Hey guys, a few notes: 1. If you’re using stock for this dish, feel free to swap out the chicken bouillon powder. Perhaps add in a sprinkle of MSG in its stead (optional). 2. Something that I’m a little worried that I wasn’t clear enough in the narration: shut off the heat before doing the stream-and-stir method. But for the other methods, keep the flame on low during the process. 3. Another super classic egg drop - one that we almost did for the video - is a seaweed one. Basically same with the corn and chicken one but minus the thickening slurry (and corn/chicken obviously). Use the same soup base, same seasoning, instead of putting in the corn, put in a small piece of dried seasweed (紫菜/zicai), about 3-5g, let it boil for a minute or two, then shut off the heat and drop in the egg. Woks of Life has a solid recipe for that sort too if you’d like: thewoksoflife.com/seaweed-egg-drop-soup/ (we’d personally probably go a bit lazy, use a water + chicken powder combo in place of the stock) 4. For the hot and sour, another approach is to add the white pepper and half the vinegar to the serving bowl, instead of mixing it into the soup over the flame. Does an even better job of preserving the fragrance of the vinegar & pepper - we did it over the flame in the video mostly for the sake of clarity (and it doesn’t make a *huge* difference either way). 5. Steph sometimes also likes to turn her instant noodles into egg drop: add the whisked egg in before adding hot water, put the noodle back in the container, then put the seasoning on top of the noodle, then pour the hot water in. That’s all we can think of for now - might edit a bit more in a bit. Apologies if we’re a bit less responsive then usual, right now we’re in Guiyang, preparing to travel South Sichuan (Zigong and Luzhou) tomorrow :) Check out our IG to see food pics instagram.com/chinesecookingdemystified .
Thanks for mentioning other starches you can use in stead of corn, because I am allergic to corn and have been buying that water chestnut starch that you showed in your video at an asian market for years and using it instead of corn starch. I had no idea it was actually used that way in China, I just determined on my own it was a great substitute for corn starch. Some brands of corn starch make me have no allergic reaction and some make me have a bad one depending on how the company makes it, so every time I go to a Chinese restaurant I am afraid. Can you please tell me how to tell them in Chinese that I am allergic to corn starch and want them to use one of those other starches in my food instead.
Actually, I am curious whether there is a specific reason that you drop in the egg after thickening soup or adding ingredients (in the case of seaweed). I sometimes make seaweed egg drop soup at home; but I usually like the seaweed goes in after egg drop otherwise they might stick together. Because of this, I generally do the egg drop before anything so that I can better monitor and control the form of it. So I wonder if the order makes a difference or it is only personal preference.
I appreciate learning a new method for dropping egg. I use the third method often with ramen or congee. I like the larger pieces of egg and how creamy they taste. I would never eat scrambled eggs of such wetness but, in soup, they are perfect.
I really appreciate all your technique driven recipes. I feel like I'm learning how to cook better instead of just putting one recipe under my belt. The schnauzer is a just a great bonus
Same! I'm making things in a stirfry style which are still mostly just things around me rather than searching for specific things at the chinese supermarket, and I just made a leek eggdrop soup which had garlic and sesame oil sure, but i only had japanese stock so I used that
yes! i love that you point this out because a lot of chinese cuisine is very technique driven and skillful, but only italian and french cuisine is highlighted in those aspects!
Chinese cuisine has changed my life. Went from ordering restaurant deliveries 7 days a week to cooking most days. Not the healthiest food around, but its still better than restaurant, so much cheaper... and honestly immensely tastier!
@@anigilator5936 I have 3 go-to dishes The one I make the most is actually my own, it's Thai-inspired. It's basically some rice, with ground meat(pork or beef, depending on the prices) over it, and then eggs on top of it all. I cook my meat with ginger, garlic, shallots, thai chilis, oyster sauce, light soy ssauce, dark soy sauce, and sambal oolek, some frozen veggetable (anything you want, really), and some MSG. I also put a splash of sesame oil when I turn off the heat on the meat. For the eggs I usually scramble them but you can make them mirror, and then let the yolk run through the meat and rice :P. But the easiest is to scramble them, I usually put some more MSG and chilli peppers in the beaten eggs. I start the rice in a rice cooker, cook my meat and veggies toghether, and then I put everything in my bowls, and quickly make the eggs and lay it on top. My second go-to is a General Tso. I know this is American Chinese, but it still tastes like heaven. My third one is a good old Dan Chao Fan (egg fried rice). I usually make more rice than needed when I make a General Tso, so I can keep some for the next day (dan chao fan is best done with day-old rice), and then make my fried rice the next day. This is my cheapest recipe to do, around a dollar per portion... Insanely cheap.
My dan chao fan is quite similar to my first one, without the meat, and I actually fry the rice, while my first one, the rice is cooked but not fried. First one is sooooo darn simple to make... And it is DELICIOUS
@@anigilator5936 My first one is actually inspired from this video: ua-cam.com/video/B5Lef4f38AI/v-deo.html They don't say what they put in... but I made educated guesses, and it turned into gold.
I appreciate how your cooking videos are more accessible to folks who may not have access to higher quality ingredients, saying things like using boxed broth or frozen corn is okay. Cooking should be accessible to everyone!
I have tried to make egg drop soup from scratch before, but it always seems to come out different than from the nearby restaurant. The restaurant version seems thicker and the egg seems more ribbon like. Now I know I was using totally different technique and wasn't using thickeners, so thank you!
You too? My favorite Asian restaurant's Hot and Sour soup now has a challenger after finding out how to make those broad egg strips that look so fantastic in a soup bowl. I also second splitting the vinegar and adding part to the bowl although I prefer a black, aged vinegar for the deep, complex aroma and flavor it adds to Hot and Sour. Thank you for these, Steph and Chris! Happy US New Year!
@@Bear-cm1vl lol, first time hearing someone say US new year. Didn't know the US also claimed the Gregorian calender, which is also used in Europe here. Anyway, pretty sure you didn't mean anything by it. Happy New Year all!
@@FarewelI I think they said “US New Year” because they’re on a channel about chinese food, so they were differentiating from Chinese New Year. It’s still a bit awkward but that’s my guess
@@prettyrat. completely unnecessary and totally awkward. Just say happy new year, the entire world including Chinese people know it’s referring to the gregorian calendar.
@@prettyrat. Do feel better now that you said that? Did your self image inflate just a little. It's how we send New Years wishes to someone internationally. That's their contribution to humankind, and apparently, this is yours. JTFC, what you endgame with attitude? You don't have to help us all come together, but FFS, stop actively trying to divide us. Otherwise, Happy US New Year. (Happy New Years from the USA)
I always use eggdrops whenever I whip up a quick cream soup breakfast and it's always fulfilling. Also, did the egg drop crab and corn soup for Christmas dinner, that was just awesome in so many level.
Now this reminded me of many traditional home cooking recipe my family used to whipped up. Add some peas or diced carrot for additional nutrients, and now you have a complete meal.
I just made some suan la tang, and tried the ladling method for the first time ever, because I never knew it was a thing. Perfection. I used black fungus, shiitake, and some lily stems, too. First attempt at a hot and sour from scratch, it was flawless. Thanks for sharing the method.
I'm a professional chef, and I got a new job a few months ago at a restaurant that was known for having a Chinese-American chef in the '20s. We have the original menus on the wall, an even split between classic continental and Chinese cuisines (You could get a duck l'orange AND a peking duck for under $3!). I've been trying to honor the origins of the restaurant by always having a few classic Chinese dishes on the menu, and your channel has single-handedly kept me from being that annoying white guy doing a shitty lo mein. I haven't found anything that comes close to this channel in how concise, useful, and informative your videos are.
They really are concise, direct, and summarize everything you need to know, including possible variations. Kind of the Chinese food version of Ragusea.
My secret to thin fluffy strains of egg drops is to add some water to the egg when you beat it up like you would preparing for French omelet. You can get consistent thinner threads of eggs this way.
I love all these soups, though my heart truly belongs to Hot and Sour flavors. But I do it with whatever I have in the fridge and the pantry: silken tofu, bok choy, reconstituted dried shiitakes, toasted and ground Sichuan peppercorns, arugula, and dried chilies - that’s this week’s soup! It may start out as Hot and Sour Soup, but it ends up as Hollis’s Hotpot! Maybe I’ll add the beaten egg, but I’ll definitely add the lard, ginger, black vinegar, white pepper, white sesame seeds, and toasted sesame oil.
I used the Ol’ Buddy douchi/bamboo shoots/chilli soup base and egg-drop-ified it last night to help with my cold. Made me feel a million times better. Thanks Chris & Steph and happy new year!
The Hot and Sour looked exactly like the soup I remember my mom always getting. Their egg drop soup was the same too. I always thought that was just how it was but I never found it like that anywhere else. I've only known of the pouring method and just thought I wasn't doing it right. I'll have to try the ladling method soon.
Holy cow! I made the hot and sour thinking the whole time that it was WAY off but it was lovely. I used stock instead of water and instead of black Chinese vinegar, I used rice wine vinegar with a half portion of double fermented soy sauce.
My family would always add eggs to mein soups when we didn't have wonton made up, but I never considered this counted as egg-drop! That makes it seem so much less intimidating. I'd started going an opposite route and tempering the scrambled eggs with the hot broth so they create an thickened, creamy soup without the need for the starch, but combining the practices sounds like a very interesting way to go. (And hey, extra protein!)
oh wow, my favorite texture of egg drop soup is definitely the ladle one, but ive only seen instructions for stream and stir before. that explains why it never comes out like i want
Eggdrop soup is loved dearly by my family from Mississippi, and I just recently learned to master the very basic style of egg and broth. Its deceptively easy, and probably one of my all time favorite soups. Will definitely have to try these recipes.
I really like these techniques that defy the "correct way" pushed by many western content creators. It hadn't struck me that it would ever be desirable to incorporate eggs in a hot liquid without tempering it.
Really nice explanation. There is one minor bit that is worth mentioning for some people. When making the egg drop for Sweetcorn Soup, the egg isn't always fully beaten, it's like half beaten so there is still egg white in there. So when you're at a place where you see the sweetcorn soup with strands of egg white also, its because the egg is only partially beaten - enough to break the yolk, but not enough to fully mix in the yolk with the white.
The Cantonese corn and chicken is my fav!!!!! I love egg drop anything tbh, fav dish! My dad would make it and sometimes add some rice on the side or ramen inside.
Thank you for this video! I love eggs but I've never thought to try this. I appreciate how you both break these things down, the name of your channel is very appropriate! I had a decent amount of consome left over from making birria tacos, so I turned it into egg drop soup. It was egg-celent!!!! Never would have thought to do that without this video.
My mother makes most soup with egg drop (stirring method). Whenever we don't have soup, she gets some canned corn, mix it with water and boil for a while, then add the egg at the end. Very easy and delicious recipe!
As I find myself eating less and less meat (but more and more expensive meat) I like that egg drop soups are a great way to get some eggs into me. And soup. So far it hasn't gone wrong with any non-blended soups. Not even with big chunks of veggies. Blended tough have on occasion been too thick giving me big pieces off egg. Not horrible but not what I wanted.
As someone who also eats less meat but more expensive meat, here is something I like to do: When blending your hot soup in the blender, crack your egg straight into the blender, while it's one and the soup is moving. The soup is hot enough to cook the egg. You won't get the egg drop texture, but your soup will be extra creamy and silky and luscious. No diary required.
Hey I'm curious as to why you guys are eating less meat in general but more expensive ones? I find myself doing the same but was wondering if it's a thing. Also Erin, that's a great tip! I'll try that :D
@@AbelleveMe ethics, mostly. I buy the expensive meat from a farmer who let me tour the farm. I know his animals get a good life and he cares for the earth. You don't get that with cheap meat.
Wow, you’re familiar with Vancouver’s T&Ts! 👍 Coincidentally I was making Cantonese corn egg drop soup a couple days ago and just as you said, often times corn starch doesn’t work so well to thicken soups for me. I thought perhaps it’s because I sometimes add a bit of heavy cream at the end before the starch (not traditional I know…) before thickening it and that somehow the dairy altered the thickening property of the starch. This is good to know, thanks! Keep up the great work you two!
I've been looking all over for the chicken and corn egg drop soup recipe.... Thanks to you, I've finally found it!!! Appreciate it, it's my favorite. My mom loves the hot and sour soup, so we can make both at once. Thank you for letting us on these delicious staples of Asian cuisine. Edit: I made it and it was DELICIOUS 😋!! Thank you for the recipe.
This is ridiculously similar to avgolemono that Greeks do to most of their soup. An egg and lemon mixture is dropped in the soup, and it makes it A LOT more tastier. It goes hard with the Greek style chicken soup
thank you so much for the accessibility!!! cooking is very much about using what you have, and i appreciate you spelling it out for us. on another note, i feel like the narrator/main cook would refer to the audience as "my friends" or "my dear friends"
I'm a big Chinese food addict & I usually follow a great recipe & have pretty good luck with what I make. I'm 70 & need more protein in my diet, so I add an egg or 2 to whatever soup I'm making. I also add it to Ramen noodles.
When my dad was about 5 he remembers standing by his mother while she made brown gravy ,, some 60 yrs ago they were very poor and I do mean very poor... itbwas biscut and gravy every day for them.. anyway. He would beg Granny saying Buttt n egg in it momma butt n egg init.. sacmble an egg or two and when the gravy is done pour in slowly like this soup and it really is very good. 😉👍👍 this just reminds me of it. Thanks for sharing and a stroll down memory lane too 💝🥰
Nice variation of egg drop techniques, thank you. I find that Chinkiang vinegar is still a bit too sweet for my liking; what kind of vinegar can I use to really accentuate the sour in a hot and sour soup?
I absolutely love your technique-based videos. I was today years old when I found out that it was egg and not tofu in that hot and sour soup!! Thanks you two! 谢谢🙏
Winter finally reached me only for me to learn that my heater isn't working. I remembered seeing this recipe a few days ago and thinking I had almost everything for the hot and sour. I had to substitute Rice Wine Vinegar for the Dark Chinese Vinegar, and I had no scallions, but this soup has really made my day. I'll make sure to try it without substitutions as soon as possible.
I find thickened vs unthickened just changes where the egg sits. In a thickened soup the egg will float (usually) to the top, in a really basic soup the egg will rest on the bottom. But egg drop soup exists on every continent that has eggs.
Nice I subscribed because you have the ingredient list under the video. Would each of these be a 1 person meal/soup?? Would it turn out good if I use 2 eggs per 2 cups of liquid??
i love egg drop soup but didn't know how to make those sheets in the ladling method and in hindsight, it's so stupidly simple! regardless, i have made a chicken and corn egg drop soup w/ the lading method for the eggs almost every day since this video came out. thank you!
If you make a simple dough by adding flour to the eggs and then adding it by the spoonful you get little egg dumplings instead. Don't forget to season that mixture and if it's too thick use another spoon to help scoop it off 😄
A friend taught me to drop an egg into my instant ramen, glad to know we aren't the only ones doing it. I really enjoyed your video. Thanks for sharing it!
To avoid egg scrambling in Greece we beat the whites to soft peaks, add the yolks, and then add a ladle full of hot soup stock while stirring continuously to bring the egg mixture up to temperature. Then we pour it back in the pot, we stir some more, and we let it come to a boil one last time so the soup thickens up some. It's also common to add lemon juice in the egg mixture.
There's something similar here in my country with the 1st soup. It's line instant soup, and it costs $1. It's just powder with the dried meat and stuff. You pour in hot water, and then when it's ready to serve, you just drop in 1 whole egg (not scrambled) and then you scramble it in the soup. With that, you get this streaks of white egg, and then the yellow mixes in with the soup.
You earned the like and the sub for the hot and sour soup recipe. Now I really want to try to make this dish again because so far the best recipe I have found isn't a recipe; it's takeout. I have tried several "from scratch" recipes and they have all failed to match the takeout version in - for lack of better term - flavor. Yours, however, looks similar enough and simple enough that I might give it a go someday soon just for the aforementioned reasons alone never mind that I've been craving all kinds of soups over the last few months anyway.
There´s this soup in my country´s capital, Bogotá, called ¨Changua´ that is made with milk, water, green onions and a dropped egg. An andean way of curing hangovers
For whatever reason, as a cornstarch slurry thickened soup sits and cools down slightly, it seems to become thinner over time. Why that is, I’m not sure! If you’re consuming the soup immediately, it’s not a big deal. But generally, this sort of soup is eaten in the context of a larger meal... and because thick soups seem to have a pretty high heat capacity, you can toss it on the table to sit as you’re whipping up your stir fried veg or whatever. And in a restaurant setting where you’d have a big vat of the stuff around, the root vegetable starches move from ‘recommended’ to ‘practically mandatory’. Meant to write a note on the topic but forgot. On mobile now, I’ll try to remember to update the pinned notes once I get back to a computer.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Wow, that was my initial impression but I discounted the idea, not thinking it possible. I wonder what the chemistry is behind it... Interesting anyway, and a good tip for cornstarch in general!
I suspect it has something to do with one of two things. It's either the sugar content of corn starch being relatively high, or it's the kind of starch breaking down too easily (amylopectin vs other starches). Unfortunately I'm feeling too lazy to research right now. Will update if I find the energy.
Here in Greece we dont use egg drop technique. I will try it out , We use the egg ussually slowly mixed with lemon and then a add warm not hot to boil the egg , soup liquid ussually at fish and chicken soups but it works with other soups also that I tryed like spring soup. Thanks.
When I make avgolemono I add broth to yolks and stir then add back to the soup pot. It makes the soup creamy and smooth. The density adds lift to the rice or orzo so it doesn't lay at the bottom of the pot.
Though it's not exactly the same, if you fry strips of corn tortillas, they are similar to the crispy noodles you get from the Chinese restaurant. To pull out extra oil, store in a brown paper bag after frying them. I'm gonna try the second recipe you showed. Normally I do a chicken broth base with extra ginger and garlic. It is one of my favorite meals.
in latin america we just crack open the whole egg into the soup and it comes out in stringy whites + the hard boiled yellow thing. we call it caldo de huevo and it's great for hangovers or quick meals. i def wanna try it this way though
Can you guys show how to make a good salted fish fried rice? A Chinese restaurant I worked at a long time ago used to make salted fish fried rice and the rice was more white in color due to the lack of soy I believe. It had green onions and little pieces of salted white fish. At least as far as I can remember. It used to be one of my favorite dishes. That light taste of salt and fish and soft rice was so good.
I'm allergic to chestnuts 🤡 makes my whole body red and scratchy and dries me out instantly... was very fun finding this out during a busy night at work behind the line in the kitchen...
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. If you’re using stock for this dish, feel free to swap out the chicken bouillon powder. Perhaps add in a sprinkle of MSG in its stead (optional).
2. Something that I’m a little worried that I wasn’t clear enough in the narration: shut off the heat before doing the stream-and-stir method. But for the other methods, keep the flame on low during the process.
3. Another super classic egg drop - one that we almost did for the video - is a seaweed one. Basically same with the corn and chicken one but minus the thickening slurry (and corn/chicken obviously). Use the same soup base, same seasoning, instead of putting in the corn, put in a small piece of dried seasweed (紫菜/zicai), about 3-5g, let it boil for a minute or two, then shut off the heat and drop in the egg. Woks of Life has a solid recipe for that sort too if you’d like: thewoksoflife.com/seaweed-egg-drop-soup/ (we’d personally probably go a bit lazy, use a water + chicken powder combo in place of the stock)
4. For the hot and sour, another approach is to add the white pepper and half the vinegar to the serving bowl, instead of mixing it into the soup over the flame. Does an even better job of preserving the fragrance of the vinegar & pepper - we did it over the flame in the video mostly for the sake of clarity (and it doesn’t make a *huge* difference either way).
5. Steph sometimes also likes to turn her instant noodles into egg drop: add the whisked egg in before adding hot water, put the noodle back in the container, then put the seasoning on top of the noodle, then pour the hot water in.
That’s all we can think of for now - might edit a bit more in a bit. Apologies if we’re a bit less responsive then usual, right now we’re in Guiyang, preparing to travel South Sichuan (Zigong and Luzhou) tomorrow :) Check out our IG to see food pics instagram.com/chinesecookingdemystified .
Thanks for mentioning other starches you can use in stead of corn, because I am allergic to corn and have been buying that water chestnut starch that you showed in your video at an asian market for years and using it instead of corn starch. I had no idea it was actually used that way in China, I just determined on my own it was a great substitute for corn starch. Some brands of corn starch make me have no allergic reaction and some make me have a bad one depending on how the company makes it, so every time I go to a Chinese restaurant I am afraid. Can you please tell me how to tell them in Chinese that I am allergic to corn starch and want them to use one of those other starches in my food instead.
Thanks for the video.
In US Chinese restaurants, the hot and sour egg drop soup has tofu. Is that done in China?
@@stevetimko1461 according to Grandmother Wong, Hot and Sour soup without tofu is like a cat without fur; absolutely naked!
Actually, I am curious whether there is a specific reason that you drop in the egg after thickening soup or adding ingredients (in the case of seaweed). I sometimes make seaweed egg drop soup at home; but I usually like the seaweed goes in after egg drop otherwise they might stick together. Because of this, I generally do the egg drop before anything so that I can better monitor and control the form of it. So I wonder if the order makes a difference or it is only personal preference.
I appreciate learning a new method for dropping egg. I use the third method often with ramen or congee. I like the larger pieces of egg and how creamy they taste. I would never eat scrambled eggs of such wetness but, in soup, they are perfect.
I really appreciate all your technique driven recipes. I feel like I'm learning how to cook better instead of just putting one recipe under my belt. The schnauzer is a just a great bonus
Couldn’t agree more
I feel like I've been spending my whole life shouting this at people until they realize what I'm saying
Same! I'm making things in a stirfry style which are still mostly just things around me rather than searching for specific things at the chinese supermarket, and I just made a leek eggdrop soup which had garlic and sesame oil sure, but i only had japanese stock so I used that
yes! i love that you point this out because a lot of chinese cuisine is very technique driven and skillful, but only italian and french cuisine is highlighted in those aspects!
Chinese cuisine has changed my life. Went from ordering restaurant deliveries 7 days a week to cooking most days. Not the healthiest food around, but its still better than restaurant, so much cheaper... and honestly immensely tastier!
What’s the dish you cook the most kinda curious
@@anigilator5936
I have 3 go-to dishes
The one I make the most is actually my own, it's Thai-inspired. It's basically some rice, with ground meat(pork or beef, depending on the prices) over it, and then eggs on top of it all. I cook my meat with ginger, garlic, shallots, thai chilis, oyster sauce, light soy ssauce, dark soy sauce, and sambal oolek, some frozen veggetable (anything you want, really), and some MSG. I also put a splash of sesame oil when I turn off the heat on the meat.
For the eggs I usually scramble them but you can make them mirror, and then let the yolk run through the meat and rice :P. But the easiest is to scramble them, I usually put some more MSG and chilli peppers in the beaten eggs. I start the rice in a rice cooker, cook my meat and veggies toghether, and then I put everything in my bowls, and quickly make the eggs and lay it on top.
My second go-to is a General Tso. I know this is American Chinese, but it still tastes like heaven.
My third one is a good old Dan Chao Fan (egg fried rice). I usually make more rice than needed when I make a General Tso, so I can keep some for the next day (dan chao fan is best done with day-old rice), and then make my fried rice the next day. This is my cheapest recipe to do, around a dollar per portion... Insanely cheap.
My dan chao fan is quite similar to my first one, without the meat, and I actually fry the rice, while my first one, the rice is cooked but not fried. First one is sooooo darn simple to make... And it is DELICIOUS
@@anigilator5936 My first one is actually inspired from this video:
ua-cam.com/video/B5Lef4f38AI/v-deo.html
They don't say what they put in... but I made educated guesses, and it turned into gold.
@@turmat01 I didn’t expect a full recipie lol thanks a lot I’ll try the first one for sure
I appreciate how your cooking videos are more accessible to folks who may not have access to higher quality ingredients, saying things like using boxed broth or frozen corn is okay. Cooking should be accessible to everyone!
I have tried to make egg drop soup from scratch before, but it always seems to come out different than from the nearby restaurant. The restaurant version seems thicker and the egg seems more ribbon like. Now I know I was using totally different technique and wasn't using thickeners, so thank you!
You too? My favorite Asian restaurant's Hot and Sour soup now has a challenger after finding out how to make those broad egg strips that look so fantastic in a soup bowl. I also second splitting the vinegar and adding part to the bowl although I prefer a black, aged vinegar for the deep, complex aroma and flavor it adds to Hot and Sour. Thank you for these, Steph and Chris! Happy US New Year!
@@Bear-cm1vl lol, first time hearing someone say US new year. Didn't know the US also claimed the Gregorian calender, which is also used in Europe here. Anyway, pretty sure you didn't mean anything by it. Happy New Year all!
@@FarewelI I think they said “US New Year” because they’re on a channel about chinese food, so they were differentiating from Chinese New Year. It’s still a bit awkward but that’s my guess
@@prettyrat. completely unnecessary and totally awkward. Just say happy new year, the entire world including Chinese people know it’s referring to the gregorian calendar.
@@prettyrat. Do feel better now that you said that? Did your self image inflate just a little. It's how we send New Years wishes to someone internationally. That's their contribution to humankind, and apparently, this is yours. JTFC, what you endgame with attitude? You don't have to help us all come together, but FFS, stop actively trying to divide us. Otherwise, Happy US New Year. (Happy New Years from the USA)
I always use eggdrops whenever I whip up a quick cream soup breakfast and it's always fulfilling. Also, did the egg drop crab and corn soup for Christmas dinner, that was just awesome in so many level.
Now this reminded me of many traditional home cooking recipe my family used to whipped up. Add some peas or diced carrot for additional nutrients, and now you have a complete meal.
That first sentence sounds so raunchy 🤣
I just made some suan la tang, and tried the ladling method for the first time ever, because I never knew it was a thing.
Perfection. I used black fungus, shiitake, and some lily stems, too. First attempt at a hot and sour from scratch, it was flawless. Thanks for sharing the method.
I'm a professional chef, and I got a new job a few months ago at a restaurant that was known for having a Chinese-American chef in the '20s. We have the original menus on the wall, an even split between classic continental and Chinese cuisines (You could get a duck l'orange AND a peking duck for under $3!). I've been trying to honor the origins of the restaurant by always having a few classic Chinese dishes on the menu, and your channel has single-handedly kept me from being that annoying white guy doing a shitty lo mein. I haven't found anything that comes close to this channel in how concise, useful, and informative your videos are.
That's really neat. Thank you for sharing, made me smile! You go, sir!
They really are concise, direct, and summarize everything you need to know, including possible variations. Kind of the Chinese food version of Ragusea.
The first soup reminded me of Corn and Crab Velvet Soup. One of my late father's favourite Chinese dishes. Mine, too!
The versatile, homely soup without a care in the world!
Small thing: homely means ugly and/or awful. Homey means something cozy and domestic
@@hiera1917 I think that's more of an American use of the word. We use it to describe something that's cosy or reminiscent of being at home here.
@@RoflMayo interesting
My secret to thin fluffy strains of egg drops is to add some water to the egg when you beat it up like you would preparing for French omelet. You can get consistent thinner threads of eggs this way.
I love all these soups, though my heart truly belongs to Hot and Sour flavors. But I do it with whatever I have in the fridge and the pantry: silken tofu, bok choy, reconstituted dried shiitakes, toasted and ground Sichuan peppercorns, arugula, and dried chilies - that’s this week’s soup! It may start out as Hot and Sour Soup, but it ends up as Hollis’s Hotpot! Maybe I’ll add the beaten egg, but I’ll definitely add the lard, ginger, black vinegar, white pepper, white sesame seeds, and toasted sesame oil.
Shout out to your brother Gorden
that's the spirit of soup really; just throwing together whatever, no recipe
I used the Ol’ Buddy douchi/bamboo shoots/chilli soup base and egg-drop-ified it last night to help with my cold. Made me feel a million times better. Thanks Chris & Steph and happy new year!
The Hot and Sour looked exactly like the soup I remember my mom always getting. Their egg drop soup was the same too. I always thought that was just how it was but I never found it like that anywhere else. I've only known of the pouring method and just thought I wasn't doing it right. I'll have to try the ladling method soon.
Holy cow! I made the hot and sour thinking the whole time that it was WAY off but it was lovely. I used stock instead of water and instead of black Chinese vinegar, I used rice wine vinegar with a half portion of double fermented soy sauce.
Tofu also goes really good with the hot and sour version of egg drop. I usually add that and scallions when I make it and yum
My family would always add eggs to mein soups when we didn't have wonton made up, but I never considered this counted as egg-drop! That makes it seem so much less intimidating.
I'd started going an opposite route and tempering the scrambled eggs with the hot broth so they create an thickened, creamy soup without the need for the starch, but combining the practices sounds like a very interesting way to go. (And hey, extra protein!)
These are high quality videos. I especially like how you explain the reasoning behind why you do things.
I had a hot and sour soup years ago and it was so good i decided to start dropping eggs into nearly all my soups. Its delicious and nutritious.
OK I have never explored chinese cooking, but now I'm about to.
Your video's blowing my mind, right now!
oh wow, my favorite texture of egg drop soup is definitely the ladle one, but ive only seen instructions for stream and stir before. that explains why it never comes out like i want
Eggdrop soup is loved dearly by my family from Mississippi, and I just recently learned to master the very basic style of egg and broth. Its deceptively easy, and probably one of my all time favorite soups. Will definitely have to try these recipes.
I really like these techniques that defy the "correct way" pushed by many western content creators. It hadn't struck me that it would ever be desirable to incorporate eggs in a hot liquid without tempering it.
Eggs work in everything as long as u don't drop the shell in too, and it cooks the egg
Really nice explanation. There is one minor bit that is worth mentioning for some people. When making the egg drop for Sweetcorn Soup, the egg isn't always fully beaten, it's like half beaten so there is still egg white in there. So when you're at a place where you see the sweetcorn soup with strands of egg white also, its because the egg is only partially beaten - enough to break the yolk, but not enough to fully mix in the yolk with the white.
I'm loving these videos that go over techniques rather than recipes since I can see myself using them in other recipes
The Cantonese corn and chicken is my fav!!!!! I love egg drop anything tbh, fav dish! My dad would make it and sometimes add some rice on the side or ramen inside.
Thank you for this video! I love eggs but I've never thought to try this. I appreciate how you both break these things down, the name of your channel is very appropriate! I had a decent amount of consome left over from making birria tacos, so I turned it into egg drop soup. It was egg-celent!!!! Never would have thought to do that without this video.
I once egg-dropped a Hungarian mushroom soup. That was some bomb-ass soup.
That sounds amazing!
Shrooms make incredible soup.
Oh hell yeah, that sounds like an amazing combo!!
oh yas sounds yummyy.....🤤
My mother makes most soup with egg drop (stirring method). Whenever we don't have soup, she gets some canned corn, mix it with water and boil for a while, then add the egg at the end. Very easy and delicious recipe!
I love egg drop soup, especially when I'm sick because it's so easy to make.
As I find myself eating less and less meat (but more and more expensive meat) I like that egg drop soups are a great way to get some eggs into me. And soup. So far it hasn't gone wrong with any non-blended soups. Not even with big chunks of veggies. Blended tough have on occasion been too thick giving me big pieces off egg. Not horrible but not what I wanted.
As someone who also eats less meat but more expensive meat, here is something I like to do:
When blending your hot soup in the blender, crack your egg straight into the blender, while it's one and the soup is moving. The soup is hot enough to cook the egg. You won't get the egg drop texture, but your soup will be extra creamy and silky and luscious. No diary required.
Hey I'm curious as to why you guys are eating less meat in general but more expensive ones? I find myself doing the same but was wondering if it's a thing. Also Erin, that's a great tip! I'll try that :D
@@AbelleveMe ethics, mostly. I buy the expensive meat from a farmer who let me tour the farm. I know his animals get a good life and he cares for the earth. You don't get that with cheap meat.
@@erinhowett3630 ok I see. What about other products like eggs and fruits/veggies?
Good for you, nobody cares…
Awwww little schnauzer at the end is so cute too. These look good gotta give it a try in more soups
Your doggos frantic air licking at the delish smells
me: Ive never sympathised with another being so much in my entire existance
😂
That Hot & Sour soup looked so good!
agreed and wildly simple. I'm definitely trying it
Wow, you’re familiar with Vancouver’s T&Ts! 👍 Coincidentally I was making Cantonese corn egg drop soup a couple days ago and just as you said, often times corn starch doesn’t work so well to thicken soups for me. I thought perhaps it’s because I sometimes add a bit of heavy cream at the end before the starch (not traditional I know…) before thickening it and that somehow the dairy altered the thickening property of the starch. This is good to know, thanks! Keep up the great work you two!
I've been looking all over for the chicken and corn egg drop soup recipe.... Thanks to you, I've finally found it!!! Appreciate it, it's my favorite. My mom loves the hot and sour soup, so we can make both at once. Thank you for letting us on these delicious staples of Asian cuisine.
Edit: I made it and it was DELICIOUS 😋!! Thank you for the recipe.
This is ridiculously similar to avgolemono that Greeks do to most of their soup. An egg and lemon mixture is dropped in the soup, and it makes it A LOT more tastier. It goes hard with the Greek style chicken soup
My mom always make egg drop corn soup during new year. My nieces and nephews love that soup
cantonese chincken and corn egg drop was like...man...My life changed there after I did this recipe.Mi amooorrr!!
thank you so much for the accessibility!!! cooking is very much about using what you have, and i appreciate you spelling it out for us. on another note, i feel like the narrator/main cook would refer to the audience as "my friends" or "my dear friends"
I'm a big Chinese food addict & I usually follow a great recipe & have pretty good luck with what I make. I'm 70 & need more protein in my diet, so I add an egg or 2 to whatever soup I'm making. I also add it to Ramen noodles.
When my dad was about 5 he remembers standing by his mother while she made brown gravy ,, some 60 yrs ago they were very poor and I do mean very poor... itbwas biscut and gravy every day for them.. anyway. He would beg Granny saying Buttt n egg in it momma butt n egg init.. sacmble an egg or two and when the gravy is done pour in slowly like this soup and it really is very good. 😉👍👍 this just reminds me of it. Thanks for sharing and a stroll down memory lane too 💝🥰
Nice variation of egg drop techniques, thank you.
I find that Chinkiang vinegar is still a bit too sweet for my liking; what kind of vinegar can I use to really accentuate the sour in a hot and sour soup?
I absolutely love your technique-based videos. I was today years old when I found out that it was egg and not tofu in that hot and sour soup!! Thanks you two! 谢谢🙏
Hot and sour typically has tofu as well.
"soup canvass" best instruction to follow! tried the 2nd soup btw, it was good! thank you.
These sound like something I can make as someone living in a single room flat (with separate bathroom/toilet) without dedicated kitchen area.
Definitely. Perfect sort of soup to whip up if all you got is a hot plate.
Soup season sounds pretty good right about now
Winter finally reached me only for me to learn that my heater isn't working. I remembered seeing this recipe a few days ago and thinking I had almost everything for the hot and sour. I had to substitute Rice Wine Vinegar for the Dark Chinese Vinegar, and I had no scallions, but this soup has really made my day.
I'll make sure to try it without substitutions as soon as possible.
I find thickened vs unthickened just changes where the egg sits. In a thickened soup the egg will float (usually) to the top, in a really basic soup the egg will rest on the bottom. But egg drop soup exists on every continent that has eggs.
First time I hear about this lol. Can't wait to try
That rice soup looks delicious, I definitely would enjoy more rice deserts ♥
Nice I subscribed because you have the ingredient list under the video. Would each of these be a 1 person meal/soup?? Would it turn out good if I use 2 eggs per 2 cups of liquid??
Your dog is a very good translator. My dog seemed to understand every word.
i love egg drop soup but didn't know how to make those sheets in the ladling method and in hindsight, it's so stupidly simple! regardless, i have made a chicken and corn egg drop soup w/ the lading method for the eggs almost every day since this video came out. thank you!
ive recently been finding how soup can be very simple to make thanks for the ideas
If you make a simple dough by adding flour to the eggs and then adding it by the spoonful you get little egg dumplings instead. Don't forget to season that mixture and if it's too thick use another spoon to help scoop it off 😄
Very nice, I always wondered which technique they used. Can't believe it's so easy to do. Thank you!
I've been wondering for years why my egg drop attempts never met my expectations, now I know! Going to try that ladling method :D
Oh WOW I'm just now finding your channel and this content is so wonderful thank you 😍🥰💞
The humble egg, so versatile.
Thanks for the tips on the sweetcorn soup. Local supermarkets stopped stocking creamed corn but stoked to give this a try.
Thanks so much! I made egg drop soup on accident as a kid but struggled to make it on purpose ever since XD
Great video, I was looking for some simple add ons to my soups and youtube recommended me just a video for that!
Egg Drop Soup looks very good, I'll try it too 👍
You really have an amusing voice and way of speaking.
Poured leftover egg drop in hot n sour I got from Chinese place this week. It was so good!
I found about egg drop soup once when I had only eggs and bouillon cubes. Saved me through the week.
Wow, I live half a mile from Jackson Pollock’s house. Love your recipes!
I just tried the second method in my ramen soup tonight, so good and soft 💖💖
Finally a hot and sour soup recipe without mushrooms! Thank you!!!
That throwing style to get the sheets is a game changer.
A friend taught me to drop an egg into my instant ramen, glad to know we aren't the only ones doing it. I really enjoyed your video. Thanks for sharing it!
To avoid egg scrambling in Greece we beat the whites to soft peaks, add the yolks, and then add a ladle full of hot soup stock while stirring continuously to bring the egg mixture up to temperature. Then we pour it back in the pot, we stir some more, and we let it come to a boil one last time so the soup thickens up some. It's also common to add lemon juice in the egg mixture.
There's something similar here in my country with the 1st soup.
It's line instant soup, and it costs $1.
It's just powder with the dried meat and stuff. You pour in hot water, and then when it's ready to serve, you just drop in 1 whole egg (not scrambled) and then you scramble it in the soup.
With that, you get this streaks of white egg, and then the yellow mixes in with the soup.
Thank you for sharing 💖 it's interesting 😃
You earned the like and the sub for the hot and sour soup recipe. Now I really want to try to make this dish again because so far the best recipe I have found isn't a recipe; it's takeout. I have tried several "from scratch" recipes and they have all failed to match the takeout version in - for lack of better term - flavor. Yours, however, looks similar enough and simple enough that I might give it a go someday soon just for the aforementioned reasons alone never mind that I've been craving all kinds of soups over the last few months anyway.
I do love watching how they do this food it's so interesting
There´s this soup in my country´s capital, Bogotá, called ¨Changua´ that is made with milk, water, green onions and a dropped egg. An andean way of curing hangovers
That desert must have a very unique taste. I would love to try it on a restaurant because there's no way I'm going to hunt all these ingredients.
I use every technique pretty long time.. i love egg in my soup
May I ask what was meant by corstarch not 'holding' as well as root starches? The ability to thicken? Something about the final texture, maybe?
For whatever reason, as a cornstarch slurry thickened soup sits and cools down slightly, it seems to become thinner over time. Why that is, I’m not sure!
If you’re consuming the soup immediately, it’s not a big deal. But generally, this sort of soup is eaten in the context of a larger meal... and because thick soups seem to have a pretty high heat capacity, you can toss it on the table to sit as you’re whipping up your stir fried veg or whatever. And in a restaurant setting where you’d have a big vat of the stuff around, the root vegetable starches move from ‘recommended’ to ‘practically mandatory’.
Meant to write a note on the topic but forgot. On mobile now, I’ll try to remember to update the pinned notes once I get back to a computer.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Wow, that was my initial impression but I discounted the idea, not thinking it possible. I wonder what the chemistry is behind it...
Interesting anyway, and a good tip for cornstarch in general!
I suspect it has something to do with one of two things. It's either the sugar content of corn starch being relatively high, or it's the kind of starch breaking down too easily (amylopectin vs other starches). Unfortunately I'm feeling too lazy to research right now. Will update if I find the energy.
Here in Greece we dont use egg drop technique. I will try it out , We use the egg ussually slowly mixed with lemon and then a add warm not hot to boil the egg , soup liquid ussually at fish and chicken soups but it works with other soups also that I tryed like spring soup. Thanks.
didn't know this was a common extra topping on soup. my mom does this all the time, but with a tomato based soup
That sounds delicious! I'm gonna try that next time I make a creamy tomato soup.
Tomato egg drop is my favourite! From memory tomato and egg is a winning combinaison pretty common in China.
same here, my mom does it on Thai soup or corn soup, sometimes on basic chicken soup as well. Tastes awesome and totally filling
When I make avgolemono I add broth to yolks and stir then add back to the soup pot. It makes the soup creamy and smooth. The density adds lift to the rice or orzo so it doesn't lay at the bottom of the pot.
I'm sure this gets suggested all the time but I would love it if you were able to put together a cookbook! I would certainly pay good money for one :)
Though it's not exactly the same, if you fry strips of corn tortillas, they are similar to the crispy noodles you get from the Chinese restaurant. To pull out extra oil, store in a brown paper bag after frying them. I'm gonna try the second recipe you showed. Normally I do a chicken broth base with extra ginger and garlic. It is one of my favorite meals.
in latin america we just crack open the whole egg into the soup and it comes out in stringy whites + the hard boiled yellow thing. we call it caldo de huevo and it's great for hangovers or quick meals. i def wanna try it this way though
Excellent analysis. This is why I subscribe.
Seaweed egg drop soup was the first dish my mother ever taught me to cook back as a kid 😋😋
Omg your schnauzer looks so cute 💕 I'm away from home and I miss my babies so much 🥺
Enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek camera work for the nuts toasting shot.
I made egg drop congee the other day! Soooo good!
Can you guys show how to make a good salted fish fried rice? A Chinese restaurant I worked at a long time ago used to make salted fish fried rice and the rice was more white in color due to the lack of soy I believe. It had green onions and little pieces of salted white fish. At least as far as I can remember. It used to be one of my favorite dishes. That light taste of salt and fish and soft rice was so good.
I love corn and egg soup, a very nostalgic dish.
@6:50... The dog is already salivating. He knows what comes next. Yummy.
I'm allergic to chestnuts 🤡 makes my whole body red and scratchy and dries me out instantly... was very fun finding this out during a busy night at work behind the line in the kitchen...
it seems like this would be good with potato soup i will have to try it next time i make it
I love dropping an egg in ramen soup. Thanks for tips.
I do the whirlpool with miso soup. Really delicious!
很有心機教 👍
看到流口水 🤩
Egg drop? I had that when i was like 8 months or so… I‘m good thank you very much!