Four Secret Ingredients That Make Scrambled Eggs More Umami
As a mother with her children, I have a hard time picking favorites when it comes to ways to cook eggs. I love fried eggs. I love boiled eggs. I love poached eggs. I love scrambled eggs. As my esteemed colleague Steven Johnson pointed out, cooking eggs can literally teach you how to cook . They really give us so many gifts.
I’ve been having some kind of scrambling lately. I like to cook scrambles because they lend themselves well to the latest changes and additions: you can toss and sprinkle them with a wide variety of sauces and seasonings, impulsively and without much effort (my favorite cooking style).
As you may know, I’m a big fan of umami, and that enthusiasm is reflected in my latest scrambles. Here are a few last-minute umami-boosting impulse supplements I’ve experimented with. Hope you try them.
Add onion powder for a subtle zesty flavor
As a joke, I added the last bit of onion powder from a nearly empty jar and was rewarded with very savory eggs with lovely fried onion notes. The effect was amazing, but subtle enough to qualify as a “secret ingredient”. You and anyone you feed these eggs will notice that they taste better , but the yolk softens the onions so they don’t scream “onion powder”. A pinch or two per egg is all you need (depending on how fresh your onion powder is, of course).
Add soy sauce for a deep, rich salty taste.
Unlike onion powder, soy sauce is not thin. He bursts into your fight yelling “UMAMI” and “SALT” and frankly, your balls are better for him. Just a splash adds a dark saltiness and fermented umami notes that bring out the richness of the eggs. I prefer to do a low and slow scramble when it comes to soy sauce; sometimes I add some mirin for sweetness.
Melt anchovies in butter for deep, decadent minerality.
This step is a little more difficult than the previous two, but it’s worth it. Anchovies have a reputation for being “too fishy,” but they melt and mix with the butter to form an umami-rich, mineral-rich cooking oil that almost makes your bout too decadent for a weekday morning.
Start with a ratio of one anchovy fillet for every two tablespoons of oil. Melt the butter over medium heat, then add the anchovies, mashing them with a wooden spoon until they dissolve. Add eggs and beat as usual. (Don’t want to go through all that? Add a few drops of fish sauce or whip up some shrimp paste .)
Add monosodium glutamate to boost pure glutamate.
Monosodium glutamate is the crystallized salt of sodium and glutamate, and glutamate is one of the delicious amino acids—it’s what gives Parmesan cheese its nutty, tangy character, the reason ripe tomatoes taste so good, and why meat tastes meaty. A few servings of monosodium glutamate add pure umami and nothing else, which is great if you want to try mostly eggs, but want those eggs to be more savory.