How to Make Tamagoyaki | Serious Eats

Flavored with dashi, mirin (sweet rice wine), and usukuchi (light) soy sauce, this tamagoyaki is delicate yet infused with rich and savory flavors. Making tamagoyaki requires a special rectangular pan so that the final rolled omelette has a uniform shape. We recommend starting with a smaller nonstick one, roughly five-by-seven inches; once you've mastered the rolling technique in that pan, you can try making larger ones if you want. This recipe and technique was taught to us by chef Daisuke Nakazawa of Sushi Nakazawa in New York city and Washington, DC. Learn along with us!
FULL STORY: www.seriouseats.com/2019/08/h...
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Serious Eats is a leading resource for all things food and drink: meticulously tested recipes that really work; in-depth, science-based explanations of cooking techniques; detailed reviews of cooking equipment; and guides to ingredients, dishes, and cuisines. We bring a democratic yet scientific approach to cooking the best dishes, busting food myths, and delivering strong opinions on what you should eat next, where, when, and why.

[@wordkyle]

This is one of those videos where with each step I tell myself "I could do that." But when it's all put together it's clear it takes a huge amount of technique to do correctly. Hats off to Daniel.

[@MariaGonzalez-mb5tv]

He made it look easy but something tells me that is not the case, but I would like to try.

[@justinha9846]

Guys it’s…not complicated. It’s very easy. I got it first try

[@wordkyle]

​@justinha9846 Congratulations on your success. Even Nakazawa struggled with how to make the dish correctly.

[@mikeandroi2698]

So great to see chef Nakazawa there. I remember that part of JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI where he talked about making the tamgo for years and it not being ready for customers. Credit to Jiro Ono for teaching him and expending the eggs each day for his training. The scene where he finally makes one were his master approved of was so uplifting...

[@454Casull]

Wow, can’t believe you were able to get him. Good stuff!

[@schilling3003]

I wish you would have had him show the way he does it in the restaurant so we could see the difference!

[@ChezJ1]

WOW! I would’ve been TERRIFIED to have him standing right there watching your EVERY move. GREAT video, entertaining, and instructional. Thank you so much.

[@duncanmcloed1]

I wouldn't have been terrified with a happy laughing chef teaching me 😄

[@ChezJ1]

@@duncanmcloed1 lol yeah he was happy wasn’t he?

[@orangeystrawberry]

Why is everyone being so rude? :(( You did such a good job with the homestyle tamagoyaki and the chef is so cute! I love how patient he was with you. And I can't wait to try this out myself!

[@AdrenaleeT]

Tf you throw those eggs out for

[@crsp.k.6524]

I got so mad for that.

[@alexavasquez1992]

Right!

[@duncanmcloed1]

Wasting food

[@knightsofneeech]

Wonderful video! Thanks for the great tips from the expert!

[@sonalsaha8939]

This video is one of the best 'funniest cooking videos' I have seen. so candid so much fun 🤭

[@luvpinkhellokitty]

Awesome video!! Thank you! I’ve been trying to make this!

[@TonyWildRiver]

Thank you for the tutorial! And your video was fun to watch! Tamagoyaki is my one of my most favorite Japanese dishes and, hands down, my favorite way to eat eggs. While I do like both, I much prefer tamagoyaki to scrambled eggs. The seasonings give the egg a delicious sweet flavor that tastes amazing and can even be eaten cold (I think it's actually better cold). The thing that really sets it apart though is the texture. The rolling technique gives it a texture that is just heavenly. Also, as they showed, the dish is really forgiving to mistakes as you learn. Every time I have made it so far, it has been yummy, even if I mess up a few times.

[@daisukematsumoto7072]

Osu, Danny, great video, i m gonna try to make it tonight after watching your video. Thank you.

[@user-od8wo3zk2t]

Love this video, funny and informative at same time

[@adf8664]

Great video.

[@tonyhicks2503]

That was SO MUCH FUN! I was actually using body language each time you flipped and rolled the egg. I also laughed out loud when you thought the chef was listening to the pan - - that's what I thought too! I thought "what kind of next level sushi master magic is this that he can HEAR when the pan is ready??!!!" 🤣

[@sunnydayssandytoes4337]

That was so fun and very nervous watching you cook in front a very skilled chef. 👨‍🍳 You did great! I'm still learning this skill after 6 years. I never bought the fancy pan though.

[@funwithoutgluten]

Very good video and I loved the workout scene !! LOL

[@jeanh9329]

I watched a video where a guy bought one from a convenient store. So I wondered how they were made. I watched two before I watched yours. Both were Japanese and they both burnt them. Then I watched your video and yours was the best looking one of the three. Thank you. Jean from Arizona 🐍🦎🦂🌞🌻🌵🌴

[@homumu]

love this series

[@sketchum1959]

Great Job! :)

[@msgypsyqueen]

Oh, the humble egg 🥚.. I need one of those pans! 🤓👍

[@rakario2320]

awesome video =)

[@atouch89]

You are soooo cute that was hilarious…the workout training portion had me cracked up!

[@ttly1384]

Notice at 8:33 the chef kindly asks for the used utensil and puts it away. This is a professional standard in professional japanese kitchens that whenever a utensil is no longer used it has to immediately be washed and put away. Such a simple yet elegant cultural practice that speaks volumes on the diligence of the Japanese.

[@tktazuk6638]

I'm just curious why Nakazawa pointed out that Daniel was using his chopsticks. Is it taboo to use another chef's chopsticks? That seems like it would be a Japanese courtesy as well. Nakazawa did say yes when asked permission, but I also felt that he was probably too polite to say no. Considering that it was shot at the Serious Eats kitchens and not at Daniel's home, it's surprising that Daniel would not have had a pair of cooking chopsticks at hand.

[@afraidcomet]

Knowing how to use chopsticks would help a lot

[@deathdog148]

That training sequence tho

[@homumu]

Can seriouseats give a lessom about omurice exploding egg bomb

[@abigaildawn2996]

4:38 mic drop 😎🤣

[@iamnotahater1000]

Is the "restaurant version" the same as datemaki?

[@Mr.56Goldtop]

No link to the red pan!??

[@chiyuryuu2687]

I make the families with bacon and/or sausage and cheese. I haven’t tried dashi/soy sea weed

[@TetsusaigaDrgn]

Anyone know the red pan brand and model? Ive been looking for something like it for a long time.

[@akiraryuu2499]

copper tamagoyaki pan

[@pineapplelogic1709]

There's the article linked in the description about the dish that has the link to the pan.

[@georgepace9797]

@@pineapplelogic1709 i know this is a bit of a late question but i couldnt find the link to the pan in the article. Do you know where in the article it was?

[@pineapplelogic1709]

@@georgepace9797 click the recipe link and scroll down to the section that says how to choose a pan. It the first paragraph of that section there will be a link that is highlighted blue. Hope this helps

[@georgepace9797]

@@pineapplelogic1709 sorry if im being dim i clicked the link and it took me to a search result for amazon instead of a particular product. which should i choose? sorry

[@user-hk7hz9cn7v]

So…how do you decide…how much to put in? (Growls in expert)

[@jlastre]

I’m sort of curious if it’s true the traditional pan makes a fluffier omelette.

[@c_rolla100]

wow Dan can kick pretty high, he probably works out

[@ofacekillah]

I figured it out the first I tried.

[@chaveznury]

I MADE IT TODAY FOR THE FIRST TIME AND IT WAS A SUCCES AND I DIDN'T EVEN USE A Tamagoyaki PAN

[@PandaHug11]

What?! How do you get the shape right? 😅

[@chaveznury]

JustAnotherUser well I can still use round pan and do the same procedure the shape doesn’t matter I mean u can cut it after lol

[@PandaHug11]

Hahahaha all I know is that when I try to make it in my round pan I end up with scrambled eggs 😂 I guess I just gotta keep practicing. I just feel like the square pan would make things so much easier ;_;

[@chaveznury]

@@PandaHug11 hahah yeah just keep practicing. remember low heat is key factor lol

[@zinnia20207]

😄

[@manugo4]

Y E S S S S

[@lizzponce]

Process actually starts at 7:22🙄

[@FtanmoOfEtheirys]

Eww don't use Aji-Mirin, it's fake. Be sure you are using Hon-mirin

[@PetzBaerserker]

00:17 yeah waste it!

[@soshenewpane2717]

I’m wondering why you didn’t speak the ingredients as you added them

[@raychang4185]

Such a simple and easy dish. Why all the fuss about obsessing over this. 10 years to learn…gimme a break.

[@Chanko2397]

Tamagoyaki is pretty simple and staple, but Japanese omelettes can get crazy complicated like omurice omelette.

[@czxjin_5874]

WAIT IS IT ACTUALLY THAT HARD TO DO??? I'VE ONLY BEEN ACTUALLY COOKING FOR ABOUT THREE MONTHS OR SO BUT I MANAGED TO DO IT ALREADY ALL BY MYSELF??? or am I just skilled HAHAHA anyways GREAT VIDEO!!!

[@glodieee_]

same I did it first try thinking Gordon Ramsay could never 😭😭💀

[@arabella5871]

This type of omelette is incredibly easy. I would think omurice is harder and takes years of practice. This is just layering eggs and flipping. Use a more appropriate tool if you are not keen to using chopsticks.

[@jehorigby8778]

'incredibly easy' is a stretch, it depends on the level of a cook's skill. You're 100% correct about the no Dashi option being easier than omurice and Dashi Tomagoyaki. Omurice is an undercooked country-french omelet hybrid, not easy but certainly not impossible I'd encourage you to try high Dashi content Tomagoyaki (no sugar, all sweetness coming from stock) it's exponentially more difficult - need to keep emulsion from breaking so end result is Tomagoyaki instead of boiled egg in stock Best of luck in your cooking journeys 👍

[@atomixwaste]

I tried this and made scrambled eggs I'm sad now

[@beverlyfitzgerald7675]

Please don’t give up. I learned this technique easily quite a few months ago. I’m not brave enough to flip the roll with chopsticks though. The secret to success, medium LOW heat. Get yourself one of those tiny, miniature, silicone spatula that has a nice thin edge at the beginning. That how I get the roll started, 100% success, every time. Practice, practice then practice more. I strongly believe in your ability to gain success.

[@atomixwaste]

@@beverlyfitzgerald7675 thank

[@ProfessionalFoodMachinery]

Why not to adopt the tamagoyaki machine to produce it? It's more convenient and quicker. The finished product is more beautiful.

[@tanyanguyen3704]

IVe never cooked this in m'y Life until today, and it cooked just fine. I dont know why you flund it hard, assuming youve made omlettes before. Odd.

[@OjaysReel]

Food waste. No.

[@Onistreets_]

Completely unrelated to food, do you practice capoeria?

[@gonzothegreat1317]

9:38 You ate it with his chopsticks?? That was very disrespectful.

[@evemcewen6998]

No, he didn’t - you can see the chefs chopsticks on the bench.

[@itsfunnehfan8205]

Well either way it's not his chopsticks.

[@myyoutubeaccount9]

Hey I love this channel! But I would love it even more if you didn't promote food waste, even for comedic effect ( 0:18) I realize this might be an over reaction to something so small but I think every little bit counts and you guys have a big audience, thanks!

[@JakeLovesSteak]

Yes! It's ridiculous to trash perfectly edible food just because you didn't get it into the exact shape you wanted it to be in.

[@AnythingEverythingCovered]

How much eggs have you dumped into the trash can? So much waste.

[@m-baka]

Pretty shit tamagoyaki you got there.

[@kamalhm-dev]

This video should've been 5 minutes long. Good job on extending the video

[@tamz0309]

Watching him throw away that egg made me cringe.

[@smallpele3617]

im half japanese so ik how to make tamagoyaki Idk why i said this im just bored

[@pam0626]

This guy talks way too much.

[@theocoxd]

Tried from just watching, adding some mexican equals to nippon ingredients and it result into a Ditto tamagoyaki, shapeless, tasteles and as useful in competitive. I was 12 years old and lots of free time ( I got as high degrees, my teachers ask me to stay away from mid school)

[@koolkid-yj1jx]

wat

[@MisterGrooves]

Turned it off when you threw away edible food because it was ugly.

[@justinn8410]

Japanese way. I watch. Tell you wrong.

[@Paelorian]

The essence of tamagoyaki seems to be to take scrambled eggs, one of the world's simplest and easiest to cook delicious dishes, the first thing I and many others ever learned to cook, and complicate it into a virtuosic display of fussiness. All without improving or even substantially transforming scrambled eggs from the dish a child can master. Maybe I just haven't had world-class tamagoyaki, but "wow, it's a folded omelette." Mastering the restaurant version must be a candidate for the worst effort-to-payoff ratio in all of cooking. I'd skip the recipe and just pour a little dashi, soy sauce, and mirin into my eggs, myself. Same flavor, no? It appears to me that the goal of tamagoyaki is to intimidate home chefs into not making it. I'm out at "unitasker special omelette pan". But all this hullabaloo is a great way to get people like me, who make scrambled eggs or omelettes a few times a week at home and are reluctant to buy them at most restaurants, to shell out restaurant prices for eggs. I really would buy chef Nakazawa's tamagoyaki without hesitation, and I was so glad to see him here. But that's not really about tasting tamagoyaki so much as tasting someone's ideal of perfection. I can respect the craft of, if you make something for years, constantly refining and improving until it's better. I find scrambled eggs to be one of the foods most insensitive to good cooking. My eggs are not lacking in any way, but I've never cooked something to much with so little improvement. Heck, I've never cooked something so much. I cook eggs about four times a week, often experimenting, and they're pretty much always the same with minor variations in texture and seasoning. I don't think there's much room for improvement when it comes to eggs cooked in a buttered pan. I think my eggs taste pretty much the same as they did when I made them as a kid. The biggest difference is that I learned how make them not stick to a stainless steel pan, and to use a fork to whisk in a small bowl instead of a balloon whisk since it works just as well for the task and is easier to clean. Different techniques produce different textures, and hotel buffet eggs are generally pretty watery, rubbery, tasteless, and crappy, but that's about it. Even fancy chicken eggs taste about the same as cheap chicken eggs. Kenji did a blind taste test and despite the deeper yolk color there's no difference in taste. I've never noticed it. I've never noticed a difference with duck or quail eggs, either. Although I read duck eggs have a slightly higher fat content, so maybe if I ate them often I'd notice a subtle difference. It makes sense to buy the pan and make tamagoyaki if you enjoy it, but I've already made too many huge-effort recipes that resulted in me tasting and saying "That's it? Why not cook this an easier way?" I'm sure home tamagoyaki doesn't taste better than putting some butter and then lightly beaten eggs in a hot pan, plus mix-ins if desired, which takes five minutes to master. I'll leave the fussiest recipes to the chefs.

[@PVS3]

This was my question as well. In the intro, he states how HARD this dish is to make, but never describes why it's worth the effort. It's obvious that the dish is hard to make, but WHY is it worth making? By comparison, the English-style "Gordon Ramsay" eggs - they take longer but they are MUCH different than classic scramble. In ways that are highlighted in every single discussion of the dish. I enjoy them when I have the time, because the extra effort yields something worthwhile that I cannot get any other way. By all means, if you want a challenge go through all that extra effort with a special pan and try flipping soft eggs with *chopsticks* instead of a more appropriate tool. See if you can do it! However, is the resulting product really different? how? is it exceptionally fluffy? light? flavorful? rich? I'm with you in not quite understanding why the key things we care about in food (Flavor, texture, etc) aren't discussed in this video or others.

[@SkitHertz]

I feel more or less the same way. I guess it's just a cultural thing. I can't imagine spending 10 years learning how to cook eggs ...

[@JakeLovesSteak]

Yeah, and it also pissed me off to see him throw away perfectly fine eggs at the beginning of the video. Hell, it's still a scrambled egg. It's not suddenly garbage just because you can't get it into the exact shape you wanted it to be in. I'm sure he could've found someone to eat it.

[@drsteele4749]

Scrambled eggs fall off the sushi. Twat.

[@thatonehead]

It’s mostly a texture thing, and it’s actually not hard at all with a spatula. Its one of my favorite foods to cook when i’m drunk because its easy and drunk me finds flipping things in a pan entertaining

[@sammu]

10 mins of video to show how to make an omelette?

[@mookiecookie44]

I think it was about two minutes in until you actual got to the point.... it’s no that complicated, and you’re not that funny, dude.....

[@huaili3606]

I think I'll just have some scrambled eggs. No need to burden myself learning weird, difficult techniques when it probably tastes about the same. When I was in Taiwan, the people said that Japanese food was expensive, looked nice, but did not taste special. I find myself agreeing with them as time goes on.

[@serpentax]

are you sure you've been to taiwan?

[@undinesfire]

It's not difficult just because you don't have what it takes to do it.

[@amonkeybird]

did he steal the other chef's personal chopsticks and eat with them? hee, hee!