♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Today on "America's Test Kitchen," it's time for breakfast.

Elle makes Julia foolproof French toast.

Jack challenges Bridget to a taste test of artisanal bacon.

Adam reveals his top pick for stovetop griddles.

Dan reveals the science behind dull baking sheets.

And Keith cooks Bridget perfect scrambled eggs with asparagus and smoked salmon.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

♪♪ -The biggest problem with making French toast is that you can usually only fit two, maybe three slices in the skillet at the same time, which means you have to cook, serve, and eat in batches.

So we wanted to find an easier way to make French toast for a crowd, and Elle's gonna show us how it's done.

-That's right, and in addition to making it faster and easier, we wanted to make it without having to use any special type of bread.

We're just gonna use the hearty white bread we have in our pantry.

So I'm gonna start with three large eggs.

To that, I'm gonna add 2 teaspoons of packed brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract.

-Mm-hmm.

Not skimping there.

-No way.

And 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

So, mixing this together, just make sure that all the spices get mixed into the egg very well.

We want to make sure that there are no streaks of egg left at the end of it.

-Okay.

-Alright.

Now that it's well mixed, we need to add 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter.

So, this 2 tablespoons of melted butter is gonna make our French toast more luxe and have more deep, rich flavor through and through.

So I'm gonna add this last 1 cup of milk, and then we're ready to go.

-Alright.

-Alright.

Now that we have a nice, well-mixed custard, it's time to start making our French toast.

-Okay.

-Alright.

I'm just gonna put this here to the side and bring over an 18"x13" rimmed baking sheet.

-That is not a skillet.

-It is not a skillet.

In this case, it's even better than a skillet because we're going to put the French toast in the oven.

-Oh, I love it!

-Yes.

I'm just gonna treat it with a little bit of cooking spray.

Now we're gonna go into the pan with the custard.

No more dipping of the bread.

-This is looking easier and easier.

-[ Laughs ] That's the whole point.

Alright.

So we have eight slices of hearty white bread that you would have at home.

-Love it.

-And we're just going to put the bread in a single layer on the sheet in the custard.

And we only want the custard to soak in about 1/4 inch on each side.

And so just as I've laid this last piece down, it's already time to flip over to the other side so that they can absorb, as well.

-So fast and so even, the other thing.

The first piece that gets dunked in the bowl is usually very different than the last piece.

Do you know what I mean?

-That's very true.

This is gonna be even.

There's gonna be no waste because all of this custard is going to absorb in about a minute, and there's no fuss.

We really didn't have to do a whole lot of work.

Okay.

So, we're gonna cook this French toast in the oven.

So, it's gonna cook in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until the bottom of the bread is golden brown.

We're starting with the rack in the lowest position in the oven.

We have a second rack set 5" to 6" from the broiler, and it's at 425 degrees.

-Okay.

Ooh!

Starting to smell like French toast in here.

-Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Let's check it and see how brown it is on the bottom.

That looks perfect.

-Nice.

So, a little spotty's okay?

-Yes.

The most amazing thing is that we don't have to flip this French toast.

We're just gonna move it up to the broiler and let it finish cooking on the opposite side.

-Ooh, I like it.

It's easy.

-So we're just moving it to the top.

This is about 5" to 6" from the broiler.

And this is gonna go for about 1 to 4 minutes.

As soon as the broiler goes on, you start counting, and then we'll be ready to go.

-Alright.

-Perfect.

We cannot leave.

We have to stay here and watch it.

Alright.

It's been about 4 minutes.

-Ooh!

-Let's take a look.

-That's amazing.

-Oh, wow.

That's perfect.

-That is straight-up amazing.

-Okay.

So I'm just going to flip these over.

Both sides have had a good time to cook.

I'm gonna flip it over so the bottom can steam, 'cause sometimes that broiling can dry it out a little.

-So by flipping it over, you're just trapping the steam so the top can soften a little bit?

-Yes.

There we go.

-Look at that!

-Yeah.

-All at one time, all in the oven.

And, as you said before, there was no leftover egg mixture -- no waste.

-No waste at all.

-Love that.

-No fuss, no waste -- my favorite kind of breakfast.

-Yeah.

-And I think we are ready for French toast.

-Alright.

-Okay?

-Two pieces?

-Yes.

-Two pieces.

Nice!

-Let's put a little butter.

-This is beautiful.

I love your plate.

Your plate is a lot of butter with a little syrup.

-Mm.

-Alright.

I'm gonna dig right in.

-Alright.

-Crisp, and it has that little tender bit right in the middle.

Mmm!

-Yeah.

-Crisp all the way around.

-That's right.

-Little custardy right in the middle.

That is French toast perfection.

-My favorite part are the crispy edges.

-Mm-hmm.

-That is the best part.

-Mmm.

-Cooked well through and through, not soggy.

Mmm.

-And it has great flavor.

I mean, you can taste the spices and the vanilla that you put in there -- not too much, but it doesn't just taste like eggy bread.

It tastes like French toast.

This is terrific.

-Thank you.

-I just love how easy it was.

So, to make this easy French toast, beat together three eggs, a few seasonings, melted butter, and whole milk.

Then pour into a greased rimmed baking sheet.

Lay pieces of sandwich bread onto the sheet and let it soak up the egg mixture on both sides.

Bake on the lowest rack of the oven, then turn on the broiler and let the tops brown for a few minutes.

Before serving, flip the toast over to soften the toasted tops and serve with plenty of butter and syrup.

From "America's Test Kitchen" to your kitchen, a fabulous new recipe for everyday French toast.

Killer.

-Thanks.

-Killer recipe.

♪♪ -Somebody really, really likes me, and I know this because I'm gonna taste artisanal bacon.

This is fancy bacon, the stuff that you dream of -- or at least I do.

And speaking of dreamy, Jack Bishop is here, and he's gonna talk all about artisanal bacon and which one -- or ones -- we should buy.

-Now, I know that your favorite food on the planet is right in front of you.

-It's -- It is the perfect food.

-Yeah.

So, why don't you jump in?

This is old-fashioned bacon, dry-cured, going back to the way bacon used to be made.

So, supermarket bacon is wet-cured.

That means that they inject it with brine or they throw it into a vat of brine to very quickly get it ready to go to market.

Dry-cured is exactly what it sounds like, which is that it is cured for days rather than hours and it's allowing time and air to work its magic.

You are getting more concentrated flavors and you get new flavors because if the curing time, in some cases, is up to 20 days, you're getting funky, fruity, nutty -- all kinds of different things that are happening as the proteins and the fat change.

The other thing here -- -I'm really not listening to you.

I'm just eating bacon right now.

-You know what?

I'm expecting, by the way, that these plates are gonna be clear.

We're not done until we're done.

[ Laughs ] Some of these are really almost too salty and too smoky to have as you're eating here.

The smoke time here for these samples ranges from a couple of hours to up to three days.

Three days of smoke time, you get a lot of smoke.

-Oh, yeah.

-Any initial impressions other than you're in hog heaven?

-I would not turn down a plate of any of these.

I have to say this one definitely stands out amongst the other three.

The other three seem very hammy, porky, meaty.

This one is, you know, a little veneer of bacon.

It's nice and delicate.

It's crisp.

It's good, but I wouldn't call that my -- my big muscly bacon.

This one's very smoky, which I enjoy.

I probably wouldn't want it every day -- maybe every other day.

It might be a little too smoky for me, but I still -- I'm gonna eat that.

This one, it reminds me of -- you know how when you take a sheet of bacon and you sprinkle a bit of brown sugar on the top?

It's got a little bit of that.

It's nice and sweet.

I would have to fight my kids for that one.

-There are no bad bacons here.

-No.

-But they are different.

-They are different.

And this one -- this one's just a really good piece of bacon.

It's meaty, chewy, hammy.

So, my favorite would be these four.

-[ Laughs ] What about these?

They're your favorites, too?

-We're gonna get into those in a minute.

-You only get one more bacon the rest of your life.

-Uh, but maybe one bacon -- I like the sweetness of that.

And I like that one, too, but, okay, we're gonna go with this one.

-Alright.

So, you want to see?

-Sure.

-You chose Tender Belly.

This one has three kinds of sugar, so it's got white sugar, brown sugar, and maple sugar.

I'm surprised that you picked this one.

-I'm surprised.

-This one was a little less smoke, a little less salt, and more sweetness.

-Right.

Well, I do have to say that I loved what the sugar did here and those really deep caramelized bits -- oh, yeah.

-You mean the parts that I think are burnt?

-Mnh-mnh.

That's not burnt.

That is not burnt.

And how 'bout this one?

-Well, so, this one's Oscar Mayer.

I threw that in there just to throw that -- And that one didn't seem to get you that excited.

It wasn't bad bacon, but it's not "You want to spend the rest of your life with" bacon.

-And you know what's nice about a bacon like this?

Is it can get super, super crisp.

-Oscar Mayer is our favorite supermarket bacon.

-Okay.

-So I sort of put the best supermarket bacon in here to compete against these artisanal bacons.

-Alright.

Well, what's going on here with my smoky friend?

-This is Benton's -- by far the smokiest.

-Yes.

-It's smoked much longer than the rest of the samples here on the table, and it's amazing in a pot of green beans... -Ah, I bet.

-...you know, or greens or anything that you want to taste smoky and salty and porky -- a great choice there.

-Benton's is famous for that smokehouse.

And then this is just a really good balanced bacon.

-This is Vande Rose.

So, this was the winner because it did everything.

Medium smoke, medium salt, medium sweetness, and tons of pork.

-So, this is the bacon that can please all the people all the time.

-Yeah.

You made that sound so terrible, but, yes, I think that that's what that bacon is.

-It's not a pejorative.

-[ Laughs ] -Well, there is one bacon to rule them all -- Vande Rose applewood smoked artisan dry-cured bacon.

It's about $29 a pound, but that includes shipping.

So you're gonna share it with your mailman.

♪♪ -Nonstick skillets are great for small breakfasts, but if you need to feed a crowd, having a stovetop griddle that will span over two burners is key, and Adam's here to tell us which brand is best.

-You know, these are really a breakfast cook's best friend, Julia.

-Mm-hmm.

-We have eight different griddles here.

As you say, they all span two burners on the stovetop.

-Yeah.

-The price range was a low of about $45 to a high of about $230.

-Ooh!

-Some of these are not cheap.

So, we have a mixture of materials here.

These guys down at this end are all aluminum.

-Mm-hmm.

-Either cast aluminum or anodized or nonstick-coated.

That one right in front of you, sort of the gray one, is carbon steel.

-Nice.

-And those two last ones at the end are both cast iron.

-Alright.

-The tests included pancakes, of course, eggs, of course, and really big, hefty, half-pound pub burgers.

-Ooh.

-All cooked at various heat levels that were appropriate for the recipes.

Testers also did a little bit of abuse testing.

They took a metal utensil and scratched the surface 25 times, just to see how they survived.

Now, one of the surprising things was that the cooking performance between the aluminum and the cast iron and the carbon steel -- not that different.

-Interesting.

-They all did a pretty decent job.

But there were certain advantages to aluminum in our testers' eyes.

Aluminum is a really good heat conductor, and it's responsive to changes in the heat, so it will heat up and cool down quickly.

The second thing had to do with weight.

The aluminum pans were sort of between 3 pounds and 6 pounds.

-Mm-hmm.

-Why don't you pick up this one?

See what you think.

-Alright.

Well, that's easy.

-Yeah.

No problem.

-Ooh, yeah.

Nice and light, actually.

-The cast iron pans -- -Mm-hmm.

-Step down and pick up, say, this guy.

-Alright.

I was not expecting this to be this heavy.

Wow!

-Close to 14 pounds for that.

-I was gonna say, this is a workout.

Whoa!

-Yeah, that's definitely a workout.

The aluminum pans are much easier to handle.

On the topic of handles, they're very important.

-Mm-hmm.

-Testers much preferred handles that were stuck up, that were sort of separate from the griddle itself.

Something like this is easy to pick up and move, as opposed to handles that are integrated right into the cooking surface.

-Right.

I had a hard time picking this up off the counter, much less if this was a hot stove.

-And it's not even on a hot stove.

Exactly.

In terms of the dimensions, you're cooking for a crowd, you want a lot of space.

Testers preferred models that had at least 160 square inches of cooking space.

And it turned out that the width was actually key.

Anything that was narrower than about 9 1/4" couldn't fit eight pancakes at a time, and when you're cooking for a crowd, more pancakes is better.

For instance, this guy right here, he's 8 3/4".

-Ah.

-And you can see you have to stagger six pancakes on there.

-What's the point of having a griddle?

-Definitely not ideal.

One other design feature that surprised testers were the side walls on some of these.

You can see that a bunch of them have these side walls.

-Mm-hmm.

-And what happened is that if the side walls are present, it would contain some of the grease.

If they weren't present -- and this is especially true of, like, the burger test.

It would be true if you're cooking bacon.

Some of the grease can splatter off the edge.

-Mm-hmm.

-Or it can even flow off the edge if there's too much of it, and when that hits the gas burner, you get a little flare-up.

Not exciting at breakfast time.

-Not okay inside.

-Definitely not okay.

Now, these walls made it a little harder to get in there with spatulas and turn pancakes or eggs, and honestly, they didn't completely prevent the flare-ups, but they drastically reduced the frequency, so testers prefer having the walls.

They're interested in walls that are about an inch high or higher than that.

So, when all was said and done, the overall winner is this.

It's the Calphalon Classic nonstick double-griddle pan.

It's aluminum, good handles, good walls.

It's got 177 inches of cooking space, for about $55.

-So, there you have it.

If you're in the market for a new griddle, our winner is the Calphalon Classic nonstick double-griddle pan for $55.

♪♪ -You've probably noticed that we use lots of shiny new cookware here in the test kitchen because it looks good on camera.

But what if I told you that a dull, used baking sheet is actually better than a shiny new one?

These two baking sheets have been heating in a 400-degree oven for 15 minutes.

The dull sheet here registers a little over 400 degrees, while the shiny one is just 350 degrees.

You can see this clearly on the thermal camera.

That's a massive difference.

And it's surprising, considering that both came from the same oven.

Here's the deal -- The shiny surface of new pans reflects radiant heat away, keeping the pans cooler.

Here's why all of this matters.

This garlic bread was baked on a shiny new sheet.

You can see that it's limp and pale.

On the other hand, this garlic bread was baked on a dull pan, and it's beautifully brown and crisp.

So, if your baking sheet has lost its luster, don't be sad.

Celebrate with some garlic bread!

♪♪ -They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, which is why I eat it for lunch and dinner as well.

Now, I love a big plate of hearty scrambled eggs, but I can get real tired of the onion-and-pepper routine.

So Keith's here.

He's gonna show us some new ways to deal with hearty scrambled eggs.

-Yeah.

There are plenty of recipes out there that load the scrambled eggs up with cheese, bacon, sausage.

We wanted to update scrambled eggs -- something a little fresher, a little bit more healthy.

So, today we're dealing with asparagus.

We really like those grassy flavors.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, we're working with 8 ounces of asparagus here.

And there's a couple ways that you have to deal with asparagus, depending on how thick it is.

So, if you have slender, thin asparagus like that, it's really quite simple.

You just take a knife, lop off about an inch on the end, and then cut these into half-inch pieces.

I'll just put that into our bowl here.

Now, if you have bigger asparagus, like this, which I would call kind of a medium-size spear, it's the same thing, but there's one more step.

You take the bottom inch off, but then you have to get out your peeler.

So you want to just take that down, that kind of woody part, until you can see the white asparagus underneath.

-You're cutting the asparagus instead of snapping them off.

-Yes.

We've kind of changed our stance.

When you snap asparagus, picking it up and breaking it off, you're losing too much asparagus.

You didn't need to take that much off.

So peeling it does just fine, because, really, what you're trimming off is that kind of woody, papery exterior right here.

So, we have 8 ounces of asparagus.

-Okay.

-Now we can get to our eggs.

So, we're starting with eight whole eggs, and that will feed about four people once we have all the veggies in there.

No matter what you're gonna put into scrambled eggs, you want tender scrambled eggs.

Now, normally what we want to do is we want to interrupt those proteins as they link together when they cook.

So we normally interrupt that protein with dairy -- half and half, milk.

That will kind of ease that up and make sure that it's tender.

But today we wanted a different flavor profile here.

We have 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

-Mmm.

-That kind of grassiness of the olive oil will pair well with the asparagus.

A tablespoon of minced fresh chive, 1/4 teaspoon of table salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper.

And I'm just gonna take a fork and mix these up.

That's it.

-Great.

-So, I'm gonna set that aside.

Now, before we cook our eggs, we're gonna cook our asparagus.

We wanted to cook them separately.

We had a hard time kind of finding the right balance of getting crisp, tender asparagus and properly cooked eggs.

So, I have a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil in here, and I'm gonna add a clove of minced garlic, and I'm just gonna cook this over medium heat.

We're just gonna heat this in a cold pan, and what we're looking for is that garlic to get fragrant.

We don't need to cook it.

We don't need to brown it -- just really quick.

So this garlic is gonna cook in the oil for about a minute.

You can start to smell that.

It's starting to sizzle.

That's all we really want to do.

So, we'll add our asparagus to this.

Just stir this around really quickly.

-Mmm.

-I'm gonna add 2 tablespoons of water.

Then I'm gonna cover the skillet.

So, that will create steam.

That steam will efficiently cook the asparagus, and it will just be three or four minutes.

It'll be nice and crisp and tender.

We can take that out of the skillet.

Okay.

So, this has been about three minutes.

That asparagus is looking nice.

-Mmm.

-You can smell that garlic.

-You sure can.

-Now what we want to do is we just want to evaporate any excess liquid that we have in there.

We don't want that to sog out our eggs.

-Right.

-So, this just takes a minute.

I think that looks great.

So, if you could cut that heat for me... -You bet.

-...I'm gonna transfer this over to a bowl really quickly.

Wipe this out so we can cook our eggs.

We don't want any little bits of garlic hanging out in here, burning.

-Right.

-So now it's time for our eggs.

Now, the method that we use here at "America's Test Kitchen" is that we use a two-heat method.

We start really high to create those nice billowy curds, and then we cut the heat down to low to make sure that we don't overcook the eggs in that skillet.

It only takes like two minutes to cook scrambled eggs.

-Right.

-So, I'm gonna start with 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil, and I'm gonna be over medium high heat.

We're just gonna let that preheat until the oil is shimmering.

-Okay.

-Okay.

So, our oil is shimmering, and it's now time to cook our eggs, so I'm gonna add these on medium high heat.

I'm gonna cook it really quickly until that spatula leaves a nice trail through there.

This is gonna take 30 to 60 seconds, and we'll cut it down to low heat and finish it.

-Okay.

-Okay.

Nice big curds here.

Now I think it's time to turn it down to low heat.

Thank you very much.

-Alright.

You got it.

-I'm just gonna let this finish really slowly here -- make sure that we don't overcook our eggs.

-Gotcha.

-And we also want to add our asparagus pretty soon here because we want the eggs to form around our vegetables.

So I'm gonna add this now.

-If you were to cook the eggs much longer, you would have eggs with a side of asparagus rather than asparagus eggs.

-That's right.

Okay.

I think this looks great.

Just transfer this over to our serving platter here.

-Mmm.

-Beautiful.

-Ohh.

-Now, this would probably be pretty good on its own, but I have a couple finishes -- 2 ounces of smoked salmon here.

I'm just gonna tear these into 1/2-inch strips, gonna drape this over our eggs like this.

It's silky.

It adds a little bit of richness, some saltiness.

It's gonna really go well with that grassy asparagus.

-Little bit of smoke in there.

-And I also have 1 tablespoon of fresh chives here that we'll just sprinkle over the top.

-Beautiful!

-Little bit of green.

Think it's time to eat.

-I think you're right.

-Make sure you get some smoked salmon on top here.

-Thank you.

Oh!

Gorgeous!

-Can I serve you some toast?

-Yes, please.

-Okay.

Enough waiting.

Let's try these.

-Okay.

-Mm.

-Silky.

Buttery, even though there's no butter in there.

The olive oil keeps a really beautiful, silky, custardy texture.

-Yeah, and it gives a hint of flavor in the background.

You can still taste the smoked salmon, the asparagus, but you get a hint of that kind of olive oil grassiness in the back.

-Now, this is a beautiful combination, but the test kitchen has cooked up a couple more variations for you.

We have pinto beans with Cotija cheese and also shiitake mushrooms with feta cheese, and you can get those on our website.

Elegant but hearty, and that's really difficult to do.

Thanks, Keith.

-You're welcome.

-Well, if you'd like to make these beautiful scrambled eggs, beat eggs with extra virgin olive oil and chives.

Cook garlic in a skillet and then add asparagus and water.

Steam the asparagus, remove them from the skillet, and then cook eggs until they're just slightly wet.

Fold in the asparagus.

Transfer it all to a serving dish.

Top with smoked salmon and chives.

So, from "America's Test Kitchen," scrambled eggs with asparagus, smoked salmon, and chives.

And you can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with testings, tastings, and select episodes, on our website, americastestkitchen.com.

Yeah, four?

Serves four?

-Is this your fourth breakfast?

-[ Laughs ] Yeah, it's noon.

I'm on at least third breakfast.

-Let us help you with dinner tonight.

Visit our website anytime for free access to the newest season's recipes, taste tests, and equipment ratings, or to watch current season episodes.

Log on to americastestkitchen.com/tv.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪