I made some tamagoyaki! (Correct me if I’m using the wrong word, I’m new to Japanese cuisine) how does it look? Any suggestions?

9 comments

1. no burnt layers! excellent.

2. I wish my first tamagoyaki looked that nice. Great layer definition! Would a little more heat make each layer a bit fluffier? Also, what’s your recipe? Do you have soy sauce/sake/mirin/dashi? Man, I’m jealous that that’s your first attempt!

3. It looks great. I happen to have a tamagoyaki pan I found in Seattle but I used a round skillet for years…

4. Good technique, nice layers. I usually add a little soy sauce, sugar and dashi stock to mine, so they’re darker.someone mentioned a dedicated tamagoyaki pan, which might help with evenness.

5. It looks very delicious! It’s so tasty and beautifully presented that it could be used as a topping for egg sushi. 🙂

6. Even if you don’t have a tamagoyaki pan, you can shape the hot rolled egg after cooking to ensure a tighter roll.

7. Almost loss it

8. Eggs aside, I love the plate!

9. >how does it look?

   That’s actually excellent work!

   >Any suggestions?

   Just a few tips since you’re already at a pretty high level.

   – There are still a couple “egg white bits” in the finished egg. This bit of advice isn’t absolutely critical since you’ve already mixed the eggs very well and you’ll see that a lot of places in Japan will still have egg white bits, but not having any will create a cleaner presentation. And I should add that while it doesn’t look like you have this issue, I’ll mention this to be certain, but be very careful as to not whip in any air. Dashimaki (which is the kind you made since you added dashi) is more dense and moist vs light and fluffy. To do this, you can use a western style whisk to make your life easier. Just make sure that the whisk maintains contact with the bowl throughout and you really shouldn’t see very many bubbles form and should be able to make a mixture where you no longer see any egg white parts remaining. Technically, you’re actually “cutting” to break up the eggs vs “Whisking”. Traditionally, Japanese chefs would use a pair of cooking chopsticks to “cut” the eggs.

   – You can take your liquid/dashi mixture and add whatever other seasonings you want to the dashi to make sure it dissolves. After the egg is completely beat as per above, you can add the liquid/dashi and mix together. You may already be doing this but I can’t tell from the pictures so adding it just in case.

   – For dashimaki, you want to preserve the moistness while also keeping the “dense but still with healthy soft resilience” quality (can’t really think of what a good word to use is) which might be better understood visually in the following pictures:

   https://www.higashimaru.co.jp/recipe/oyster/oyster1129.html
   https://www.mizkan.co.jp/ouchirecipe/recipe/?menu_id=8265
   https://park.ajinomoto.co.jp/recipe/card/801029/
   https://www.fukuzyu.com/recipe/%E3%81%A0%E3%81%97%E5%B7%BB%E3%81%8D%E7%8E%89%E5%AD%90/

   – Your egg is actually pretty good but to take it up a level to get the kind of dashimaki that you get in sushi restaurants or izakaya or in the above pictures, it can be improved if you used a bit more egg per roll/wrapping/layer and flipped the egg sooner, when the egg is still a tiny bit “raw/liquid”. If I had to guess, you probably need to add more liquid to the egg mixture too. I think you were too concerned about fully cooking the egg per roll/wrap and making each layer very thin. This resulted in a slightly “less moist” roll with some separation/air pockets between each roll sort of like a rolled crepe which is not really what you want.

   – Heat control wise you’ve done an excellent job. Though a quick note, depending on what sort of (optional) seasoning/ingredients you add, it will start to effect the temperature/rate at which the dashimaki starts to brown.

   – Your rolling technique is also excellent. Be aware thought that making a denser, more moist dashimaki will be a little different as it will be heavier.

   – Optional Step: If you have one of those bamboo sushi roll making mats, place the bamboo mat on top of some aluminum foil. Place a paper towel over the bamboo mat. Put the still freshly made, still hot in the pan dashimaki on top of the paper towel and wrap the bamboo map into a square/box form and wrap that in the aluminum foil. This step is more for presentation for that nice, “square” look but otherwise not necessary.

   – It looks like you’re already aware of the benefits of a square pan so I won’t add anything regarding that.

   This is all actually some nit picking on a job well done but since you’re already at an advanced level and were asking for hints, I thought this might be useful.