Q&A: All About Eggs --Omelettes & More

[eGCI Team]

This thread is only for questions and answers regarding the All About Eggs -- Omelettes and More lesson . Please do not post any comments or contribute any of your own knowledge here. If you wish to make a contribution, please do so on The Wit & Wisdom of Eggs thread. Please do not engage in discussion or debate on this thread -- if you wish to have an egg-related discussion with other eGulleters, please start a topic in the regular Cooking forum. Thanks.

[Marlene]

Thanks for the insightful omelette course. I'd always been taught to add milk or cream to my omelettes before making them. Apparently not. Do you know where that tradition came from?

[Mayhaw Man]

The omelette section was great. As I seem to have an overabundance of eggs at the moment (fresh, from my neighbor who has too many chickens inspite of marauding coons that comb our woods at night like bandits), you have solved my dinner question for tonight.

I am going to try the water addition, as I have never thought of that before.

Nice work.

[MArkF]

While I understand the use of the cream of tartar, you made no mention of using a copper bowl to whip the egg whites as an alternate method. I am of the undersytanding that this "acidifys" the egg whites and helps them to stay stiff. Also I have read that a couple of drops of lemon juice will perform the same thing....can you elaborate?

Mark

[Fat Guy]

Thanks for the insightful omelette course. I'd always been taught to add milk or cream to my omelettes before making them. Apparently not. Do you know where that tradition came from?

A lot of people add milk or cream to scrambled eggs. Cream in particular makes scrambled eggs . . . well . . . creamier. I think that practice may have carried over to omelette-making somehow.

[Fat Guy]

I am going to try the water addition, as I have never thought of that before.

I want to make clear that I didn't think of it either! It's just part of the classic technique. And I suppose other liquids, to the extent they contain a lot of free-floating water (in other words, skim milk as opposed to corn oil), might have something of a similar effect. But with water, as it evaporates, it leaves nothing behind to change the flavor of the eggs.

[Chad]

In a fascinating turn of events, I'd just prepared a very large, very sloppy chili-cheese omelette when I flipped on the computer to discover that FG had posted the omelette lesson.

Ha! I scoff at your weenie omelette! Mine was five eggs of towering doom filled with leftover chili and a double handful of grated colby -- it looked like a mutant yellow football. When I pointed it at the screen, the omelette dragged its oozing body across the plate, stared at your little "fines herbs" sissy creation and laughed a thick, gurgling laugh. Then I ate it.

Okay, I was actually kind of jealous. I can never get the wrist flip quite right, which, this morning, resulted in a big blob of cheesy napalm landing on my forearm . So when you do a classic omelette, how much filling are you allowed? I know they're not supposed to be stuffed to the point of bursting, but c'mon, can we overfill a little? And do the rules permit excess leftovers to be used?

Chad

[Marlene]

I can't get the wrist flipping thing either. Is there a trick to this?

[Fat Guy]

While I understand the use of the cream of tartar, you made no mention of using a copper bowl to whip the egg whites as an alternate method. I am of the undersytanding that this "acidifys" the egg whites and helps them to stay stiff. Also I have read that a couple of drops of lemon juice will perform the same thing....can you elaborate?

Sorry for that apparent omission, Mark. In developing this course, Carolyn Tillie (whose class on souffles will appear tomorrow) took responsibility for the copper-mixing-bowl discussion. At first I thought we'd do meringues and souffles on the same day but, well, at some point the planning became less coordinated. Hopefully Carolyn and I won't contradict each other on any major points! In any event, when I read through Carolyn's draft course materials this past weekend, the copper discussion was in there -- so you should see it tomorrow. There's even a quote from someone with a Ph.D.

As for acids, yes, vinegar and lemon juice will also work. And if you clean your bowl with salt and vinegar, you will get a little vinegar residue contributing to the mix. I prefer cream of tartar for the main additive, though, because it's not particularly detectable (at least not to me -- apparently professional pastry chefs can tell). If you use much lemon juice, for example, you will taste it clearly.

[ahr]

It's always good to run into another of Julia's children. Our Lady of the Tossed Omelet does, however, permit the use of a spatula for final neatening.

Nicely done!

[Fat Guy]

Our Lady of the Tossed Omelet does, however, permit the use of a spatula for final neatening.

True enough, although "your impeccably clean hands" are the better tool.

[ahr]

True enough, although "your impeccably clean hands" are the better tool.

Sorry, but although they were pictured, no hands -- impeccably clean or otherwise -- were mentioned either under Tools or in the procedural description.

[Fat Guy]

(That's because it's a secret.)

[Jonathan Day]

Raymond Oliver's La Cuisine recommends a different approach for making filled omelettes: he makes a plain omelette, cuts a slash in the finished product, and puts the filling into the slash. The result is a cleaner-looking, neater omelette. The downside of this approach is that when you want a flavour to permeate the whole omelette (truffles, fines herbes, etc.), the slash-and-fill method doesn't work as well. FG, any thoughts on this?

[ahr]

(That's because it's a secret.)

Not any more...

[Fat Guy]

Jonathan: I suppose if one cares about the appearance of one's omelettes that much, that method might be very effective from a cosmetic standpoint. But it's a very old-school attitude that I can't relate to. It seems fussy and unnecessary: you can make an attractive-enough omelette using the home-cooking method, and I can't think of an instance where I wouldn't rather have integration between the eggs and the filling.

[Jinmyo]

The sliced omelette presentation is wonderful with a cascade of wild mushrooms, some tucked and some tumbling.

(St. Jacques de Pepin teacheth.)

[Sailor Stan]

Wow, the purity of it all. Maybe I'm too mid-Western but I recently started a "South Beach" diet and substituted my oatmeal, Starbuck's muffins and multiple breakfast bars for a "loaded" 2-3 egg omelet loaded with chopped green, red and orange peppers, portabella mushrooms, onions, low-fat shredded cheese and some small slices of Canadian bacon. While this is indeed a meal in itself, I think it is the "fluffed" nature of the eggs that gives it such a palatable texture. I'm not sure how sustaining a "pure" omelet would be. But on some future warm and gloriously sunny Sunday morning, I will try the "pure" approach and gain a better appreciation of warm, fluffy egg (French style)!

[Fat Guy]

I'm not sure how sustaining a "pure" omelet would be.

That's why you should eat two of them!

There are a whole lot of good egg dishes that involve loading a bunch of stuff into the eggs. The only one I particularly object to is the standard overcooked American diner omelette where a rubbery sheet of eggs is folded around an overwhelming ration of fillings. What you're making sounds more like a "fluffy omelette," which can be delicious though you don't really taste much egg. If you want to get it fluffier and you have the patience, separate the yolks from the whites, beat them separately, recombine, and cook. That will give you serious fluff. Also, you may prefer a frittata, because it's cooked slowly and therefore preserves a better flavor and texture than a standard overcooked omelette.

[ExtraMSG]

FG, so you don't think you get a little more even cooking from using a spatula to swirld the contents a bit?

[Fat Guy]

I've found that you can do the whole process just fine with no utensils at all -- you get an effective swirl just from moving the pan itself a bit.

[FoodMan]

FG-

How long does the egg/water mixture need to be whisked? I saw (or maybe read) sowmehere that it actually needs to be whisked for several minutes to increase in volume and get the proper classic texture.

This whole eggs series has been great.

Elie

[Fat Guy]

Most recipes and instructions I've seen indicate "lightly beaten eggs" for classic French omelettes. To me, omelettes made with lightly beaten eggs retain more of that essential egg flavor and texture than ones made with heavily whisked eggs. The heavily whisked ones definitely do puff up a bit more (though not so much given the very short cooking time of this type of omelette) but they taste like they're made from a batter rather than from actual fresh eggs. Heavy whisking would be more appropriate, I think, for an omelette like Sailor Stan describes above.

[chickenlady]

Best omelette ever!! Thanks!

In "The Making of a Cook" Madeleine Kamman claims that overbeating will cause the egg proteins to liquefy and lose their ability to develop volume, resulting in hard flat omelettes.

[Fat Guy]

I guess there are stages of overbeating. When I do more than light beating, what I observe is more puff but also a more plastic-like texture. Maybe if you beat beyond that, you lose the puff as well. More experiments to be performed.