my scrambled eggs recipe is very simple it's always the same every time that'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 roll pool of water you should be making your scrambled eggs like this because you'll never go back to a pan ever again so first step is to get the eggs in a bowl get them mixed up and so I'll take an egg I'll use the side of the bowl to crack it all right if eclis like to crack eggs on not quite so spin of a rim the thinner it is it may puncture the egg shell a little bit more and leave more a little bit let's and stuff so I'll 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 and I'm making eggs after I wash my hands like 15 times I'm pretty relaxed with getting my shells out I have my hands wash them very sanitary I like to break the yolk stirs 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 the 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 the sharp paring knife just kind of work your way around and get a clean cut and before we could use the egg shell 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 breakfast for two you know 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 Gorge of pepper my first ingredient is my mirin which is a sweet rice wine it's going to really nicely tie together my swing to my ginger and then I have just a little bit of soy I really want to add in the 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 out in for about 30 seconds maybe tilt the bowl a little bit get that whipping a circular motion it's been five minutes my egg shells have sterilized now we have two perfectly sterilized egg shells 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 well I should have 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 mandolin rather than individually chopping all of these cucumbers and it makes a really nice and uniform think about the mandolin as 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 kind of tie it all together while that's cooking sort of prep some of my chives that's gonna add a bright green color and a little bit of extra shine party so now we're gonna make the cream topping for the eggs we wanted us to hold my lemon and then to that Renaud 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 want to start with cold creams so that you want to make sure it doesn't separate when you're whipping it and go for soft peaks it's a decadent dish so you need your workout watched bacon never cooks I think that's the thing one of my other toppings that I want to add are some fresh scallions I think they taste great on anything a little pop of flavor pop of color we got some popping bacon yummy the careful flying oil I feel like every time I eat eggs I get injured there's some sesame in a dry pan and you know let it do its thing 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 for 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 a 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 little square butter on the pan I'm going to add in key 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 they're like the salt and the pepper can separate a little and want to be like really together when we start scrambling you don't make too much of a sizzle sound I feel like every time I pour the eggs in it's like actively sizzling it's burns the secret in my opinion two great scrambled eggs cooking them low and slow they cook so quickly you don't want to overdo it too quickly here they're gonna dry out and grouse 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 kind of sets around the edges a little bit I'm gonna start pulling it in so that the egg kind of 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 through 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 getting a bowl lid count to 20 I'm gonna go ahead and grab my cheddar cheese mix that in a little bit let that melt I just love cheese so much I'm gonna add a little bit more but that's totally your preference these are starting to look really good starting smell really good I feel like we're almost there you can smell the key 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 a fastest granbull egg you'll ever make so for my side I have a toast I do like two eggs a person so I put about half on this plate we're gonna 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 you take a little of that fluffy scrambled eggs 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 a little bit of chives and last but not least because you know every day is special and here are my scrambled eggs and here are my scrambled eggs and the is your fancy everyday scrambled egg [Music] okay moment of truth let's see how this went let's go for it [Music] that's exactly like they taste every single time which I love very consistent they're like that friend it'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 in the cucumber and a crunchiness so really happy 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 it's an addition or a main ingredient let's see how each of our chef's scrambled bears Hannah took four eggs and cracked them directly into our 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 I've 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 you can make your eggs less tender it's better to add salt just tired eating your eggs she has 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 Gabriele 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 sure 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 Pollock 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 fresh of the egg due to the presence of a protein called oval newson 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 Hannah and Gabrielle both used nonstick pan to scramble their eggs Hannah used whole melted butter which includes the milk solids while Gabrielle used ghee which has the milk solids removed he can get hotter than whole butter yet won't burn with the butter alternative in 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 over mix it'll be just like two cups 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 a 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 Pollock poached her eggs very quickly only 20 seconds funny 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 Hannah went classic with cheddar cheese and 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 as 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 Alison Gabriele 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 Pollock carefully spooned her soft scrambled eggs back into the sterilized egg shell 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 both in 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

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 4,259,967

Keywords: 4 levels, 4 levels epicurious, recipe, scrambled eggs, recipes, breakfast, breakfast recipes, eggs recipe, breakfast eggs, egg scramble, scramble an egg, scramble eggs, 4 levels of eggs, eggs 3 ways, expert scrambled eggs, perfect scrambled eggs, best scrambled eggs, how to scramble eggs, how to make scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs tutorial, scrambled eggs lesson, chef scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs methods, scrambled eggs trick, eggs at home, easy scrambled eggs, epicurious

Id: 7IDhsBdIxgY

Length: 15min 30sec (930 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 19 2020