The key is to use a non-stick pan. If you don’t use a non-stick pan, just let the pan soak for an hour or two.
My recipe is super-easy: knob of butter plus 2-3 eggs per person. Stir continuously. High heat until the butter is melted. Take the pan off the heat and turn the ring down to medium, stirring continuously. Put the pan back on the heat after the ring has cooled down, keep stirring until eggs are scrambled. Serve and season with pepper etc.
Add oil to pan, just enough to coat it (I usually use soybean oil, but butter or whatever you want is OK)
While oil is heating, crack egg(s) into bowl and whip like made with a fork. The spouse likes a splash of milk, if they’re just for me I’ll likely omit that and have just egg.
Pour egg onto hot pan. Use spatula to gently scrape and fold to prevent sticking, chop up egg as desired. (If I’m making a sandwhich I’ll keep more whole, almost an egg tortilla, but if just eating as egg chop it up more)
That’s it. Scrambled egg. I add condiments after cooking.
I don’t use non-stick cookware and usually don’t have a sticking problem, but if that happens here’s what you do:
Either clean immediately or, if you don’t, let soak for a bit.
Take one of those plastic net bags things like onions and potatoes come in and use that as a scrubber. (If the net scrubber doesn’t come clean just toss it)
Then wash as usual.
Almost exactly the way I do it - except for one thing.
I remember seeing a movie once where someone had a quarrel about “fluffy” eggs and they claimed that if you add milk to the raw eggs, it makes the finished dish more “fluffy”.
Well one day when I had lots of time, I tried to pour just a little milk, then a medium amount and finally a lot of milk into the mixture. None of those ever made the eggs more fluffy. As far as I could tell, the only impact that milk had was to lengthen the cooking times.
If you want to see the effect of some ingredient, I guess you just have to try that kind of experiment. It convinced me that adding milk to scrambled eggs has no discernable effect.
As far as the butter goes, there is nothing that tastes as good as butter. Another experiment I had was to cook scrambled eggs in margerine, olive oil and PAM. None of those tasted anywhere near as good as butter.
huitzilopochtli,
If you Google “youtube scrambled eggs”, you will find many different videos from people who claim their method is the “only” way to cook scrambled eggs.
I guess everyone has their own favorite method. I think the key is to buy a whole bunch of eggs and experiment. Try a few diff methods and see which one you like.
I now use the poached scrambled eggs method. Quicker and easier to clean up than anything else I’ve ever tried.
Thanks to this thread I had scrambled eggs for breakfast. Mmmmm…
Lately I’ve been getting my eggs from a friend down the road who has hens. My eggs are sooooo fresh…! Neener-neener to the rest of you not so privileged.
Have to put in a new order for more eggs now.
Just finished eating a breakfast egg sandwich. I minced a handful of spinach, added two eggs and a pinch of herbs de province and fresh ground pepper. Beat lightly. Pour into a Pam treated fired clay egg cooker. Grate some Asiago over the top. Microwave 4 minutes (our microwave is tiny; 4 minutes equals 2 1/2 minutes for most microwaves). Slide cooked eggs out onto a thin bagel. Squirt on some cocksauce (Siriacha).
(quoting from memory)
Nero Wolfe: Do you know how to make scrambled eggs?
Client: Of course.
Nero Wolfe: To quote Mr. Goodwin, chances are you don’t. Let me know forty minutes berore you’re ready.
Client: Forty minutes?!
Wolfe: I knew you didn’t know how to make them properly.
In the novel cited, The Mother Hunt, as well as in The Nero Wolfe Cookbook and a note from Rex Stout appended to one of the 1990s reprintings, he tells how to make scrambled eggs “properly”. It involves cream, extremely low heat, and a LOT of stirring.
I hate scrambled eggs myself, however made, but I tried this recipe out for Pepper Mill (who does like scrambled eggs) one morning. It took a LONG time. Her verdict: They were good, and arguably better than “normal” scrambled eggs. But certainly not enough better to justify all that time and effort.
Or, as Stout said at the end of that reprinted note: “Don’t eat them yourself. Give them to somebody else.”
I wouldn’t say that’s universal. I think most Americans do a medium heat to their scrambled eggs. Thinking about it some more, I think I got my scrambled egg technique from Asian styles of cooking (hot oil, hot wok, in go the eggs.) It’s something that’s developed over the years. And, no it needn’t be dry and hard, but you need to keep the eggs moving quickly and take off the heat well before it looks like it’s done. I prefer my eggs with a little wetness to them, but the difference between moist and dry/well-done eggs is about 10-15 seconds using this method.
Alternatively, as I mentioned above, I also like the pan scrambled method where the yolks and whites are not incorporated into one homogenous mass, but rather have strings of white and yellow going through. This is how my Polish father taught me to do scrambled eggs. He did it over medium-ish heat, but I do it over higher heat myself.
Sure, Ramsey is a dick, but this is how you make scrambled eggs.
Most of this is similar to what others have already posted, but my method is as follows.
Put a generous amount of butter in a non-stick pan over a medium heat. Once the butter is almost melted, lower the heat. Crack the eggs straight into the pan, you don’t even have to wait for the butter to melt completely. Stir the eggs to break the yolks and ensure they are a little combined, but you should still be able to see distinct bits of white in the finished product. Add a splash of milk, salt, and pepper. Decant on to toast (which you can sort out while the eggs are cooking) while the eggs are still slightly liquid, definitely before they become rubbery.
My wife prefers her eggs more thoroughly cooked, but I like them runny. And I think all of you who are beating the eggs in a bowl beforehand are making omelettes, not scrambled eggs :).
Already linked to it above. Not my favorite method, but, as I said before, scrambled eggs seem to be a very personal thing.
As far as a full recipe, eggs bhurji, a South Asian egg scramble, is my favorite.
I always start with a generous pat of slightly browned butter. I don’t usually add milk or cream. I use medium heat. I sweep and swirl until a curd starts to form. If the final destination is a burrito or sandwich, I’ll cook it fairly hard in the pan; if it’s to eat with a fork, I’ll serve them still pretty soft and let them finish up. Usually just salt and pepper for seasoning.
Heat pan on medium high, add about 1 tsp butter per egg, mix the eggs, when the butter sizzles pour eggs into pan, lightly salt, turn heat down below medium, wait until the egg begins to firm, fold over, flip. That’s pretty much an empty omelet, so if you want them really scrambles just stir when the start to firm up. If you do it right the eggs will be soft and nothing sticks to the pan.
Yes, you can make scrambled eggs in the microwave, but they will not brown. And that browning is very nice for eggs.
I’m also of the opinion that it’s not scrambled unless you mix it up in the pan while the heat is going. Pouring it in is for omelets. You melt the butter, add the eggs and stir in the milk. Seasonings also get stirred in.
High heat is dumb, as it will stick, even in non-stick skillets. You want around medium heat. You want 'em softer, you take 'em out earlier.
Then again, I am very averse to standing over the stove while cooking.
I’m in the medium heat camp, with a non-stick pan. I mix the eggs in a bowl and let them sit to get more to room temp. A bit of butter in the pan, heated. Add the eggs and let them start to set, then stir, then set, then turn, set, turn, etc. As they start to get a bit firmer (which takes less than a minute), I do a light chop with the side of a spatula, which seems to let them fluff a bit. I don’t like them runny, nor do I like them dry, so they come out when still shiny.
Scrambled eggs are cooked quickly on high heat and omelets are cooked slower on low heat.
I whisk in a bowl and pour into a hot pan that was sprayed with cooking spray and then move them around with a spatula. I used to like them scrambled well to the point where they were browned and what most people would call rubbery but lately I have been been cooking them just until they are firm on all sides. Once done I douse with pepper and eat.
No they don’t. I make eggs several times a week.
Actually, that’s not quite true, either. Here’s Julia Child’s omelet technique. Non-stick pan, hot fire, done in less that 60 seconds–less than 40 seconds by my count. (And no-stick. Check it out BigT).
I’m also in the “there should be some white in there” camp. I hate the “homogenized yellow lump.”
Medium-high heat
Butter
Crack eggs directly into pan
Wait about 15-20 seconds for whites to solidify a bit
Break yolks and loosely mix
Let it cook 30 seconds, then flip
Wait another 30 seconds, add a splash of milk, shredded cheese, and onion powder, then mix it up real good
Serve