Why You Should Be Making Scrambled Eggs The French Way
When it comes to cooking eggs, here's one simple rule to follow: always do it the French way. However the French are preparing their eggs, that is bound to be the best way. Just look at Julia Child's 14-second omelette, a masterpiece of precision as well as speed, and then there's her simple egg-poaching trick that will have you making eggs Benedict like you trained at Le Cordon Bleu. While Child herself was not French by birth, she did master the art of French cooking, and wrote the classic book that inspired countless other cooks to do likewise.
Now we have a new French chef, who's sharing his cooking techniques the modern way: on YouTube. Bruno Albouze's The Real Deal Cooking Channel has over three quarters of a million subscribers. Albouze shared with Today just what makes his French-style scrambled eggs so creamy and delicious.
How you can make French-style scrambled eggs a la Chef Albouze
While Albouze says that "cooking is... 80 percent about the ingredients" and recommends using pasture-raised eggs, he also says that "it is important in egg cookery to create soft and supple textures... slow and low, patience and respect. [Otherwise] too high of heat will dry out the protein and take away the supple creaminess that the protein can provide."
According to the recipe shared with Today, you'll need to start by breaking six eggs into a bowl, and then leaving them alone! No whisking; not yet. Let your empty pan (not a cast iron one) warm over medium heat, then add a teaspoon of olive oil and 2-1/2 tablespoons of butter. When the butter is slightly melted, add the eggs. Once they're in the pan, only then do you give the yolks a poke. Use a whisk or spatula to fold and stir the eggs while shaking the pan.
Add a splash of dairy to finish your scrambled eggs off the heat
In about 5 minutes, your scrambled eggs should start to look soft and creamy, at least as long as you've kept moving and shaking them the entire time. As soon as they start to come together, take them off the heat. As you may know, eggs keep cooking even after you've removed pan from flame, but Albouze says you can counteract this by whisking in a tiny splash of milk or cream.
While we do know that you shouldn't add dairy before scrambling the eggs, adding it in at the end simply stops the cooking. Finish by seasoning your eggs with salt, pepper, and maybe some chopped fresh herbs, et voilà!
Another Albouze-approved way to scramble eggs
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Albouze instructs viewers in yet another way to scramble eggs the French way, using a water bath. This method, Albouze says, offers "a silkier, caviar-like texture." You start by bringing a pan full of water to a simmer, then place a large metal bowl over the pan of simmering water (or you could use a double boiler, if you've got one of those) and drop in some butter. Once it melts a bit, add the eggs. Polk the yolks, then let them sit for a few seconds until they appear to start coagulating. Only then do you begin to stir, just until the mixture thickens. Once it does, add another chunk of cold butter, then season with salt and pepper. Whisk the eggs until the cold butter is melted, then you pretty much pour the eggs over a slice of toast. Sounds a little weird? Actually, the end results will be absolument délicieux.
What to serve along with your French scrambled eggs
While you could always just drop some plain old sliced bread into the toaster, these elegant eggs deserve a more refined platform. Albouze suggests in his YouTube video that eggs be served atop "a lightly oiled or buttered toasted slice of sourdough bread, French baguette, ciabatta, focaccia, flatbread, or English muffin." As far as a side dish to accessorize your eggs, bacon is a classic, as is smoked salmon or lox, and Today also mentions that you might want to use caviar, salmon roe, or truffles — you know, if you just happen to have any of these lying around. (If not, you can always send the butler to fetch a fresh supply.)
Oh, and you might want to line up an appropriate dining companion, as well. According to Chef Brendan Walsh, dean of the School of Culinary Arts at The Culinary Institute of America, "Crispy toast and creamy French-style eggs are just the sexiest start to the chef's morning." Oh là là! Who knew les oeufs could lead to l'amour?