Making perfect scrambled eggs for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Cooking eggs perfectly is at the core of classic French cuisine, and there are numerous methods a chef is traditionally expected to master. Eggs are also at the center of many healthy diets, being a healthy source of protein and fat. Boiling, poaching and frying are some of the most common methods used to cook eggs, and people tend to adhere to similar methods for each kind of cookery, changing only the length of cooking time to make an egg more or less cooked. Scrambled eggs, however, are a different kettle of fish entirely—there really are so many different ways to cook scrambled eggs, but which method is best when trying to make perfect scrambled eggs?
For perfect scrambled eggs, the kind that high-end restaurants serve swathed in caviar and truffles, it’s all about low and slow — low and slow cooking that is. Tender, silky and oh so delicate, softly scrambled eggs with small curds are a totally different kind of egg than say, those dry, over-cooked shards of solid egg that you might find at your local diner. Properly scrambled eggs are simply delicious.
To achieve scrambled egg perfection, crack as many eggs as you’d like to enjoy into a bowl. (You’ll want to use at least two; three is better, and try to use the highest quality eggs you can find.) Season them lightly with salt and pepper and whisk them, and that’s it. No need to add a splash of milk — that will only water down the natural flavor of the egg.
Next get a pan warm (nonstick is best, since you aren’t getting it ripping hot), and melt some butter over a gentle heat. Once the butter is mostly melted (a small sliver is totally fine) add the eggs. After about 15 seconds, begin pulling the whisked egg from one side of the pan to the other using a heat-safe spatula. If the egg looks like its cooking too quickly, turn the heat down or move the pan off the heat entirely. If things don’t look like they’re cooking quickly enough, simply turn the heat up a notch. Cooking perfect scrambled eggs is a great exercise in temperature control.
Continue cooking the eggs, moving them around the pan to create small creamy curds. When the eggs look almost cooked but still have glossiness to them, remove them from the heat immediately. There’s nothing worse than dry and overcooked scrambled eggs! Serve with buttered toast, some crunchy finishing salt and perhaps a sprinkle of chives and enjoy for any meal of the day! This is but one method of cooking eggs, so feel free to make it your own. If it’s not for you, try some of these techniques that Ree Drummond and 16 other celebrity cooks swear by for the perfect scrambled eggs.
