My experiment came out of our book "The Science of Good Cooking." In it they discuss what makes the perfect scrambled eggs and the reasoning behind that. It says that dairy in eggs ensure that the eggs coagulate and remain tender. The book uses half-and-half in their eggs which keeps them from over-coagulating (coolest word ever) and squeezing out too much liquid, and the moisture causes more steam which makes the eggs extra light and fluffy.
My experiment used the dairy aspect of eggs to see what would be better. I used half-and-half in one batch of eggs and skim milk in another batch of eggs. My hypothesis was that the half-and-half being added to the eggs would make the eggs more fluffy, and therefore add more volume to the eggs than the skim milk being put in the eggs because of the fat content of the half-and-half keeping the moisture in causing it to be fluffier.
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| "There's only one thing I hate more than lying: skim milk. Which is water that's lying about being milk." -Ron Swanson |
How did I make them you ask? I followed the recipe from our good ol' textbook!
-8 eggs and 2 egg yolks
-1/4 cup of half-and half (one batch) 1/4 cup of skim milk (other batch)
-salt
I mixed those ingredients up in a bowl then dumped them on to a pan on the stove that had been heated between medium and hot and lined with melted, unsalted butter.
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| First batch ready to go |
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| Second batch: Bubbly |
I first did a batch with the half-and-half added. The second batch was with skim milk. After the eggs were done I used a measuring cup to get the volume of the eggs.
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| Half-and-half batch |
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| Skim milk batch |
My independent variable was the type of dairy being used in my eggs: the half-and-half and skim milk.
My dependent variable was the volume of the eggs.
My standardized variables were the ingredients (eggs, butter, salt), the pan used, the temperature, and the bowl used to mix the ingredients up.
My hypothesis was rejected in my results. I scooped the amount of eggs into a measuring cup to find the volume afterward. I found that the eggs made with the half-and-half had less volume than the eggs with the skim milk, though not by much. The half-and-half had 3 cups of volume, while the eggs with skim milk had 3 and 1/4 cups of volume.
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| Fluffy and Delicious graph to be added someday |
I did find that the eggs made with half-and-half were still fluffier and better to eat. The eggs with the skim milk were more watery and that is most likely because of the lack of fat in the skim milk. That caused the liquid to squeeze out of the eggs, which could have led to the extra volume of the eggs.
I would most likely change the way I measured the eggs if I had to do this again. There could have been pockets of air in each cup I had to measure, which could have led to a seemingly larger volume than what was actually there. I also would do a control of the eggs without any dairy to see what the volume of those would be. Unfortunately I used almost all of my eggs since I made 16 of them, so I probably would cut the recipe in half next time as well.
I would also do more samples if I had the resources available to see if I would get the same results. I feel like the results would be almost identical because reaction of the two dairy products should always be the same, but science is tricky so who knows for sure.
I would be interested to see if whole milk would be just like half-and-half in the fluffiness results because of the fat content. That would be another experiment I would like to try sometime.
Also: I was told that the fluffy eggs tasted just like they do at restaurants, so I have that going for me.
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| All-American breakfast |
Overall, this experiment taught me about the importance of the fats and coagulation in eggs. I would never have had any idea about using half-and-half to make delicious scrambled eggs. SCIENCE IS COOL!
Sources: The Science of Good Cooking by Guy Crosby
Everyone enjoys some good scrambled eggs. I would never think to put half and half in eggs because I would be afraid it would turn them sweet. But your results clearly tell otherwise. I think it would be interesting to try this with complete cream vs. milk instead of something that is half cream and half milk and see the difference in results.
ReplyDeleteAndy,
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost, your opening sentence was great! It definitely got me interested and made me laugh. :) My hypothesis would have been the same as yours! That's interesting that it was rejected. I would want to see how whole milk affects the eggs as well! Like you said, that would be another interesting experiment. Maybe even just water? Or oil or butter? Something way different than milk would be interesting to test as well! Great experiment and very fun to read. :)