So cracked who’s perfect the scrambled eggs?

Delia just adds butter, Gordon Ramsay loves creme fraiche...

SOMETIMES the simplest meals can prove the trickiest to make truly outstanding — not to mention the most hotly disputed in terms of technique.

Take scrambled eggs. American chef Anthony Bourdain recently weighed in with his recipe for the ‘perfect’ version, insisting that nothing be added to the eggs apart from seasoning and butter in the pan.

But what really goes on when we scramble an egg? And why do apparently small differences have such an effect on the final result? REBECCA LEY puts some recipes to the test and asks egghead Gregory Weiss, a professor of chemistry, molecular biology and biochemistry for his scientific view. DELIA SMITH DELIA says she is a ‘disciple of Escoffier’, the legendary French chef, on the subject of scrambling. Her method is almost as simple as Bourdain’s. Heat a ‘walnut of butter’ in a ‘small, solid saucepan over a gentle heat’. Beat two eggs with a pinch of salt and pepper. Once the butter foams, pour in the eggs and stir with a wooden spoon. When the eggs are almost, but not quite, set, remove and add another knob of butter.

PROFESSOR WEISS SAYS: Eggs are very high in proteins and water. When you cook them, the proteins get tangled together, which converts them into a semi-solid state. As eggs get overcooked, the water gets driven away and the proteins collapse into a solid, which tastes rubbery and unpleasant. Delia emphasises not overcooking the eggs. While the eggs are hot, they are cooking — even off the heat. The butter she uses forms tiny drops of fat. As the egg cooks, the proteins surround these drops. The combination of butter fat and protein tastes rich and satisfying.

RESULT: About as classic as scrambled eggs can be. Truly delicious. Rich thanks to the butter, with a good texture that isn’t too runny or too dry.

GORDON RAMSAY

PREDICTABLY, Gordon Ramsay’s technique is much flashier than Delia’s. He advocates starting with a cold pan into which you break the eggs, over a very low heat. Add a knob of butter, stirring the eggs for six minutes as they begin to set. Another knob of butter and more stirring follows with the pan coming off the heat at intervals. Just before the eggs are set, take the pan off the heat and stir in a teaspoon of creme fraiche and the seasoning. The whole thing takes around 12 minutes. PROFESSOR WEISS SAYS: The slow cooking makes it less likely that you’ll overcook the eggs. The constant stirring breaks apart the structure of the scrambled eggs, leading to smaller curds. The creme fraiche contributes extra dairy proteins, which don’t have the long structures of proteins found in egg. RESULT: The kind of eggs you get in a hotel. Gloriously rich, thanks to the creme fraiche, and loose in texture with small curds.

ANTHONY BOURDAIN

AS STRAIGHTFORWARD as it gets. Place a pan on a low to medium heat. Crack eggs into a bowl and season. Beat until you get a ripple of yellow and white throughout, but don’t over-beat.

Add a generous knob of butter to the pan and wait until it begins to foam. Pour in the eggs and let them sit and cook for a short while until they’re slightly formed. Then push them around in a figure-of-eight pattern with a fork. Stop when eggs become fluffy, aerated and rippled. PROFESSOR WEISS SAYS: The eggs must not be over beaten. Too much puts air into the egg solution, causing the proteins in the egg to unfold, and folded proteins better retain moisture and fluffiness than unfolded ones. The pause before scrambling gives the egg a chance to cook without becoming fully denatured. The fork could do a slightly less efficient job of pulling the egg off the surface of the pan than a wooden spoon. It might cause parts of the egg mixture to dry out more. RESULT: This only really differs from Delia in that Bourdain advises that you wait before you start to scramble and use a fork. The result is slightly drier.

BILL GRANGER

THE New York Times declared Australian chef Granger’s scrambled eggs the best in the world. Heat the ‘merest sliver’ of butter in a non-stick pan over a high heat. Stir a whopping six tablespoons of single cream into your two eggs with a pinch of salt, before whisking. Pour in the eggs after about a minute and leave them for 20 seconds, before stirring them slowly, gently pulling the sides into the centre of the pan. Cook for ten seconds, then stir again. Repeat until they are just set. PROFESSOR WEISS SAYS: The cream can form an emulsion with the proteins in the egg. This means it makes a fine dispersion of tiny droplets. The proteins get protected from drying out and losing their moisture. RESULT: Eerily pale thanks to all the cream, but they do have a beautiful, light texture and taste ridiculously creamy and rich.

HOUSEWIFE FAVOURITES Eggs cooked with olive oil

IN MEDITERRANEAN countries, it is common to scramble eggs with olive oil. Add a glug of oil to the pan over a gentle to medium heat before pouring in your eggs and seasoning. PROFESSOR WEISS SAYS: Eggs are very neutral in flavour and easily pick up the flavour of the olive oil. Butter can more readily form an emulsion with the egg proteins when it foams up after heating. Olive oil doesn’t foam up and remains segregated from the egg. This is why the oil can leach out after scrambling. But olive oil offers nutritional benefits. The U.S. cooking company Cook’s Illustrated, which tests recipes, reported that lower heat gives a lumpy appearance. Oil needs to reach a high enough temperature for the egg proteins to tangle with each other. RESULT: The taste of olive oil is overpowering and has given the eggs a greenish sheen. It seems to have affected their texture — the final result looks like a wonky omelette. The oil seeps out of the egg rather than binding to the mixture. Not good.

Eggs cooked with milk

THE most common way to scramble eggs is to add a splash of milk. Heat a knob of butter in a pan. Break two eggs into a bowl, season, add about two tablespoons of milk and whisk. Add to the pan and use a spoon to scramble as the eggs heat. PROFESSOR WEISS SAYS: Adding milk also adds water, which forms steam to puff up the eggs. Smaller curds result from stirring, which breaks up the large structures in the egg. RESULT: Surprisingly different. The milk seems to make the final dish a bit softer and fluffier, with more volume. The curds are smallish and uniform. The flavour is a touch less eggy.

Scrambled eggs with water

ADD about two tablespoons of water to your eggs and seasoning before scrambling. PROFESSOR WEISS SAYS: Eggs already contain a lot of water, but adding more doesn’t hurt and provides a source of steam. As the steam escapes, it puffs up the egg, increasing the volume. RESULT: This seems to have added a bit of volume, like the milk. I would never have thought of adding water before. It makes two eggs go much further.

Poached scrambled eggs

U.S. CHEF Daniel Patterson has pioneered a method for scrambling eggs as one would poach an egg. Beat two eggs in a bowl. Set a medium saucepan filled with four inches of water over a moderate heat. Put a sieve in the sink.

When the water is at a low boil, add a few large pinches of salt, then stir to create a whirlpool. Pour the eggs into the moving water, cover and count to 20. Turn off the heat and uncover.

The eggs should be floating in ribbons. Hold back the eggs with a spoon, and pour off most of the water over the sieve. Gently slide the eggs into the strainer and press them lightly to dispel liquid. Tilt the sieve from side to side to release trapped water. PROFESSOR WEISS SAYS: This poaching method will not get to a high enough temperature to unfold the egg proteins into a gel. Since the proteins stay folded, they retain moisture. It’s not the point of scrambled eggs. RESULT: Weirdly pale and very watery with muted flavour due to the lack of added fat.