Pat of butter with a wee bit of olive oil.
Bacon grease if available.
If not, butter.
mmm
I only make fried eggs for sandwiches, which I occasionally crave, and if I do, I spray the pan with Vegalene so they won’t stick.
And add plenty of salt and pepper, and some locally-made Boetje’s Mustard on the toast.
Costco cooking spray. Neutral and convenient and it seems like I use less.
Butter. Top with shredded cheddar, then pepper.
Usually olive oil. On a relatively low heat, and always cover the pan so the tops of the eggs cook properly.
Though as others have said, if it’s bacon and eggs, just use the bacon fat. Trying to cut down on that for health reasons though, alas…
The staples…butter and bacon fat. I don’t go for healthy.
Olive oil (mostly, but also:) sunflower oil, avocado oil, seasoned oil, vegan butter, bacon fat. Whatever is to the right of the stove at that moment.
ETA: Or ghee.
I’ve switched from Canola Oil Spray to Olive Oil Spray and I didn’t notice any difference in taste since I really don’t use that much. I will try Sunflower Oil and Avocado Oil at some point, and on the rare occasion that I cook bacon, I will try bacon fat and see if it really tastes better than the other healthier oils do. As a joke, I assume, my wife suggested I try lard, which I presume is similar to bacon fat, but I draw the line at bacon fat and butter as far as my saturated fats go.
I use about an inch of olive oil in a small non-stick pan and a spoon to splash the hot oil onto each egg (one at a time). As long as I don’t get careless and use too much heat, the oil will be good for another use or two.
I think it’s the one thing that I make regularly (at least three or four times a month) with inconsistent results. Requires maximum attention, which isn’t my strong point early in the morning.
Yeah, my cholesterol levels are fine, and i pick my cooking fats for flavor and for smoke point. I cook with butter, duck and goose fat, olive oil, and peanut oil, depending on what I’m making.
And i avoid canola oil because it tastes nasty. I wrote an angry letter to pepperidge farm when they started using canola oil in cookies. (I’m probably not the only one, as they stopped shortly thereafter.)
But if you want eggs without saturated fat, have you considered boiled eggs? I often make a soft boiled egg instead of a fried egg just so i don’t need to clean the frying pan.
Or use a no-stick pan with a spray oil. Anything that’s not actually a trans-fat should be fine, since you get so little fat from the spray.
I don’t think the health effects of fats are well understood. I think there’ve been studies with common foods and diets, and people have guessed at principles that may or may not be true. I suspect that each fatty acid behaves a little differently, and also probably interacts a little differently with each person’s metabolism, based on genetics. So I’m dubious that a fat like canola oil, that isn’t that widely used, is well understood. But I’m a couple of decades away from following this issue. I’d recommend peanut oil as a neutral-tasting oil with a high smoke point that’s cheap and cooks well and is in foods that seen to be reasonably heart-healthy. But using less oil for the eggs, and getting your fat from olive oil on salads, is probably safer advice.
Funny you should suggest peanut oil. I tried peanut oil a while ago and I gave it up because everything I cooked in it tasked like… wait for it… peanuts. I think my taste buds are screwed up since I often taste things other people don’t and don’t taste things everybody else does.
If I had my druthers I would use bacon fat because nothing tastes better than something cooked in bacon fat, but something tells me that eating high-fat foods is not good for your waistline or your heart, or maybe I’ve been brainwashed all my life.
I think it’s a trade-off, and I don’t want to trade off longevity for immediate gratification. I may be wrong about that, and I could die of hundred different diseases unrelated to eating fat tomorrow, but until someone can convince me that eating saturated fats is a good thing I’m going to avoid them for the most part.
How is your blood chemistry? It varies a lot from person to person. How often do you eat fried eggs? Sometimes treats have much less impact on your health than your regular breakfast?
I eat one large Grade A Large egg every day, and have done so for the past 2 years. I exercise at least 2 hours a day, hiking/walking 8-10 miles a day at a minimum. My PCP checks me every year and my cholesterol is around 165, mostly thanks to Lovastatin. All of my other blood chemistry parameters are good.
At my last visit, my doctor told me that “whatever you’re doing, don’t change a thing”. I don’t think having one whole egg a day is a bad thing. Eggs are a good source of protein, albeit with a fair amount of dietary cholesterol. I could stop eating eggs, but I can’t think of a cheap protein substitute that would be better for me.
Last i followed this stuff, it matters a lot more what fats you eat than how much cholesterol you eat. I’m with your doctor, keep enjoying your daily egg
I make my own ghee. It’s the only correct answer.
How does one make ghee?
Bacon grease is ideal, but I’m not going to fry up some bacon every time I have eggs.
Typically, I use a little bit of cooking spray. My cooking spray says “olive oil” on the label, but I imagine that there’s enough processing that goes into it to bring the viscosity down enough that it’s sprayable, that it doesn’t really matter what it was originally.
Canola, soybean, corn, and sunflower oils are popular because they’re all fairly cheap, and all have a very neutral flavor that’s not likely to clash in any dish. You probably won’t dislike the flavor of any of those. But if you like the flavor of something else, go ahead and use it instead.
As for healthiest, that’s generally reckoned to be olive oil (which also happens to be tasty). But there’s not all that much difference in healthiness of oils, so the biggest question is how much you’re using, and whether the culinary contribution (taste, mouthfeel, etc.) is worth it.
Ghee is clarified butter; just the oil without the milk solids. You can buy it in ethnic grocery stores that carry Indian foods, but it’s very expensive. So I looked up a couple how-to vids on youtube.
Basically you put some unsalted butter in a very clean, very dry saucepan, over the lowest possible heat. I put my gas ring on so low that if I breathe while in the room it will blow out. Then I stack another burner grill on it, with the pan on top. As a white foam forms on top, you skim it off. After about an hour, the remaining milk solids will form a thin brown gritty film on the bottom of the pan. Pour through fine sieve. The oil produced should be clear golden yellow. If it’s brown, this batch will taste toasty, and you can define your process for the next batch. It took me a couple tries to reach bright clear yellow.
If you can’t make your heat low enough, you’ll have to stand over it as it simmers. Otherwise it turns into brown butter, rather than clarified. Some people like it that way. I do not.
Store it on the countertop; it requires no refrigeration.
For simple fried and scrambled eggs, plain salted butter or bacon grease, if available.
For French-style omelettes, salted butter.
(I might use clarified butter above instead of plain salted, but I don’t make it often.)
For Spanish-style fried eggs or omelettes, olive oil.