Go to the Recipe: The Boiled Omelet
I love this technique! The first time I tried it I was............................. unsuccessful. But once you figure it out, it's a great way to enjoy super soft, fluffy eggs.
This is crazy wild fabulous! I LOVE it!!
WTF... I'm doing this tomorrow morning! Can't wait.
I tried this technique after seeing it on Mind of a Chef a few years back. Neat texture, pure flavor of the egg, and simple clean-up. It's awesome.
how do you do the scrambled eggs?
Oooooooohhhhhh
Welcome back - this is pure ChefSteps love!
I just made this omelette and although OK, I use fewer pieces of equipment, and do it much more quickly, by simply using just one frying pan and making a classic French omelette. For this I waited quite a while just for the water to boil, have a messy piece of paper towel to dispose of, a strainer to clean and a container I used to melt the butter to clean. Overall, interesting, but not worth the bother. Also, I had to spend quite a bit of time pressing the egg mixture in the paper towel to get all the water out.
So happy ChefSteps is back!
The recipe calls for American cheese. I'm guessing that ChefSteps melty cheese is a more upscale option?
Why not salt the boiling water instead of the egg mixture? Did I saw grated frozen butter in one of the last videos instead of the brushed butter?
To be fair, the textures are completely different. Whether you like this texture or not, or think it is worth the effort is personal preference. But it is not the same as a traditional French omelet. You could make the same criticism of sous vide eggs and some people do. But sous vide eggs are still awesome. :-)
The Patterson boiled scrambled egg recipe is very similar, but without Grant's extra added yolk, the cheese in the center and folding it into an omelet shape. It also seems like he doesn't add salt before cooking, and may whip the eggs to incorporate more air. Here's actually a video of him preparing it (I somehow managed to get access to the full version, not just the teaser, and there's nothing terribly surprising in it, excepts that he likes to drown the finished product in olive oil lol):
https://www.pannacooking.com/recipes/poached-scrambled-eggs/
FWIW, Glen & Friends Cooking on YouTube actually messaged me that the Washington Post claims Michael Ruhlman first invented this technique (or perphas as often is the case, great minds think alike, independently), but I don't have access to that article.
If we look far enough back, we'd probably find the Chinese doing it 4000 years ago! (Actually, it does remind me of Korean Gyeran-jjim).
I suppose you might have to use more salt if you salted the water, than if you salted the eggs. But I'm just guessing.
I love chefstrps and (nearly) all your recipes, but this one????? Let me have my good old omelette traditional way.....
It gets easier after about the 4th or 5th one. The novelty and original texture is something you can show off and does work pretty good if you do some crispy shallots and shiitakes (add some MSG to the egg mixture)
So very happy I can continue to learn from the talent at ChefSteps; and if I can two requests
a\ I see a Control Freak in some of the video clips, it would be great if the temps used to cook with were included in the recipes. I'm lucky enough to have a Control Freak and would love to learn to use it better...
b\ I am missing the old longer form videos, the little clips posted in the initial Studio Pass recipes I've seen so don't add as much context as the old videos did. Like in this recipe, a four second clip of boiling water isn't teaching me much, but the 17 second video that shows how to roll the eggs out of the strainer is great. But (at least for me,) a single video that had all the clips would be amazing.
Just made this, amazing. For the Control Freak, I used what was showing in the video, 108 C. I agree with Mark with the used temperatures if a Control Freak is in the equipment the temperatures should be in the recipe.
I would also love to see a Control Freak temperature guide like the one for the Joule. Breville has one for the Control Freak, it is just a bit condensed.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0561/0929/files/CMC850_Temperature_Chart_original-rev-1.pdf
Thats a great idea - temperature guide for the Control Freak!
OMG, if they start plugging the Control Freak, just imagine the Internet trolls! They used to give CS flack for all the recipes using Joule.
LOL, if you can't plug your own products on your own webpage, what is the world coming too???
Any ideas for making omeletts for more than one person at a time?
I really liked this recipe. It was easy to make, didn't require any fancy ingredients or long prep times, and was a fun new thing to try. I was surprised by how fluffy the omelette was. That said, I'm unlikely to make it again since I find regular omelettes easier to make (fewer dishes, less prep, quicker).
Hi, first of all THANKS for coming back with new recipes.
I made this omelette three times. IMHO the taste was always a little too much watery. The texture and seasoning was amazing but the taste was watery. The third time, when I transferred omelette from the water to fine-mesh sieve I used a spoon to gently squeeze "all" the water out but the taste still felt watery. Is that normal? Is that how it should taste? Many thanks, Anze
Or oyakodon!
Same experience with the watery taste
Anyone know what the clear glass pot is?
You can make your own American style slices out of good cheese with some sodium citrate. ChefSteps actually has a recipe for it here: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/melty-cheese-slices
It calls for SHMP but I don't think it's strictly necessary if you only have sodium citrate on hand, just add a little more. The SHMP reduces the risk of the cheese getting crumbly after cooling.
It is from the MOMA Design Store, I don't think they still sell them though, there used to be an issue with them cracking on the stovetop.
Here you go:
https://www.amazon.com/Knindustrie-Glass-Capacity-diam-9-Transparent/dp/B00LOGK9TQ?ref_=ast_bbp_dp
Guide would be awesome but would also love a web based tool that I can use to generate custom settings for the Control Freak.
In my head the page would be pretty simple:
Dialog box for profile name
Dialog box for temp setting
Radio button to set temp as F or C
Spin control for timer setting (if any)
Radio button for to set the prob setting (if needed)
Save button
This spits out an "FA1" file that can be downloaded and copied to the flash key and uploaded on the unit.
Not to over think functionality or testing of it, seems like it can be this simple with some simple bounds checking on the various entry fields. But that typed, if there are other control settings that are in an FA1 file that would be worth surfacing via UI, then cool add them too, I'm not fussy this is the "control freak"
I love I can use the Control Freak without an internet connection but I'm deflated each time I think of the spin knob to transcribe a bunch of temps for something like this:
Butter (Brown) 130C
Sugar (Syrup) 111C
Sugar (Soft ball) 114C
Sugar (Firm ball) 119C
Sugar (Hard ball) 125C
Sugar (Soft crack) 135C
Sugar (Hard crack) 150C
At this point I just have chart taped to the inside of the cupboard and look up what I want vs. taking advantage of the profiles.
I wouldn't expect it to be something that the company would share the file format, but if there was a spec that was published I'm sure someone would build a tool... Would seem trivial code up if someone had access to the spec for the file format used by the unit.
If I exchanged salt for tamagoyaki ingredients, anyone think this would turn out as well? I'm gunna try it anyways because I honestly hate folding the tamagoyaki over and over again. Great method though!!!
Same here, but it tasted great and it was fun to make - another way to entertain the kids. I plan to keep trying this with more ingredients as time goes on and figure out a way to get the omelette a little less watery.
Thank you!
I made this twice. First time i didn't quite have enough water in the pot, and some of the egg stuck to the base of the pan. Second one was pretty good 👍🏼
Next time I will use a half-moon strainer instead of a fork, to try and drain even more water before pouring the eggs into the lined sieve.
Impressed by the fluffy eggs. Thanks!
A half-moon strainer is a great idea, @RJ!
Let us know how it turns out, @Courtney Campbell.
Let us know your results, Joe!
Sounds like a good idea, @RJ! Let us know if it works better.
The egg captures and contains the liquid in its denatured web of proteins, right? I usually envision pan-cooked eggs as a solid-liquid foam. I'd rather eat a foam containing flavor than a foam containing just water. Has anyone tried using basic broth? How about pho? Chai tea? Beer? Wine?!? Simple syrup?? I haven't made this recipe. If I do, I'll try out a few ideas and ideally report back.
I just made this...
"Not quite like on TV"
It ended up fine but while cooking the eggs were way too spindly... lots of very fine threads and not a solid ish mass like in the video so when I tried to initially drain it just would not work. I poured the whole mass into a strainer and gave it a few stirs then dumped on top of another cheese cloth covered strainer. Then continued per instructions.
There was a lot of liquid to drain. I ended up with an OK dish and lots of eggy dishes to clean. Interestingly it was really bland.
Maybe the initial water was too hot and it cooked too fast.
Love it, a lovely fluffy omelet (with spinach, provolone, melted Irish butter, chive oil, black lava sea salt).
Be sure to drain well before and after putting in paper towel (press with fork). Also, salting the eggs well before boiling is important. A quite large strainer is better than the usual home kitchen size one.
Haven't tried this yet, but comments suggest that "watery" is a problem. Wild idea-what would happen if the eggs got a quick trip in a salad spinner before they were dumped in the sieve? Might have to line the spinner with oil-coated paper towel, to keep the eggs from escaping - but then you might not need the sieve step? Just thinking out loud here.
You can look up "pyrex" or "flameware" on eBay and there's tons of glass cookware to be found. It was popular from the 1930's to the 1950's.
Hate to say it but this is not a new thing. A joint in Berlin served these as "eggs princess" in the 1960's.
If you did this and ended up with egg soup the cause was the eggs being to cold. SV the eggs in their shells at 140 for 1/2 hour prior to pouring into the boiling water. The pre-warmed eggs will gel quicker and yield larger curds and soak up less water.
Preheat the eggs to about 135 to 140 before you dump them in the water.
