The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 142

For fluffy, diner-style omelets, the key is to start the eggs in hot butter and move them as little as possible during cooking Rather than shaking the pan and breaking up the large curds, the best course of action is a move called the lift-and-tilt: use a silicone spatula to lift up the edges of the omelet and push them toward the center of the pan while tilting it, to allow the raw egg to run underneath Repeating this technique means nearly all of the eggs can be set with minimal stirring You’ll still end up with a slick of raw egg across the top surface, which is easy to take care of: remove the skillet from the heat, add whatever toppings you like (ham and cheese are my favorite), cover it with a lid, and let the residual heat from the eggs gently cook the top through, then fold it in half and serve A tender, fancy-pants omelet—the kind I remember watching Jacques Pépin make look so easy—can be made by cooking the eggs fast, but it’s one of the most difficult techniques in cooking (really) Luckily, though, it doesn’t actually require fast cooking, and once you’ve learned the cold-butter-cube trick you picked up with the creamy scrambled eggs to help regulate the cooking temperature (se e here), you can actually make a tender French-style omelet in much the same manner, with slow cooking and constant stirring The only difficult part about this style of omelet is the rolling The trick is to make sure that one side of the egg disk is thicker than the other by rapping the pan sharply against the stove as you finish cooking so that the eggs collect on the end opposite the handle Then let the bottom set slightly, and the omelet can be rolled up, starting at the thinner edge, before being turned out onto a plate A tender French omelet