You may have been making scrambled eggs for years, but the proper technique yields a creamy, fluffy, mouth-melting dish with intense, fresh flavors of egg and butter. There are three keys to success:
1) thorough whisking,
2) gentle heat, and
3) getting them out of the pan on time, which is sooner than you may think!
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon half-and-half or milk
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
5 to 6 grinds black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Warm two serving plates. Crack eggs into a large bowl. Add half-and-half or milk, salt, and pepper. Whisk until the mixture is very loose and very little egg clings to the whisk when you lift it out, about 1 minute.
Heat butter in a nonstick pan on high until it just begins to sizzle. Reduce heat to medium, and before all the butter is melted, add eggs. Using a wooden spoon, continuously scrape the bottom and edges of the pan in long strokes, taking care to scrape every inch. If you can hear any sizzling from the pan, it’s too hot. Take it off the burner and continue scraping until the sizzling stops, turn the heat down a notch, and resume cooking and scraping on the burner. Be patient and watch eggs carefully. They are done when they still appear very wet and have achieved the texture of cooked oatmeal, about 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer eggs from the pan immediately onto warmed plates. They will continue to cook with retained heat on the way to the table. At the last minute, off the heat, you can layer flavor with tiny slices of cooked shrimp, cubed raw tomatoes, or a drop of truffle oil.