4 Levels of Omelets: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

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hi i'm emily and i'm a level one chef hi

i'm lorenzo and i'm a level two chef hi

i'm barb and i'm a level three chef

it's been a while since i made an omelet

because usually i just give in and make

scrambled eggs with stuff in them the

recipe comes from many many brunches

that i've gone to i'm going to be making

a french omelet with a wild mushroom and

goat cheese filling and fresh herbs

the fillings going into my omelette are

pre-cooked ham stick and some green bell

pepper when i'm figuring out the amount

of filling i should use i just kind of

eyeball it and that's kind of going to

be it so that's the first thing i'm

going to do it's actually going to start

cooking the bacon the vegetables i'm

using today are red bell pepper

spanish onion green scallions white

button mushrooms and softened goat

cheese with the mushrooms we're going to

toss them with olive oil salt and pepper

all right so these are going to be

roasted i might as well do my decor i'm

only going to use a green portion

we're going to use uh italian parsley

chives and chervil and there's our fresh

herb mix let's start sauteing my

vegetables i'm gonna add a little bit of

red pepper flakes because i like it a

little spicy i'm not cooking this all

the way down i just wanted a little bit

of the raw bite off the mushrooms have

come out of the oven we're going to

roughly chop them we're going to add our

mushrooms in just a little bit of black

pepper so as this is going i'll add a

little bit of salt all right so we have

sauteed the vegetables so i'm putting

the filling into a piping bag so that

it's going to be easy to fill our

omelette all right we're going to now

make the egg mixture so what i'm going

to do is i'm going to crack some eggs

into this bowl two eggs and then i'm

just gonna mix some other stuff into it

so first i've got egg number one

egg number two didn't get any shed on

there this time so pretty much

professional i actually cracked the eggs

in a separate bowl just to make sure i

don't have any shells at the bottom of

the bowl from here i slowly pour it into

my actual whisking bowl we're going to

start with three eggs for the omelet

crack the eggs away from the bowl that

we're going to be mixing them in so that

we don't trip the shell and get it into

our egg mixture and i always use two

hands to separate the eggs i'm gonna be

whisking these eggs but it needs salt

the salt actually helps break down

proteins in the eggs so you're gonna

have a fluffier omelette what i'm gonna

do next is mix in a little bit of water

so what i'm doing here is i'm just uh

whisking it with a fork i use a fork but

of course if you have a handy dandy

whisk go for it so i tend to whisk up

and over in a circular motion so that i

catch all of the eggs whisking side to

side doesn't really do anything for you

we want to whisk vigorously because we

want to make sure that the whites and

the yolks are completely homogenized so

we don't end up with big white splotches

in our omelette i like a little texture

in there you know like some bits more

yolky

some more

egg whitey i just want to get some air

into

the egg mixture

and kind of incorporate all the salt

that i put in there so seasoning wise i

pretty much just eyeball it yeah that's

a fine amount of pepper i'm just gonna

put just a pinch of salt in we're gonna

add in

a generous pinch of our fresh herbs

and just mix them in just before we

start to cook all right

now i'm actually going to

start heating up my pan i'm going to put

this over medium heat we're going to use

two teaspoons of whole butter this is

going to add some flavor to our omelette

and help the omelette not stick it's a

pretty fast process and

swim

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as soon as the eggs go in the pan we

start to stir and i'm making little

circles around into a big circle i move

it around a little bit you can see as

i'm doing that it's starting to wrinkle

a little bit that means it's cooking the

reason i'm doing this is because i want

the eggs to cook evenly if i let them

sit the eggs that are touching the

bottom of the pan are going to cook more

than the ones on top even though this is

thin i'm just going to give it like one

more second obviously this is an exact

science i personally like it loose like

that it's still a little runny so i'm

gonna cook the eggs until they're about

85 percent done i'm gonna cut off my

heat and then i'm gonna spread this back

out i'm gonna toss some fillings in here

now so i'm just going to put my ham and

my peppers on one side of it let's start

with my cheese this is freshly grated

cheddar cheese and i put it right smack

in the middle and then you take your

veggies do the same thing in the middle

oh my goodness that looks good already

then what i'm gonna do is take my

filling and add a nice generous amount

in the center

and then i'm just going to take this

side

and then just flip it like that i'm

gonna fold the omelette

one third of the way slide it towards

the end of my pan now i'm just gonna

roll it onto a plate lift up and roll

and then roll

kind of a plop

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so i like to put hot sauce on my

omelette i still have a little topping

to go with my fresh scallions because i

love the bite of that oniony flavor of a

scallion and then don't forget the bacon

folks i like tearing and placing the

bacon on top and then we're going to

take a nice generous pinch

and just garnish her almost at the end

all right so this is our omelette and i

think it looks pretty good

it looks actually really delicious

so i'm really happy with how this turned

out

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i can't wait till they get

still really nice and moist

that's a good option

the vegetables with the sharp sharp

cheddar cheese it's so good together i

get a little bit of tanginess from the

goat cheese a really nice roasty flavor

it's great i told you i could make an

omelet

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we saw three different chefs make three

different omelets each with their own

filling cooking method and toppings

let's start with the filling emily used

raw bell peppers in her omelette lorenzo

sauteed his vegetables and barb used

roasted mushrooms what barb and lorenzo

did was remove some of that moisture

from the vegetables so that the filling

isn't too moist

when we have a really moist filling in

our omelette we can see a process called

cineresis or weeping when the eggs weep

liquid out and create something a little

bit more soggy

as opposed to light and fluffy

lorenzo and barb both filled their

omelets with cheese lorenzo chose

cheddar cheese which is a low moisture

cheese i list like the sharpness of

cheddar cheese and barb chose goat

cheese which is a high moisture cheese

the goat cheese helps bind our mushrooms

together high moisture cheeses like goat

cheese melt at the same temperature our

eggs will coagulate at whereas our low

moisture cheeses like our cheddar cheese

melt at a higher temperature than we

need to cook our eggs so they might not

completely be melted when we go to roll

or fold our omelette

next our chefs blended their eggs eggs

are composed of two different parts our

egg white which is mostly protein and

water and that cooks at a lower

temperature around 140 degrees

fahrenheit in our egg yolk which is

mostly lipids with a little bit of

protein and carbohydrates and that

starts to cook at a higher temperature

around 149 degrees fahrenheit blending

those two homogenously will ensure that

we have an even cook in our omelette

emily and lorenzo used a fork to blend

their eggs and barb used a whisk either

of these are good options to create a

homogeneous mixture but when using a

whisk be sure not to over aerate your

eggs we can over beat the eggs and

produce a foamy mixture that won't cook

at the same rate as the rest of our eggs

all of our chefs added salt to their egg

mixture before transferring that to the

heat the salt will help to dissolve all

of the proteins in the egg mixture which

will create a fluffy final product emily

added water into her egg mixture that's

what i was taught to do so that's what

i'm doing some people think that you

have to add liquid into your egg mixture

but this isn't necessary

adding a liquid like water is going to

increase the temperature that we have to

cook or coagulate our eggs if you are

choosing to add a liquid into your egg

mixture choose heavy cream or whole milk

to add an extra rich flavor to your eggs

emily used a moderate heat when cooking

her omelet lorenzo cooked his omelette

at a low temperature and barb chose a

higher temperature to cook her omelet

when using a low or moderate temperature

like lorenzo and emily did it's okay to

spread your omelette throughout the

whole pan to ensure even cooking within

the omelet when choosing a higher

temperature move your eggs around just

like barb did so that we're not over

exposing our eggs to heat and we have an

even cooking without damaging or

toughening the protein in our eggs like

i'm frosting a cake so it's nice and

even when we heat eggs we seed two

different protein reactions the first

protein reaction is called protein

denaturation when we uncoil or unravel

the egg proteins next the proteins

coagulate or aggregate into something we

call a curd this is the main protein

reaction we see when we're cooking an

omelette

today we saw our chefs make two styles

of omelettes the french style omelet in

the diner style omelet emily made a

diner style omelette where she browned

the bottom of her omelette she created a

light and fluffy texture and folded it

in half barb created a french style

omelette with no browning on the bottom

she left it a pale yellow color with a

tender inside lorenzo created something

kind of in between the two it is though

it really is he created a tender filling

and browned the outside to create a

crust and then folded it in half that

makes sense the french style omelette

leaves moisture on the top of the eggs

giving them plasticity so that we can

roll it into a cigar style shape the

diner style omelet is cooked longer as

evidenced by the browning on the bottom

of lorenzo and emily's omelette cooking

our eggs longer draws out more moisture

and we don't have the plasticity that we

need to roll it into that cigar style

shape that's why it's better to fold our

diner style

omelette everybody has their favorite

way to top an omelette emily chose hot

sauce which is going to help to balance

the salty flavor from the ham in her

omelette

lorenzo chose bacon which is going to

give a nice crunch and texture to his

omelette while also providing a deep

flavor who doesn't like bacon barb added

herbs to her omelet which is going to

give an earthiness and a freshness to

her final product this is one of my

favorite things to make for dinner

hopefully you can incorporate some of

these elements and techniques into your

own recipe