Tamago (Eggs)

[Hiroyuki]

Here is a misleading description of dashimaki tamago in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagoyaki

In reality, tamago yaki refers to any type of beaten and fried eggs.

Atsuyaki tamago is a type of tamago yaki that is sweetened with sugar, and is a Kanto (Eastern Japan) thing.

Dashimaki tamago is a type of tamago yaki that is seasoned with dashi and a dash of mirin, and is popular in Kansai (Western Japan).

[Peter the eater]

I'm a fan of tamago and I usually order it at the restaurants, occasionally I try to make it at home. Yesterday I made some using duck eggs and was pleasantly surprised. Are duck eggs a part of typical Japanese home cooking?

[Hiroyuki]

I'm a fan of tamago and I usually order it at the restaurants, occasionally I try to make it at home. Yesterday I made some using duck eggs and was pleasantly surprised. Are duck eggs a part of typical Japanese home cooking?

←

No, I don't think so. They should be popular in Chinese cuisine. How do they differ from chicken eggs?

[Peter the eater]

I'm a fan of tamago and I usually order it at the restaurants, occasionally I try to make it at home. Yesterday I made some using duck eggs and was pleasantly surprised. Are duck eggs a part of typical Japanese home cooking?

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No, I don't think so. They should be popular in Chinese cuisine. How do they differ from chicken eggs?

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Duck eggs are not very common in Atlantic Canadian food, which is a shame. I'm sure there's some economic reason.

Compared to chicken eggs they're larger, heavier, and around twice the price so therefore still affordable -- $5 a dozen as opposed to $2.50 a dozen. Duck yolks occupy more of the shell, the whites are more viscous, and the shells are twice as hard to crack. They taste similar but they're richer and more unctuous.

So I guess there's not a Japanese word for duck tamago?

[Hiroyuki]

There is no other way other than to say ahiru no tamago.

[Peter the eater]

There is no other way other than to say ahiru no tamago.

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Hiroyuki, thanks again for answering my questions. One other thing about duck eggs is that they are only available in the late spring, around here anyways. I'm sure that could change if they became more popular.

[Kuma]

mini Scotch eggs

While enjoying a read through this thread, I saw this and had to comment:

Totally Kawaii !!!

I am going to have to make these on the weekend. What a fun treat.

I LOVE this forum.

[Chris Amirault]

Bump.

In a rather shocking development, I found this pan at a second-hand store, perfect condition. Didn't know exactly what it was at first, but I had an inkling....

Got it home, whipped up some eggs with a bit of shoyu and sugar, and took a crack at it:

My five-year-old daughter, for whom I regularly make lunch, declared this to be one of the greatest things ever. So, now, I turn to you. What can be added to this tamago -- or is the proper question what cannot? Is the sky the limit?

[nakji]

They are a feat, aren't they? If you turn the egg while the top is a little less set, the layers should fuse together more.

You can add chopped cooked spinach; more sugar and shoyu, or chopped green onions to jazz it up.

[helenjp]

Yes to the idea of turning the layers while still sticky on top, and I find that if I just "rumple up" the first layer into a log at one end (instead of rolling it), the following layers seem to make a rounded shape more easily.

Spinach (squeeze water out well and chop, season) can go into the first layer, also unagi (grilled eel) trimmings, powdered cheese, crumbled wakame or a little hijiki, slivers of spring onion and/or some frozen green peas (they work well dropped into the first layer while it's still liquid). Anything colorful is fair game. Don't add stuff to the outside layers, as it is harder to stop it popping out as you roll.

Don't underestimate the plain rolled omelet though - it's even better served a floret of broccoli or some spring greens than it is with the greens mixed into the omelet.

[Chris Amirault]

So ideally I want a completely fused set of layers?

[mkayahara]

Chris, have you ever ordered the egg nigiri-zushi in a sushi restaurant? That's the kind of effect you're going for. There should be lots of thin layers, all fused together into a whole. It's trickier than it sounds, since you have to try to cook each layer to the same doneness as the one before. I've never mastered it, but then I don't make dashimakitamago very often.

[andiesenji]

I like your pan Chris.

I have one that has little ridges on the bottom that has worked much better than the traditional pans.

News about eggs on a local station just a little while ago.

Less Cholesterol and more Vitamin D

info on egg cartons will be revised.

I keep telling people that eggs should not be vilified but some do believe all the "bad" hype.

I love eggs.

Edited February 8, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[Chris Amirault]

I've got some smoked eggs that I may try to use tomorrow night, so I'm snooping around trying to find a good tutorial. The first cooking is one seems a bit, um, indelicate; I guess I have some presumption that one shouldn't make American scrambled eggs and then roll them up. Wrong? Right?

I gotta check my cookbooks.... I've never had this dish before so I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for....

Edited February 14, 2011 by Chris Amirault (log)

[nakji]

Biggie from Lunch in a Box has an excellent tamago-yaki pictorial.

You needs some eggs mixed with your seasoning - soy, sugar, dashi; as you like.

The trick is, you want to start out by pouring about a 1/3 of the egg mix into the hot oiled pan, making a thin layer of scrambled eggs. Then you sort of pile them up at one end while they're still quite moist, and add another 1/3 as a thin layer of egg to the pan. When the bottom of that is set, but the top is still moist, you use the big lump at the end of the pan as a centre to roll the wet layer around - like a katamari or a snowman. You can use chopsticks or a silicone spatula to help. When you have a complete log, you pour the rest of the egg in and repeat. Ideally, you should end up with a fused log, which you can cool and slice.

I think Biggie recommends firming it up in a sushi mat.

[Chris Amirault]

Thank you, sensei. No wonder mine looked/was wrong.

[andiesenji]

I use this recipe and this method because I like the many thin layers and I have not found it necessary to roll the resulting omelet in a sushi mat. Also, it's possible to add little bits of "filling" to some "layers" before rolling.

Some recipes call for sugar but I prefer the mirin.

Although I have to admit that I watched several before attempting it myself.

My daughter learned in a sushi cooking class.

Edited February 14, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[andiesenji]

I'm bumping this up because I just found this item

Apparently it doesn't work as well as the regular pans that don't have a bump in the center.

I don't understand the purpose of the bump but I'm guessing that this is a simple idea that some engineer (who doesn't cook) got hold of and decided to "improve" it.

[BarbaraY]

I have been making these for years. One of my favorite ways with eggs.

Used to make them for my late husband. I would sometimes put a sheet of nori between the layers. He always referred to it as spinach and I never did disabuse him.