Published January 1, 2005.
Why do additional ingredients quickly transform fluffy eggs into a watery mess?
When we tried to convert our usually reliable recipe for Fluffy Scrambled Eggs into a recipe for Hearty Scrambled Eggs, the recipe suddenly became unreliable. Instead of light, fluffy curds we had a heavy, waterlogged mass of rubbery eggs. The problem? The moisture added by the fillings we were using to make the recipe "hearty."
We wanted to keep our scrambled eggs light and fluffy while adding hearty ingredients such as sausage, cheese, and vegetables.
We had to eliminate as much of the added moisture as we could. First we sautéed vegetables before adding them to the eggs, then removed them from the pan and wiped it dry before adding the eggs. We replaced the milk called for in our original recipe with half-and-half, which has more fat and less moisture. Finally, we learned that some ingredients were more appropriate for this recipe than others. Consistently successful were drier leafy greens, crunchy vegetables, and breakfast meats. Less successful were mushrooms, which have a high water content, and ham steaks, which are often full of brine.
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