Soft as Egg Shells

Who doesn't love eggs? You can do so much with them. Today I set out to make the perfect fluffy omelet. According to my book for class an omelet cooked in butter will be fluffier than an omelet cooked without butter. You can test this by setting a weight on it. According to the book an omelet cooked with butter will be squished by a 2 pound weight because the extra fat in the butter coats the proteins in the egg keeping them tender. Ideally, you would use frozen butter because it melts slower and will disperse evenly throughout the egg (The Science of Good Cooking).



My hypothesis for this experiment is that if an omelet is cooked without butter it will not be able to be squished when a two pound weight is set on top of it. The null hypothesis for this experiment is that the butter would not have any effect on the omelet and thus it will be squished by the weight regardless. My independent variable was the butter and my dependent variable was whether the omelet got squished by the weight.



In order to preform this experiment you will need:
- three eggs (two whole, one yolk)
- half a tablespoon of frozen cubed butter
- 8 inch pan
- stove top
- bowl
- something that weighs 2 pounds



First you heat the pan on low for 10 minutes. While the pan is heating you need to mix your two whole eggs and one egg yolk together in a separate bowl. After the 10 minutes you pour the eggs into your pan and bring the heat up to medium and let the omelet cook. You then repeat the process with the same egg mixture only this time adding the frozen butter.

Picture 1 - both of my completed omelets. The omelet on the left was cooked with butter while the one on the right was not. Which one looks fluffier than the other? 

Picture 2 - omelet without butter being squished by two pounds of juice.

Picture 3 - omelet made with butter being squished by 2 pounds of juice. 

 Picture 4 - omelet cooked without butter, not squished by the juice. 

Picture 5 - omelet cooked with butter, squished by the juice. 

The results support my hypothesis that cooking an omelet with butter increases their fluffiness thus allowing it to be squished when weight is applied. In recreating this experiment I would definitely have an actual 2 pound weight instead of a jug of juice that weight nearly 2 pounds. I would also make more than one of each type of omelet (the one cooked with butter both smelled and looked delicious).

Until next time :)