Author Topic: How do you make scrambled eggs?  (Read 20388 times)

Re: How do you make scrambled eggs?
« Reply #175 on: 01 December, 2021, 09:31:44 am »
Would have added fresh chilli if we'd had some in.

I did *exactly* the same 2 days ago, for the same reasons.
I was also out of green chillies, so I added a few flakes of dried chillies to the egg mix.

Freeze! Chillies keep very well in the freezer, and the action of chopping them through and cooking them thaws them immediately. I routinely put them straight in the freezer nowadays, and they don't seem to lose any of their punch.

Re: How do you make scrambled eggs?
« Reply #176 on: 01 December, 2021, 10:09:37 am »
Yesterday morning I was at my cousin's. He made us poached eggs for breakfast. I've never really known how to begin with poached eggs, every time I've tried it's just ended up a mess. "It's easy" said he, "I have this device you fill with water and pop it in the microwave." He in contrast is never sure how long to do boiled eggs. He was going to show me this labour-saving culinary device but we ran out of time. An Amazon courier has just called and delivered one!

I've been told by many people how to poach eggs - some of them amateurs who like eggs, some of them breakfast chefs in busy hotels, some of them cookbook-authoring chefs of great renown. And they've spouted follied nonsense, to a man. Among those who advocate techniques rather than devices, it's alway the same, and it's always silly. Swirling the boiling water to create a vortex which will draw the egg into itself: cobblers. It just throws the egg around. Vinegar to denature the protein and set the white: cobblers. It might season them, but it's not acidic enough to have a useful effect.

Frustrated by what appeared - empirically - to be daft advice, I set out to experiment. I started with the simplest element of the process (cracking an egg into hot water), resolving to augment as necessary. The simplest way works, so I didn't augment: boiling water in a shallow (frying) pan, turn it right down so it's barely moving, or even completely still, and crack an egg into it. Wait until it's done, lift it out with a slotted utensil of your choice, pat with a piece of kitchen roll to remove surface dampness, serve. How long? about 3ish minutes, maybe 4 - it depends on the thickness of the pan  and the heat retaining characteristics it has, and the freshness of the eggs. Doesn't take long to get your eye in though.

It's really that easy. Crack an egg into hot water over the lowest heat, wait a few minutes then take it out.

I've gone from poaching eggs once every 10 - 15 years to once or twice a week.

Mr Larrington

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Re: How do you make scrambled eggs?
« Reply #177 on: 01 December, 2021, 10:28:04 am »
Is it a genuine poached egg if it wasn’t stolen from the squire's chicken coop in the middle of the night?
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Re: How do you make scrambled eggs?
« Reply #178 on: 01 December, 2021, 11:26:45 am »
I agree with not swirling. The only benefit of stirring the water is that you get a uniform temp. You don't want the water bubbling vigorously, but you do want it all to be hot. Bring to boil, give a stir, then let it settle, reduce heat.

Damn it, I really want a poached egg now.
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citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: How do you make scrambled eggs?
« Reply #179 on: 01 December, 2021, 11:38:37 am »
Frustrated by what appeared - empirically - to be daft advice, I set out to experiment. I started with the simplest element of the process (cracking an egg into hot water), resolving to augment as necessary. The simplest way works, so I didn't augment: boiling water in a shallow (frying) pan, turn it right down so it's barely moving, or even completely still, and crack an egg into it. Wait until it's done, lift it out with a slotted utensil of your choice, pat with a piece of kitchen roll to remove surface dampness, serve. How long? about 3ish minutes, maybe 4 - it depends on the thickness of the pan  and the heat retaining characteristics it has, and the freshness of the eggs. Doesn't take long to get your eye in though.

That is basically Delia's method. Except she takes the pan completely off the heat once the eggs have been in for a minute, and leaves them in for 10 minutes - which sounds too long in my opinion.

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I've gone from poaching eggs once every 10 - 15 years to once or twice a week.

I have poached eggs for breakfast most days. Except the days when I have scrambled eggs. Or fried. Or sometimes boiled. It's rare that I don't have eggs in some form for breakfast*, and poached is the usual preference. I do usually add a splash of vinegar to the water, but I'm open to being persuaded that it doesn't actually make a difference. I never bother with that swirling the water business. And never use poaching devices either.

I am 100% convinced it's the freshness of the eggs that makes the biggest difference to how well they keep their shape in the water.

(*Today I actually had a sausage sandwich instead. I never do cereal, unless you count the occasional bowl of porridge.)
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: How do you make scrambled eggs?
« Reply #180 on: 01 December, 2021, 11:41:20 am »
I just did a Dishoom Kejriwal (as posted by citoyen earlier) for lunch. It was this: Nom.
(Ditched the ketchup, though!)

 :thumbsup:

I think the ketchup is a worthwhile addition - that sweet-sour kick really adds something. Needs to be a decent quality ketchup though. Dishoom make their own (of course) and it's excellent - really thick and tangy.

Never thought of having it with bacon.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: How do you make scrambled eggs?
« Reply #181 on: 01 December, 2021, 12:45:35 pm »
That is basically Delia's method. Except she takes the pan completely off the heat once the eggs have been in for a minute, and leaves them in for 10 minutes - which sounds too long in my opinion.
I didn't imagine I was the only one, but it's nice to have the validation. And yeah, that sounds like it would be too long.

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I do usually add a splash of vinegar to the water, but I'm open to being persuaded that it doesn't actually make a difference.

I've tried with and without (though obviously not with the same egg, so the methodology is, I grant you, flawed) and can't discern any difference in performance. I used to work in a kitchen where the poaching water was mostly vinegar because that's what Chef said, but I wasn't convinced then and I'm not convinced now!

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I am 100% convinced it's the freshness of the eggs that makes the biggest difference to how well they keep their shape in the water.
I'm inclined to agree. The egg poaching revolution began, chez nous, after having an egg poached by my wife's cousin - an egg which had only just been relinquished by my wife's cousin's chicken's bum. Astounded by just how marvellous it was, I was assured that there was no special technique, and that freshness was all.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: How do you make scrambled eggs?
« Reply #182 on: 01 December, 2021, 10:14:58 pm »
To go a bit OT from poaching ( this is an Internet Forum... ):
I really liked the Dishoom approach to basically a fried egg.

Essentially, crack it into hot oil as per normal fried egg, but then put the whole shebang in a hot oven for 2 minutes.
This combined fry/bake actually works very well, and is 100% consistent and reproducible.
The oven heat cooks the white from above and below, leaving the yoke just right.
Much better than spooning hot oil of unknown temperature onto the top of the egg from a frying pan.

My frying pans have too-long handles to go in the oven, so I used a shallow Le Creuset enameled dish. Sits on the hob fine for the initial fry, then transfers to the oven easily.

Even more OT:
I no longer fry bacon. I always do it in the oven.
Lay the rashers out on greaseproof paper on a baking tray.
180 to 200c, about 8 mins. ( set the timer for 5 mins and check it ).
Walk off and leave it.

Much more betterer, and less faff with flipping it over etc: it's shove-it-in-the-oven, and ignore it till it beeps.

All bacon will have some water content, even the dry cure stuff. Cheap bacon is worse.
Pan frying this will result in water coming out, and the bacon can end partially poached. This is Not Good. Poached Bacon is Not A Thing for good reason. Less of an issue with good bacon, of course.

But even with good bacon, the oven method just produces lovely dry crispy fat, whilst retaining a moist meat.
I cannot think of one single reason to go back to pan-frying bacon.

ian

Re: How do you make scrambled eggs?
« Reply #183 on: 01 December, 2021, 10:29:49 pm »
Surely a good fried egg requires a crispy bottom, the top is usually cooked enough by time you have achieved this. I'm conceptually liking the fried egg on top of cheese on toast so I might have to try that at the weekend. I mean, cheese on toast is already awesome.

I do miss bacon. Someone must have invented fakon by now.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: How do you make scrambled eggs?
« Reply #184 on: 01 December, 2021, 10:39:27 pm »
Surely a good fried egg requires a crispy bottom, the top is usually cooked enough by time you have achieved this. I'm conceptually liking the fried egg on top of cheese on toast so I might have to try that at the weekend. I mean, cheese on toast is already awesome.

Hmm, I'm one of the people who doesn't really like that crispy mesh thing on the bottom of a fried egg, but I was brought up in Banff.
We didn't have coal mines, but we did have neeps and tatties. And sheep. At least those were edible. Mostly.

The specific scenario here needed top heat to melt the cheese which was on top of the egg, without over-cooking the yoke to get the heat up there.

But the thing I liked was the consistency and reproducibility of a temperature-controlled environment like an oven; it will just work and come out 100% the same as last time.
You don't need to tend it, wondering if the pan was a bit hot or cold, trying to guess if it's just right yet.
Just chuck it in, walk away and make a coffee till it beeps.

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I do miss bacon. Someone must have invented fakon by now.

It's still available, I just checked.

Re: How do you make scrambled eggs?
« Reply #185 on: 01 December, 2021, 11:10:53 pm »


Even more OT:
I no longer fry bacon. I always do it in the oven.
Lay the rashers out on greaseproof paper on a baking tray.
180 to 200c, about 8 mins. ( set the timer for 5 mins and check it
All bacon will have some water content, even the dry cure stuff. Cheap bacon is worse.
Pan frying this will result in water coming out, and the bacon can end partially poached. This is Not Good. Poached Bacon is Not A Thing for good reason. Less of an issue with good bacon, of course.
Whatever water exudes from the bacon will evaporate. When rendering fat, it's often a good idea to include a bit of water in the pan as a heat-buffer while the process gets going - it boils off and leaves only the fat. Any water in the bacon pan will do the same, assisting with the rendering of the bacon fat, which will be left behind once the water is gone - ultimately the bacon is fried, and any poaching which occurred along the way is harmless. Boiled bacon is A Thing. It refers to a joint of bacon, of course, not rashers, but A Thing it is, and A Good Thing at that.

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I cannot think of one single reason to go back to pan-frying bacon.
In order that ones pan contains bacon fat, either to pour off into the jar of pig fat which lives in the fridge, or in which to fry or scramble ones eggs. I cannot think of one single reason to intentionally avoid creating a pan of bacon fat when I have eggs to cook.