Buffet Scrambled Eggs - © Seregansett Country Club

Eggs Need Special Handling For Best Results

I was surfing my fave Food News services this morning when I came across an opinion piece by someone I’d never heard of before, demonizing ‘Buffet Scrambled Eggs’. I was surprised that the author didn’t get into the obvious Food Safety issues about serving Eggs on a buffet…

Seregansett Club Breakfast Bar - © Seregansett Country ClubEven at a high-end Breakfast Bar, such as the one above at an exclusive
Country Club, there is very little a Chef can do to keep bulk, steam-
tabled Scrambled
Eggs from turning dry, clumpy and rubbery…

Every Hotel Breakfast Bar and Brunch layout serves them. And we all eat them, in spite of the obvious issues surrounding them. I’m talking about Scrambled Eggs, which suffer in many respects when made in large batches.

An over-the-top critique

A contributor to Popsugar Living lamented, in a purely critical piece, the ‘abomination’ that bulk, Buffet Scrambled Eggs invariably present to diners: “Thinking about them makes me gag. As far as I’m concerned, they should be banned from every hotel continental breakfast and hot bar on the planet. My greatest hope is that one day they will be illegal.”

Wow! The lady has a real hate on for poor, defenseless Scrambled Eggs. She goes on to complain that bulk Scrambled Eggs are often clumpy, or welded together into a single mass that has to be spooned onto one’s plate like a firm Casserole (see photo, top of page). I wondered immediately why she didn’t also mention the fact that even the best of them are almost always to be found sitting in hazy water, getting soggy.

And what about the blogger’s assertion that they, “…sit under a hot lamp — for who knows how long.” Does this Food blogger, writing for a major online news outlet, not know that there are strict rules for how long Foods can sit on the steam table on a buffet? And regulations governing the temperatures that must be maintained for safe service? Makes me wonder about the whole operation; the accuracy and objectivity of its news gathering. This is a prime example of why serious news people say you can’t trust anybody but them when you seek information on the Web.

Eggs need special treatment

I’ve had Buffet Scrambled Eggs at many restaurants and Hotel Breakfast Bars, and I know what to expect going in. There is only so much one can do, as a Chef, to improve the situation – short of setting up an à la minute station where a cook makes your portion for you as you watch. It would be a good idea, at least for the classier joints, just like the Omelet stations they have on their Breakfast and Brunch lines. And the Egg Person could also be making Omelets and other styles of Eggs to order for any diner who requested them. But that’s another story…

The fundamentals of Egg Cookery

First, it’s widely regarded as ‘gospel’, that Eggs should be allowed to come to room temperature before you start cooking them. This is especially true of dishes that call for beaten Egg Whites. They beat up much bigger and foamier from room temperature.

Cooking temperature is also a fine point, indeed. There’s a very narrow window for success when making classy Egg dishes – for instance the Perfect French Omelet, which should come out paper thin and tender without a trace of brown colour on it. The ideal temperature for cooking Eggs is medium low; just at the point where Butter foams but does not burn.

It’s equally important to cook Eggs quickly. Otherwise, they’ll dry out and get rubbery, or worse yet, develop brown spots. The aforementioned Omelet should take no more than 60 seconds to prepare, from the unbroken Egg to the diner’s plate. Scrambled Eggs should ideally be made in small batches and take no more than 90 seconds to coalesce into beautiful, tiny, cloud-light crumbles of buttery lusciousness.

Did I mention that it’s always best to pan-cook Eggs in plain Butter (perhaps with a little neutral-tasting high-smoke-point oil added to slow down any tendency to brown)?

The blogger was right about one thing, though

Eggs in any form were never designed to be made in bulk and held for any length of time on a steam table or worse, under heat lamps. They’ll invariably get rubbery and stick together, and bleed moisture into the bottom of the holding pan. And no one has ever found a way to avoid that.

So, like I said: Either avoid Scrambled Eggs – or any kind of Eggs, for that matter – on the Buffet or Brunch line. Or go in knowing what to expect. ‘Twas ever thus and, I suspect, ever it shall be…

~ Maggie J.