I’ve written briefly about eggs before, but this time it’s to discuss the omelette. Having recently watched how to make a “French” omelette on America’s Test Kitchen, I was intrigued enough to try this twitchy recipe.

Since the site requires an over-solicitious “membership,” I’ll do my best to reproduce the gist of it here. (Hoping they don’t send a cease-and-desist letter my way over it.)

First, you dice up 1/2 tablespoon of butter and put it in the freezer. While it’s icing down, heat a non-stick skillet over a low flame. During the ten minutes while the pan is getting hot and the butter is getting cold, prep your eggs. Two whole eggs plus one egg yolk. Beat them with a fork eighty times. (They supposedly determined that eighty is the magic number. Just make sure you don’t see any separate whites, I say.)

Turn the heat up to medium, melt 1/2 tablespoon of butter (not the frozen stuff) in the pan. Stir the frozen butter chunks into the eggs and add the mixture to the pan. As it coagulates, stir it with chopsticks. Basically scramble them. When they are just about set, remove the pan from the heat and spread the eggs evenly with a spatula. Cover and let sit on a cold burner for one to two minutes.

Place it back on the heat for half a minute. Then, using the spatula, slide it off the pan and onto a paper towel-covered plate. Use the paper towel to help you roll the omelette into a cigar shape. (Not the half-moon style you may be used to.)

Plate and eat.

I think it was the best omelette I have ever eaten, anywhere any time. The outside was not browned. The inside was velvety soft but not runny. There’s supposedly some valid scientific reason why adding the frozen butter makes the eggs extra creamy and soft. All I know is that it was pretty fantastic. I might try experimenting to see what is essential in this recipe and what isn’t. But I know I’ll be making omelettes in more or less this way from now on.