Why Eggs Are so Easy to Crack (but Difficult to Understand)

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The eggs are great. They can be prepared in dozens of ways, used in hundreds of dishes, and while deceptively easy to prepare, they are surprisingly difficult to make right. We sat down with a few chefs to find out what makes eggs so versatile yet so challenging and how you can improve your home game.

Of course, anyone can cook an egg, but it’s not in vain that chefs spend a lot of time learning how to do it perfectly. Frying an egg sounds easy, but this perfect fried fried egg can be elusive – and it’s pretty easy to make the mistake at home if you’re not well trained. We’ve got entire guides dedicated to the best way to cook eggs , and we’ve posted more tips and tricks than we can count. So why do we love the humble egg so much and what makes it difficult to master? This largely depends on how affordable and versatile the egg is.

Why we all love eggs (and egg breaks)

Whether you prefer your sunny side, scrambled eggs, poached or hard boiled, there are more ways to transform a simple egg into something new than you can count. Plus, there are a whole world of tricks for each cooking method that make it easy to go from raw egg to the cooking you want. It’s this versatility – both in the number of egg dishes you can make and the number of ways you can make them – that makes eggs so appealing and interesting.

Chef Shaya Kleczewski, owner and chef of At Your Palate (not to mention a Chopped competitor and frequent Lifehacker contributor), explained that all of these reshuffles are both a challenge and a blessing:

Eggs are so good because they are ubiquitous and relatively inexpensive, so there is a place to screw up and not go bankrupt. Imagine spoiling a 10 ounce piece of aged steak? Doing this again will cost you a pretty penny, but if you accidentally bump the yolk onto the egg, it’s easy to throw it away and repeat.

I think the biggest problem with eggs for many people who don’t feel comfortable or confident in the kitchen is that while they are extremely versatile, they are also very fragile and delicate. Eggs have almost limitless uses: in addition to the obvious breakfast foods like omelets, pancakes, waffles, they are used in many other areas, such as cakes and cookies, where they add some richness to fat and also have a unique binding capacity. When combined with other ingredients such as flour, sugar, and other liquids in varying proportions, they act as the “glue” that holds all the pieces together.

This is the real beauty of eggs: they are affordable. We like to experiment with them. Eggs are one of the first foods that many of us cook on our own. And while many of us have boiled eggs all our lives, there are still new and interesting drugs waiting to be discovered and old drugs that we can improve. Anyone who has ever made a fried egg and cracked a yolk understands this, and anyone who has ever encountered an egg peeling device they never knew existed knows it too.

Why eggs are surprisingly easy to make but hard to master

The way someone handles an egg – and what they can do with it and turn it into an egg – has always said a lot about the chef’s skill. After all, old-school chefs were asking newbies to make an omelet – a deceivingly difficult task that can tell a lot about a new chef’s technical ability and attention to detail. As any chef will tell you, eggs, despite how easy they are to make, are actually very difficult to make well .

When we say good, we mean a poached egg, which is perfectly fluffy on the outside with a smooth liquid yolk in the middle – the perfect balance between hard and liquid. We are referring to an omelet that is still smooth and creamy but rolls out perfectly without being overcooked on the outside. Of course, we all have ways to do our best at home, but once you really start working with eggs or making eggs that you hope someone will pay for (or serve them up to people who have more experience than you), the game changes completely. For example, most of us think we know scrambled eggs, but as Gordon Ramsay and chef Catal Cavanaugh showed us , what most of us mistake for scrambled eggs is actually more like a “spoiled omelet”. than anything else – and we like them. When you present someone with a lighter, looser and fluffier scramble, many people are surprised, but this one gives you the creamiest, fluffiest consistency and the most aromatic taste. Even scrambled eggs – something we all think we can do at home – continues to amaze us.

Shaya explained to us that there he knows chefs who have cooked for decades, who still regularly practice and perfect their egg-making methods. They try new dishes, discover new preparations, and find better ways to boil, fry, fry, and steam. A few years ago , Alton Brown ‘s method of baking hard-boiled eggs (you cansee it in action ) would have been unheard of, but an efficient way to perfectly cook a lot of eggs. It’s that spirit of exploration and discovery that makes eggs so hard to master, but makes the basics so easy to understand.

Improve Your Basic Egg Cooking Techniques

The video above is from the PBS series “The Mind of the Chef, ” specifically the Season 1 episode in which Chef David Chang and his friends get to know some of their most interesting egg cooking and tips. You’ve seen some of them here before, like blowing an egg out of its shell . If you look, you’ll see the amazing egg transformations you thought you knew: light and fluffy scrambled eggs cooked with just spinning water, a perfectly fried gull egg, and even a perfectly boiled soft-boiled egg with caviar and potato chips (dubbed The “Ko Egg” ). As sophisticated as these methods are, they still apply to home cooks. Here’s what we mean and how to improve on some of the simple preparations you may already be familiar with:

  • Poached eggs : Most people will tell you that the ideal poached egg starts with enough hot water, a little vinegar or baking soda (which hold the proteins tightly), and a good slotted spoon. These are great ways to do it, but if you’re looking for an even more reliable method, America’s Test Kitchen suggests ditching the pan for a pan and using teacups, each with an egg, to get that perfect drop into your boiling water. Adjusting the temperature you get in the pan is critical, and a little vinegar or lemon juice will help keep the proteins firm when you lower them. Same result or better and less fuss.
  • Hard-boiled eggs : There are a dozen different ways to boil the perfect hard-boiled egg, but before relying on methods like Alton’s baked eggs, it’s a good idea to master the basics. Our guide to making perfectly boiled eggs every time is pretty simple: place cold eggs in a saucepan, then pour enough cold water into the pan to submerge the eggs completely. Place over medium heat until simmering. When the water boils, set the timer for one minute. When the timer turns off, turn off the heat, cover the eggs, move them to a cold burner and set the timer to 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, the eggs are ready. Now the trick is to peel them, and there are as many ways to peel hard-boiled eggs as there are ways to cook them. Feel free to experiment, but the basic principles work here too – take out the eggs and place them in an ice bath so they stop cooking. Leave them on for a minute or two, but not too long – if you start to peel right away, they will be too hot. If you wait, you’ll catch them when the membrane that connects the shell to the protein is still warm and loose, but the egg is still soft enough to handle without breaking. Works every time. Of course, if you’re adventurous, you can try this feverish shake method .
  • Scrambled eggs . Scrambled eggs seem to be an easy task, but tricky to get them right, mainly because the time between them, which is still almost soggy and overly elastic, is only a few seconds depending on how you cook them. Alton Brown’s method is ideal for beginners. Combine the eggs and season them in a bowl (salt, pepper and a little milk for a creamy consistency. Any herbs or spices that develop well when heated are also fine). Add some oil to a non-stick skillet and heat over high. … When the butter has melted and boiled, pour the eggs directly into the middle of the skillet. This pushes the oil out to the sides, which prevents the egg from sticking (on the cooler sides of the pan). Then start whisking. Keep the eggs in motion while they set in the skillet. When you start getting cottage cheese or soft clumps of scrambled eggs, reduce heat to medium. Begin to draw in the eggs from the outside of the pan and fold them, not beat them. Once the eggs are almost hard, turn off the heat and transfer them to a plate (preferably preheated). Then let them rest for a minute. The eggs are warm, they are boiling a little more on a plate. This is the big secret of scrambled eggs: always take them off the heat before they are the way you like them, then let them rest and cook. If you like cheese, you can sprinkle or add it to the skillet as soon as the curd begins to form (but before you start folding – you’ll need the remaining heat to melt the cheese). Once you get the hang of it, you can try Ramsay’s or do something crazy like David Patterson’s Poached Eggs from the Maelstrom , which you can see in action in the video above.

Of course, your own method may be different – perhaps you have a different approach that you have been using all this time, or maybe you have a method that you swear by. That’s okay – me too – actually, I don’t usually chat like Alton (or Ramsay, for that matter), but it’s important to try your hand at basic, most rudimentary methods before you go too crazy with your own. You will learn how to improve your own gimmicks by learning not to rely on them, as odd as it sounds.

How to cook eggs like a chef at home

When you’re ready to perfect your egg game, or if you’re so inspired by eggs that you want to try something new, there are many ways to improve your egg making game. Chef Shaya first of all reminds us that the most important thing is to experiment. Try, try again, try different preparations and just don’t stop:

I think the real secret to making eggs is to face your fears around them and get rid of them. Accept and then allow yourself to screw up in the beginning, which will give you the freedom to have fun and experiment. Growth can only happen through failure, not through continuous success. Raise curiosity and experiment.

For the home cook, a lot starts with simply trying to improve on the dishes you already know how to cook. If you like scrambled eggs, study them as you cook and see how you can make them better. If you just can’t figure out how to fry your eggs, sunny side up, without sticking – or making the edges too crispy – make sure you use a nonstick skillet and lots of butter (or butter, or whatever fat you need). decide to fry your eggs.) Remember, play in the kitchen – the worst thing that can happen is that in the morning you have a poor quality egg or you throw it and make another one.

Aside from experimenting or going to cooking school to learn how the chefs handle eggs, here are some great articles our chefs have suggested:

You can also take a look at our egg tags page to see some of the egg cooking tips we highlighted earlier. Of course, no one says you can’t fry an evil egg at home the way you do now, but there is always room to learn and grow (which is probably one of the reasons you are here). Getting advice from chefs. is a great way to do this, but the best way is to practice, experiment, and keep trying at home. With a little time and energy, you can prepare airy scrambled eggs, light and soft poached eggs, and perfectly fried eggs with a minimum of effort. Then you can move on to more fun cooking or invent your own ways to cook eggs.

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