Hello from the farm,
I'm about to disagree with Gordon Ramsay about scrambled eggs, which feels slightly above my pay grade. I mean Gordon makes some seriously good scrambled eggs and famously teaches that you shouldn't salt scrambled eggs until the end. The theory is that salting them before cooking makes them watery.
There's just one problem. Food science says otherwise.
Now this sort of thing appeals enormously to my brain because I spent far too many hours in chemistry classes studying wine science. So it's natural to use that education to investigate food science with our eggs. I have even salted different batches at different times, including one a full hour before it hit the pan. And Gordon, I'm sorry, but I couldn't make your theory work. The early-salted eggs weren't watery or tough. If anything, they were softer.
The reason is all about the egg proteins. Heat makes them tighten up and link together, which eventually pushes moisture out. A little salt interferes with that process, so they don't clamp together quite so enthusiastically. In other words, salt may actually be helping them.
Now, Chef Ramsay does make some pretty famous scrambled eggs, so I'm not suggesting he needs cooking advice from an egg farmer in Jindabyne. In fact, I'm going to share his recipe HERE - Just ignore the bit about when to add the salt. Sorry Gordon!
I think you should conduct your own experiment this weekend. Make two pans side by side - one salted before and one salted afterwards. The worst-case scenario is that you've made too many scrambled eggs, which is hardly a tragedy!
