(uplifting music) - There's one simple recipe
that strikes fear into the heart of most chefs, and that's
this simple omelet, 'cause they're incredibly
hard to do perfectly, which is what Lan is gonna
show us how to do today. - I think you're gonna have fun with this. I learned how to make these on the fly, working an omelet station. It was touch and go for
the first three months, (Julia laughs) but once you master it,
it's a lot of fun to do. We used to have a scoring system. Only the nines and higher
got out of the kitchen. - Oh goodness. - We're gonna get you to
a perfect 10 omelet today. - On the first try? - First try. - Oh, I'm in. I'm actually really
excited to see your method. - So I think three large eggs is a perfect size for an omelet. If you have too much egg in
there, it's hard to fold, and if there's not enough egg in there, it's too thin and it'll tear. - [Julia] Three eggs. - Three eggs, and add a pinch of salt and
just beat them really well. The only thing you
really need to know here is that if your eggs are streaky here, your omelets gonna be tricky. But I like to use a fork
rather than a whisk. - Why is that? - I just think the fork
fits better in this bowl. The head of the whisk is too large. You can't really make use
of it in a small bowl. - You're beating the heck out of it. - Yeah. - That's more than I usually do. So right off the bat, I learned something. - Beat the heck outta your eggs? - Yes. - All right. Next, I'm using one ounce
of extra sharp cheddar. As long as it's a good
melter, it'll be nice here. I'm actually gonna pre-melt this cheese. You want your filling
to be at serving temp. Once it's in place, the eggs are gonna insulate
it from the heat of the pan. So if it's not hot, it's not
gonna be hot when you serve it. - Pre-melting the cheese? - I know it sounds a little fussy, but I swear it's worth it. - This is next level, all right. - We're gonna melt this
cheese in the microwave at 50% power for 30 to 60 seconds. - [Julia] Is that good? - Yes. - So melted cheese, ready to go. Smells good. - We're gonna start cooking. This is gonna go fast. Butter in the skillet, one and
a half teaspoons of butter. I'm gonna heat this pan at medium heat. Really wanna make sure
I get that heat right. When there's even bubbling
across the bottom of the skillet, whole thing's hot and it's ready to go. So eggs go in, and at this point we're not
trying to shape the eggs or do anything fancy,
we're just cooking them. I want to stir constantly as I cook because that makes small curds,
helps the eggs cook evenly. And that's how you get a nice
smooth surface to your omelet. Now that we're 80% cooked, I don't wanna see a
ton of liquid egg left. This looks good. Shut this off. Now, the eggs are about 90% cooked and I'm gonna scrape the sides of the pan so that they're nice and clean. - [Julia] You can sort of mold
them into your omelet shape. - That 10% of not quite cooked egg, it's the glue that holds
the curds together. So you definitely need some
of it to not be cooked. Just making a nice, flat, round shape. So I've got my cheese here, and what I'm gonna do is make a two-inch or so wide strip. Whatever you're filling your omelet with, you want it to cover the center of the omelet and you wanna place it so that the filling is perpendicular to the handle of the pan. So we'll cover this now. There's a little bit of
residual heat in there. It's gonna set that raw egg that is
holding the curds together. We'll just give it one minute to hang out. - At "America's Test Kitchen," recipe development is serious business. - Head over to americastestkitchen.com and unlock 14,000 expert-developed recipes and 8,000 unbiased product reviews, all rigorously tested by our team. - Access every episode of every season of your favorite cooking shows. That's 38 seasons of inspiration. - And with the ATK Members
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fingertips, anywhere, anytime. Join us and become a smarter cook. - Start your free all
access trial membership at americastestkitchen.com today. (uplifting music) - Using a non-stick skillet is key if you wanna make a good
omelet, which made me wonder how does that non-stick
surface really work? When eggs cook in a traditional
stainless steel skillet, the heat causes the protein in the eggs to bond the
iron atoms in the metal. As the eggs cook, the more
proteins uncoil, exposing more of their surface, making
them stick even more. A non-stick pan, however, has a coating on top of the metal made
of polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE, commonly known as teflon. It's an incredibly slippery
polymer made of long chains of carbon atoms tightly
bound to fluorine atoms. The bond between carbon
and fluorine is so strong that the atoms can't bond
to anything else like eggs. And that's why eggs will slide right out of a non-stick skillet. - So this last part is my
favorite part of omelet-making. I refer to it as the dismount. Are you ready? - [Julia] I am ready. - Here we go. First I'm gonna loosen these eggs just to make sure they're not stuck anywhere. And then I'll scoot them down. And I'm looking for the edge of the omelet to hit
the edge of the skillet. Now I'm gonna fold this
top third over the filling. I'm gonna switch my grip. I want an underhand grip. And what we're gonna do is kind of, have you ever pulled a beer? - Yes. - That's the motion we're going for. We're just gonna roll it right
out of the pan onto a plate. - Oh, gorgeous. You stuck the landing. - I feel like I could've
gotten it a little bit smoother over here, but
I'm not gonna stress it. All right. I'm gonna get this into a
low oven so it stays warm. And you can hold this
for about 10 minutes. All right, Julia, show me what you got. - Yes, chef. Three eggs. Pinch of salt. Whisking the heck out of it. See at home, this is where I'd stop. - No, I want a 10. This will make the folding so
much easier, it's worth it. - Okay, I think that looks pretty good. What do you think? - [Lan] Good. - All right, next, we're gonna melt the cheese. Now it took about 40 or
so seconds at 50% power. - You're eagle eyed. - I was really paying attention. - You really were. - Cheese is melted, except
for that little bit. - That's okay. - That's okay? - That plate is warm. It's gonna keep doing its
thing while you're cooking. - If that gets me less
than a 10, I'll be mad. 1.5 teaspoons of unsalted
butter, medium heat, evenly hot pan that
bubbles all the way around. - All in. - Go to the eggs and now cook and stir. You want little curds. - Stir harder. Keep going. - No story time, no story time. - Keep going. Otherwise you're liquid eggs is on top and it's not cooking, gotcha. - Yeah, there you go. - So that's the crucial
moment right there. - You just gotta keep going. - Shut off the heat now. - Shut off the heat now. - All right. - Smooth it out. You just wanna smooth
it into an even layer. Smooth, smooth, smooth. Don't worry, the heat's off at this point. - Okay, should I take
it off the hot burner? - On electric, I would definitely move since we're on gas and it's so responsive, I think this is fine. - Okay, next, the cheese. - Yep, we're looking for
about a two-inch wide strip. Perpendicular to the handle. Lid on, lid on one minute. - Take a deep breath. You made it. - I made it here, but I haven't
haven't done the dismount. - Here we go. It's been a minute. Tidy up the edges - Make sure it's not sticking. - Make sure it's not sticking. And then push and shimmy
it down towards the edge. There you go. - Okay, you gotta do it with confidence. Just go. Just hold your breath and
just, oh, you almost had it. - I almost had it. - That's actually not bad, Julia. - For my first omelet. - Yeah. - Edible? - Absolutely. - Not a 10. That's like maybe, a five. - No, I think you've got great shape. The cook looks perfect. It's not gonna be runny. - Well, Julia Child always said
just put some parsley on it. In this case, maybe some chives. - A little bit of chives. - I'm excited to eat this. I'm going right for the center. Because that's how you tell a good omelet. The cheese is melted and
the eggs aren't runny. Oh, look at that. Yes, yes cheese. - Mm. A good cheese omelet really is more than the sum of its parts. - I actually do this for
breakfast pretty often. It's so fast. We can get this done in what, six minutes? - Not even. Lan, thank you for teaching. That was fun. - That was fun. - So if you wanna get a 10
from Lan when making an omelet, use three eggs and whisk them good, pre-melt the cheese filling, and let the omelet finish cooking off the heat. From "America's Test Kitchen," a foolproof recipe for an
omelet with cheddar and chives. We hope you enjoyed this video as much as we enjoyed making it. - Don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe to our channel. - And if you're ready to take your cooking to the next level at over
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