Things A Chef Can Teach You About Cooking An Egg

Things A Chef Can Teach You About Cooking An Egg

Probably one of the most simple dishes out there is cooking an egg. Scrambled, boiled and fried eggs are not the only things that you can do with these most versatile of ingredients. We chatted to a chef who told us what you need to know about cooking eggs.

Choose The Right Eggs

Before you can cook the perfect egg, you need to have the perfect raw egg. There is a lot of information on the sides of egg boxes and this can be super confusing. So, the first rule of thumb is to ignore all of this information and to look at one tiny thing: the sell-by date. This is because the fresher the eggs are, the better they’ll turn out in your cooking process. Always remember that you can check the freshness of the eggs by placing them in a bowl of water. The fresh ones will sink to the bottom and the not-so-fresh ones will float to the top.

How To Crack An Egg

The goal of cracking an egg is for the yolk and white to easily slide into the bowl. This should happen after you’ve given the egg one crack – not too soft that you don’t make a dent in the shell and not too hard that you smash the egg and have its contents running down your counter.

Chefs agree that the best way to crack an egg is to give it a confident tap on a flat surface as this will be far less likely to result in a broken yolk. You can use the lip of a bowl to crack the egg but be careful of this as it could easily result in shards of egg finding their way into your bowl.

How Do You Cook The Perfect Egg?

The answer to this question depends on what format you want to egg to be, in other words, scrambled, fried, hard- or soft-boiled:

  • For the perfect scrambled egg, whisk your eggs, pour them into a pan and cook them over a low heat while occasionally whisking them.
  • For the perfect fried egg, melt a bit of butter in a pan over a low heat. Crack the egg (like we taught you!) and then cook for three minutes or until the egg and white is set. Flip over and cook for the same amount of time.
  • For a soft-boiled egg, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Gently place the egg in (don’t drop it in as it will crack) and boil for three minutes. For a hard-boiled egg, extend the cooking time to 12 minutes.

Eggs are the most versatile ingredient that you can have in your kitchen as these form the basis of most complex dishes. However, you don’t need to be a Michelin-starred chef to enjoy the simple pleasures of eggs. All you need is the couple of pointers, which we’ve outlined in this article, and you’re all set!