Scrambled eggs on sourdough

Creamy moist scrambled eggs prepared as a thick sauce. The technique is already discussed at length here with a link to a Gordon Ramsay video. You've never had anything like this, well, maybe you have, but I urge you to try this at home if you haven't already. It will change your perspective on scrambled eggs permanently, and henceforth all future scrambled eggs will be compared with these and found seriously wanting. You will wonder to yourself, "What took me so long to catch on?"

Cook the eggs in a small pot instead of a pan starting at room temperature. Crack the eggs into the pot along with a generous nob of cold butter. Whisk on moderate heat continuously without letting up.  You will notice the butter begin to melt. That means the pot is warm enough to begin cooking the egg. Lift the pot off the heat source the moment you notice anything at all happening with the egg. It will begin to thicken and cook at the bottom. Whisk the cooked portion into the liquid portion off the heat and then return to the heat to continue. 

On the heat.

Off the heat.

On the heat.

Off the heat.

On the heat.

Off the heat.

On the heat.

Off the heat.

On the heat.

Off the heat.

Like a crazy person, watch the mixture like a hawk while whisking continuously both on and off the heat, and remove from heat as soon as the first molecule cooks so to avoid the formation of curd, or to whisk them in if they do form. In this manner the mixture thickens and cooks through within just a few minutes. Now, use your judgement to determine how stiff and thoroughly cooked you want your eggs. There is a broad margin here. You can stop at a thin sauce or you can continue to a firm fully coagulated rubbery mixture. This cold butter whisked into egg  over gentle to moderate heat is the same technique used for Hollandaise sauce but in that case, usually much more melted butter is whisked into egg over a double boiler and the process halted before the egg completely coagulates. 

Finish with crème fraiche, sour cream, or Mexican crema, all three have a touch of acid that performs the same function as lemon juice in Hollandaise sauce, and this is the touch that distinguishes these eggs from standard café fare (along with the completely smooth texture, of course, but that is understood.)

Again, hold off from the salt until the end because it tends to keep the egg liquid. 

The bread is my own sourdough dense as any bagel, stronger than anything available commercially because it was fermented longer than practical for commercial bakeries, a full three days. Imagine having three days of dough stored in rotation and kept cold for a product with limited and inconsistent demand, it doesn't happen. So you must make it yourself if you want eye-popping kick-butt sourdough bread.  

Here is an idea to have the process go more quickly than the process I described in the previous post. Prepare a thick slurry of flour and water, say 1 cup, in a closed mason jar. Set the jar aside and forget about it for 3 days. Check for activity on the 4th day. Look for tiny bubbles to appear. No bubbles? Give it another day. When tiny bubbles appear, your starter is activated and you can begin feeding your starter in increments of equal parts flour and water by weight, that would be approximately double the flour to water by volume, say, one cup total the first feeding. 

This first cultivation step can be speeded considerably by introducing a steady heat source of 95℉ / 35℃ , as a proofing box, for the first 24 hours. This is the ideal temperature for yeast cells. After that, subsequent feedings are at room temperature which is generally 20℉ / 13℃  less than the ideal temperature for yeast so all subsequent feedings will take longer to reach peak activity. 

Observe the bubble activity for its peak. Keep an eye on the dough at 8 hours. See the dough-foam creep up the bowl. When the foam falls back from the peak you will notice a line around the bowl left by the receding culture, like a bath tub ring, and then you will have the natural timing of your yeast/bacteria culture's feeding cycles. Or else you can force the timing by feeding regularly at 8 hour or 10 hour or 12 hour intervals, whatever works best for you. Increase the amounts of feeding with each increment as if you were trying to fool the entire yeast/bacteria culture that new food resources are infinite. 

It may take a few days to develop a fully active culture. Along the way your culture might get out of hand due to the increased feedings. In that case, pour off some of the excess to keep the culture a manageable size as you develop its bubbling ferocity. I've noticed that cultures derived from the organisms already on milled flour tend to be more powerful than cultures derived from airborne organisms specific to location. I think that is because flour is milled grain combined from various sources in order to achieve specific protein levels and to attain a relatively consistent product. 

At the peak of the peakity-peak of bubbling activity, add enough flour to the final feeding to create a dough and not just a loose foam. Add salt. Allow to proof partially, that is, an incomplete cycle.  Chill the dough for at least 2 days, 3 days is better. Remove from cold storage, allow to attain room temperature and resume its wonton profligate ways. Form a loaf if it isn't already formed, and then bake. I like using some kind of cloche and high temperature, but everybody has their own preferences.

If you are anything like me, then you must be prepared to make every mistake known to baking and then some that only you would make, without becoming discouraged. It's how we learn -- by failing. At least, that's how I learn. I cannot tell you how many times I forgot to add salt. 

It might help to watch the 'NYT no-knead bread' video widely hailed as the big game changer among amateur bakers, judging by the comments to it. It's all over YouTube and the internets. (The video neglects a brief proofing period immediately preceding baking. I have no idea why they edited that out.)