Dominating Eggs: 9 Ways to Master Egg Cheffery

9 ways to cook eggs deliciously

Eggs: roughly 70 of the most awesome calories you can eat. Packed with healthy protein and fat, they’re a really easy way to get the 20g Tim recommends in the morning.

The problem is some people get tired of them. And if you’re like Laura, you wouldn’t miss anything if you never eat an egg again in your life!

With this post, I’m going to show you nine super tasty ways to prepare your eggs so that they’re not just the same old thing anymore. At the end, I’ll link you to some recipes that use them.

Once you are able to master these techniques, your skills with the egg will lead you to hundreds, maybe thousands of recipes.

Hard Boiled

I won’t tell you how to scramble an egg, but I did want to stick with one of the two basics. The fact is, the perfectly hard boiled egg eludes almost everyone.

It took me a while to get the perfect hard boiled egg, and with practice and a bit of tweaking, you’ll be able to cook one every time.

  1. Place your eggs in a small saucepan and add water to cover.
  2. Bring the water to a boil and let it ride for 7 minutes.
  3. Run cold water into the pan for a couple minutes to cool them down.

Check out Laura’s deviled eggs recipe for one using hard boiled eggs.

Soft Boiled

Soft boiled is pretty much what it sounds like: not quite a hard boiled egg. But just because you cook it less doesn’t mean it’s easier. It’s actually a bit harder, but once you discover the secret it’ll feel easy.

Soft boiled egg

You’ll want the white to be firm and the yolk to be slightly runny (hence soft).

Here’s how you soft-boil an egg:

  1. Bring your water to a boil, and then kick it back to a simmer.
  2. Gently lower your eggs in (so you don’t splash boiling water on yourself) and let them simmer for 5 minutes. If you find 5 isn’t long enough for your tastes, you can leave them in a little longer.
  3. Cool the eggs off under cold running water.
  4. When you eat your egg, cut the top 1/3 or so of your shell and eat the egg out of its shell with a spoon.

I wouldn’t make a soft-boiled egg and store it like I would hard-boiled. Make them when you plan on eating them.

Poached

Poaching an egg basically means boiling it outside of the shell. My first attempt was a disaster, but like many things, it gets easier with practice.

  1. Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Once it’s boiling, reduce it to a simmer. You don’t want super-active water, but it does need to be very hot.
  2. Crack an egg into a ladle. Using a ladle or big spoon really helps to make sure your egg doesn’t separate in the water.
  3. Gently dip the ladle into the water to submerge the egg and slide it off.
  4. Let your egg cook for about 3 minutes and gently scoop it out to enjoy with your breakfast!

Here’s an Eggs Benedict recipe on Finding My Fitness with your name on it to try out your poaching skills.

Remember: poaching eggs is LEGAL!

Steamed

The first time I had a steamed egg was in a Korean restaurant. It was so tasty, I decided to include it in this little guide.

It’s super simple:

  1. In a heat-safe bowl, like porcelain or glass, whisk your egg and a splash of water so it’s fluffy. You can add (any spices you like) here as well.
  2. Add a couple inches of water in a pot (not so much that water gets in your bowl) and place the bowl in it. Cover the pot and let it simmer over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes.
  3. Quicker but less fancy alternative: cover the bowl with a plate and cook for 3-4 minutes.

I like to add some scallion and garlic to my steamed egg!

Baked

If you’ve got a smaller baking dish (like ramekin cups

), this is a great method to try out. I’m not talking about a quiche, although they do also make delicious slow-carb meals.

To bake eggs,

  1. Heat your oven to 325ºF degrees (160ºC).
  2. Crack your eggs into your baking cups and sprinkle with some freshly ground salt and pepper.
  3. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the yolk is as hard (or soft) as you would like it to be.

Fried

Everyone knows how to fry an egg, but everyone does it differently. What most people do is probably “over easy”, but it’s always fun to try out a few different things. Here are three ways to change up your fried egg.

Sunny-side up

Sunny-side up is possibly the easiest of the bunch. If you like your yolk pretty runny and have trouble flipping the egg without breaking the yolk, this might be your go-to style.

sunny side up egg
Creative Commons License

photo credit: stevendepolo

Here’s how I do it:

  1. Heat up your pan on a medium-low heat. You can add a dash of oil or ghee for lube, but if you’ve got a good pan you won’t need it.
  2. Once your pan is hot, crack and drop in your egg being careful not to break the yolk.
  3. Let it cook for 3-4 minutes or until the whites have completely cooked through.
  4. If you want a slightly harder yolk, cover the pan about half way through cooking.

Basted

Basted eggs are very similar to sunny-side up. The difference is that when your whites are almost done, you’ll spoon some of the hot oil or butter over your egg to cook the top a bit.

Over easy/Over hard

This is how I normally cook my fried eggs because I generally like a solid yolk.

Both of these are eggs you flip (as denoted by the word “over”), and the easy or hard bit refers to the yolk.

To go over easy:

  1. Start your egg just like you would for sunny-side up.
  2. When your whites are all but done, gently slide a spatula under the egg and flip it, being careful not to break the yolk.
  3. After a couple minutes, nudge the yolk with your spatula to gauge its doneness. If it’s too jelly-like for you, let it cook a bit longer.
  4. Over easy means the yolk isn’t solid completely. If you want your egg over hard, wait a few more minutes until it cooks through.

Don’t forget to crack some salt and pepper over your eggs while they’re still a bit wet!

A few more egg recipes to get you started

Beyond these techniques, there are many recipes that maybe blend a few kinds. For example, a fritata is essentially a fried scramble that is baked at the end. Quiche is similar to a fritata but usually has more cheese and cream involved.

Here are some of our favorite recipes revolving around eggs:

  • Chili Omelette
  • Alternative “3-minute” Slow Carb Breakfast
  • Egg Foo Yung
  • Slow-carb breakfast burrito
  • Ham and Kale Fritata

With these skills, you’ll be able to cook any egg to perfection.

Pro Tip: the absolute best eggs you can get will come from chickens who roam around the yard, preferably your yard, eating bugs and grass. The omega-3 content will be much higher, and the omega-6 count will be much lower.

But we can’t expect that to be in everyone’s grasp, so the next best kind will be the ones you find at Whole Foods and places like that that call their eggs come from cage-free chickens with a grassy, organic diet.

The ones I usually end up with, though, are omega-3 enhanced eggs. Eggland’s Best makes some, and you can get them at Sam’s club for relatively cheap. In my opinion, eggs are the easiest and most economical way to work to balance out your omega-3/6 ratio.

Continue reading here: 30 Superbly Slow-Carb Soup Recipes

Was this article helpful?

0 0