Why You Should Always Cover The Top Of Your Omelet While It's Cooking

An omelet is one of the most convenient breakfasts you can make, so it's no wonder everyone has their own little spin on it. How you make and like your omelet is a question that can surprisingly open long debates and comparisons of culinary techniques, whether professional or amateur alike. But whether you like yours creamy, browned, or rolled in a classic French style, one of the omelet hacks you should really start using is covering the pan with a lid to ensure a perfectly cooked top.

The tricky part of making any omelet is uniformly cooking the eggs so that the end result doesn't have any raw bits or, on the flip side, overcooked and burnt parts. Once the omelet is folded on your plate, you can't really fix the texture. That's why, instead of playing the timing lottery where you sort of hope the bottom won't burn before the top is done, we recommend you cook the omelet on medium heat until it's almost done — emphasis on almost. When the eggs are still slightly moist (but no longer runny), remove them from the heat and cover the pan with a lid. The eggs will continue to cook in the steam and will be done to perfection within a minute or two.

Part of the reason why we never tire of making these eggy breakfast beauties is the endless possibilities of omelet fillings, but some of them can leave your omelet abysmally soggy if you add them the wrong way. All veggies and meats should be pre-cooked — if you add them straight to the omelet, they'll release moisture directly into your eggs, and no lid could fix that. The correct order is to pre-cook the fillings, cook the omelet, and then add the mix-ins just before covering the omelet with a lid. This way, the eggs will set nicely around the additions and won't get mushy.

Our final tip for making the absolute best omelets is to move the eggs around as they cook. This ensures that the entire omelet comes in touch with the heat, so you're not left with random pools of liquid on top. Professional chefs usually rapidly stir the omelet, a technique that takes some time to master, and getting it wrong can mean ending up with scrambled eggs. For the casual home cook, using a spatula to gently but continuously pull the edges of the runny eggs towards the center is a much safer way of moving the eggs around. It's probably not haute cuisine approved, but it'll make an epic breakfast omelet.