Cantonese style Scrambled Eggs (黄埔炒蛋)
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Whampoa stir-fried eggs! This is a classic egg dish and – what’s for me at least – my very most favorite way to scramble an egg. One of the cool things about this …
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. First off, quick note that more traditional than the toasted sesame oil in the seasoning of the egg would be some more melted lard. Personally, I just feel that the frying lard ends up incorporating with the egg in a way that renders the melted lard in the egg itself sort of optional. The most correct way would be to swap that ~1 tsp of toasted sesame oil with ~1 tbsp of lard. Up to you.
2. Looking at that quantity that I was frying with again… I re-measured it, and found that I was really much closer to two tablespoons. Apologies, it’s one of those things that I always end up eye-balling.
3. If you’re working with a cast iron wok, you actually don’t need to put the egg on and off the flame. Just pre-heat you wok, add in the egg, and turn off the flame. The residual heat will do the rest. The on/off the flame bit is actually sort of our own approach to mimic lifting the wok up to the lip of the wok burner like they do in restaurants. Note that the on/off the flame thing we do here would be considered very non-standard. But it gets us to a very nice end result IMO.
4. On that note though, there’s a million ways to execute this dish. Just type “黄埔炒蛋” into YouTube, and you can look at the sheer diversity of what you find. Here’s a good video showing another classic ‘step-by-step’ approach https://youtu.be/8SVZ1AXLqP4 and then there’s also this dude, who’s just… impressive https://youtu.be/oWUsCCCuoS8 . The layering technique that we show in the video is simply one approach among many.
5. Another classic approach is the step-by-step approach linked above, but keeping the egg at a doneness more similar to what we show in our video. After you finish frying, you then flip the egg on the plate so that the cooked portion on top cooks the uncooked portion. Also a very cool approach – we just love the gooey/ribbon-y look that this layering technique provides (and hey, we do have YouTube thumbnails to make after all). Reportedly this was Chiang Kai-Shek’s favorite way to have eggs.
6. There are many legends of Chiang Kai-shek making these sorts of eggs – one is that he’d whipped the egg white hard enough so that they’re stiff enough that chopsticks can stand in the whipped white. This is basically the Chinese equivalent of ‘stiff peaks’, and is employed in a handful of dishes. We did try testing it, and that gives you… a pancake lol. There could definitely be something we’re missing there, but because we’ve only seen that ‘chopstick story’ online and not in any of our books, we’re tentatively willing to write that one off as a potentially confused rumor. If you do follow that method though, let us know because I did think the idea of a ‘meringue scrambled egg’ was very cool.
7. These eggs could have gotten their name from Chiang Kai-shek’s time at the Whampoa military academy, or they could have gotten their name from the Tanka boat people that lived along the Huangpu river by the old port in Guangzhou. The latter is the story that Steph’s Dad shares. Their technique was reportedly as Steph described in the outro, and yeah… we just couldn’t seem to get something not-greasy there. While it’s possible that hey, it was the early 1900s, maybe people just liked stuff dripping with lard… we’re leaning more towards that there’s something that we’re just not understanding. Unlike the ‘stiff peaks’ story, there seems to be a lot more solid basis here. So if you know anything, definitely let us know.
8. Oh btw, if you’re curious about how hot ‘bubbling around a pair of chopsticks” is… we’re working at ~180C if you pool the oil in your pan/wok.
9. As I say in the description, butter can work. Personally I would try for something clarified like ghee or clarified butter if convenient (to avoid browning), but on a whim I tested it with some bog-standard Western butter and it works fine. It obviously provides a different flavor than the lard, but I’d still call it the same category of ‘thing’. I also tested this once with bacon grease – delicious in its own way, but undeniably morphs into that ‘American Breakfast’ flavor.
10. Oh, and by the way… uh… sorry to any Cantonese people watching. This video is another entry in an ongoing list of instances of "Chris tries to respect Cantonese food and culture by… absolutely butchering the language and pronouncing words like they're Mandarin" lol. Again, I really am sorry, I'm just… not one of those language guys – took 12 years for me to reach even this level of Mandarin haha. I know I should learn. One day, promise.
EDIT: To everyone that's saying that these are 'undercooked', do you also hate this – https://bit.ly/34bnfOV and this – https://bit.ly/3i9lxlT ? Because this's about as cooked as the former, and definitely way more cooked than the latter…
Totally cool to have different preferences though, of course. If you want it a bit more done than shown here, you can flip the egg onto the plate when finished. The residual heat'll really help everything cook completely though
this is like the nilered of cooking
Ew
I had mine with eggs
I’m from Hong Kong and I’m a ten year old. If I were to eat this everyday then god exists
I'm just getting into the channel, but I tried these this morning and they were incredible!! I don't have many of the traditional ingredients, but even just the cornstarch and the cooking method rendered eggs that were absolutely dreamy <3
Seeing a lot of raw egg in the finished product.
That’s all presentation not going to change the taste of the eggs. So unless impressing with presentation or know how is your goal this doesn’t seem like a practical way to make scrambled eggs.
Finally someone who can pronounce the words correctly
Great recipe, will try
4:17 Ah, the classic chef's prize.
I was making crab Rangoon and deep frying them in Peanut oil in a large heavy Les Crusette Pot. I was using egg to seal my wontons so I tried deep frying the leftover egg. I had to let them drain and even placed them on paper towels but their taste was out of this world!
I add oyster sauce to mine and scallions. 10 out of 10. Thank you.
so half cooked eggs?? got it
Well u got my sub
The video had me at Cantonese style scrambled eggs until the Schnauzer came to view in the video <3
Guy sounds like Ben shapiro
Tsui Wah baby. I miss Hong Kong. I escaped to Vietnam recently and still can't find a good HK 茶餐厅 😭😭😭😭
"Standard, Wok-less Western kitchen."
That hurts :'(
With 3800+ comments, this will just get lost in the mix, but he does say he'd "hacked" a way to do this with a non-stick skillet and electric stove and there's no electric stove. I don't care because I have gas, but just pointing out the glaringly obvious.
That looks good….
they are raw…totally raw 🤮
"To get started with Cantonese scrambled eggs, you'll need… eggs."
Me: ✍️✍️✍️✍️
"be sure not to skip cornstarch"
Yeah guess what I forgot to add…
Sorry chum. Your Scrambled egg is only one of a thousand variations of Scrambled Egg, and I can assure you I have tasted betetr.
I like this style, will try it next time I make scramble.
I personally enjoy thoroughly cooked eggs but I respect your recipe and am now browsing your channel!
There was a chinese restaurant that I used to live buy that had these eggs in this style sliced beef served pretty runny. I never knew what it was called and just ordered it from the picture. Sadly it closed down and i have never been able to get it again, unitl now. I made this the other day per your receipe with beef added in and it was basically what i used to have at the restaurant. Thank you!
Best scrambled eggs ever! I like mine just as cooked (undercooked) Thank you for sharing it with us 🙂
That is raw
Thank you, def will try this, love the notes.
I can't eat pork, would i be at fault if i used bacon fat?
Me: how do you like your eggs?
Her: fertilized
Me: I meant for eating
Her: scrambled 😏
Is it me or does this guy sound like Nilered?
But those eggs are still raw. I can't eat half-cooked eggs.
It does look delicious. But, I like mine cooked more but not overdone. (I don't like slimy egg types)
yum!
Yea that dish isn’t as good as French style. And Ramsey literally is an idiot. His eggs had us all screaming
I do mine with just soy sauce and sesame oil. Soo good.
The dog besides the lady at the ending thow😅🤤
Is that a pork lard or beef lard?
I am a Cantonese and I still don't know how to make 黄埔炒蛋 until I see this video lol.
If I can’t get lard..real butter?
I tossed in some road grime and it was awful.
So how is salmonella doing?
the method of mixing makes senssseeeeeee
I can’t do runny eggs but I’m sure they’re delicious
this is an omelette… not scrambled eggs
The nonstick technique is actually pretty close to the way I've always cooked my scrambled eggs…
u better put them uncooked shits back into the fryer.
But it's not scrambled egg: it's a broken omelette. In Ramsey's defense, that's the Western palate. Will still love to try this version.