Ali Slagle
Whether your go-to scrambled eggs are big diner-style curds, custardy and French, or whatever happens in five minutes before the coffee kicks in, there’s a chance they could be doing more for you. Because eggs are a basic, lifesaving kind of food — few ingredients, short cook time, no special gear — even simple tweaks and small additions can amplify their rich, silky comfort. Here are seven upgrades to make the most out of them.
1. Add Cornstarch: For creamy scrambled eggs that don’t require attentive stirring, beat in a bit of starch. Whether you make a slurry with corn, tapioca or potato starch, it’ll keep the eggs’ proteins from linking and tightening under the heat, which means they will be soft and creamy, even if you overcook them a little.
2. Brown the Butter: For mornings that call for luxury, you don’t need to spring for fancy butter or coffee drinks with all the bells and whistles. Instead, cook your butter until brown flecks emerge before adding your eggs. Doing so takes just an additional minute or two but will give the eggs a nutty lilt — a little something special — without affecting texture.
3. Add Spices: Scrambled eggs are a fairly neutral base, one that easily leans warm and savory when you add spices. While you could whisk the spices — whole or ground — into the eggs, stirring them into the warm butter first carries their flavor further. You can use a mix of spices, ranging from earthy (cumin, coriander) to smoky (smoked paprika) to hot (cayenne, crushed red pepper).
4. Turn Off the Heat Early: Blink, and your scrambled eggs can go from tender to chalky and dry, especially if you leave them in the pan, where the residual heat can keep cooking them. One key way to keep them tender is to start plating before they look done. (You’re looking for them to be half wet and half solid.) Their own heat will continue to cook them gently so that, by the time you eat them, they’ll be just right.
5. Add Something Acidic: To balance the richness of eggs, pair them with something acidic. Options include a squeeze of lemon or lime, a dash of vinegar or hot sauce, a scattering of pickled onions or kimchi, chopped fresh tomatoes, or a tangy cheese like feta.
6. Freeze Them Into Burritos: Even on hurried days when cooking is out of the question, scrambled eggs can still be there for you. Anytime you have a spare hour, fold scrambled eggs into big flour tortillas along with cheese, beans and vegetables, and let them cool. Then wrap each burrito in heavy-duty foil, and freeze. When you’re hungry, unwrap them and reheat in the microwave in 30-second bursts or in a 350-degree oven for about 15 minutes.
7. Bulk Them Up for Dinner: Scrambled eggs can get along with so much more than toast. Promote them to dinner protein and enjoy their softness in everything from rice and noodle dishes to tofu scrambles and taquitos.
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RECIPES:
Brown Butter Scrambled Eggs
There is absolutely nothing wrong with unadorned scrambled eggs, but here are two luxurious yet simple twists to consider: One, brown the butter in the pan, as dark as a dark chocolate, before adding the eggs. This will bring out the nutty sweetness of the butter. Then, to keep the eggs from veering too buttery, dot the finished scramble with vinegar. It provides the tang of hot sauce in a subtler way, so as not to distract from our main character, those silky eggs.
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Yield: 2 servings
Total time: 15 minutes
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Ingredients:
4 large eggs
Salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Red or white wine vinegar
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Preparation:
1. In a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together the eggs and a pinch of salt until homogenous. Set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once it’s foaming, use a spatula to stir constantly until the sputtering subsides and the butter is speckled the color of dark chocolate, 2 to 4 minutes. Immediately pour in the eggs. Let sit undisturbed until the edges look cooked, less than 30 seconds, then turn off the heat and use the spatula to fold and scrape across the pan until big, set but still-shiny curds form, about 1 minute. Season with a few drops of vinegar.
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Cheesy Eggs on Toast
You don’t even need a toaster to make perfect toast. Crisping bread in a skillet — in melted butter, of course — gives it a tasty brown crunch and leaves you with a hot pan ready to scramble eggs. Be sure to swipe up all the butter and crumbs with the toasted bread when you take it out to keep the eggs nice and golden. Because more butter is added to the pan at the same time as the eggs, it melts slowly into the eggs while you stir them, leaving you with a creamy mix that ends up even creamier when cheese is melted in at the very end.
Yield: 1 serving
Total time: 10 minutes
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Ingredients:
2 large eggs
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 slice bread
1/4 cup shredded cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack or a blend)
Preparation:
1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Beat with a fork until evenly yellow. Leave the bowl next to the stove while you make the toast.
2. In a small nonstick skillet, melt a thin slice of the butter over medium-low heat. Swipe the bread in the melted butter to soak it all up. Let sit until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add another thin slice of butter to the pan then flip the bread, swiping it in the newly melted butter until it’s all soaked up. Turn the heat to the lowest setting and let the bread sit until lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
3. Add the remaining butter and the eggs and cook, stirring gently and constantly with a wooden spoon, until the butter melts and the eggs are half wet and half solid, 15 to 45 seconds. Turn off the heat, add the cheese and continue stirring until the mixture is creamy but no longer wet, about 30 to 45 seconds. Scrape onto the toast right away and enjoy. — The New York Times
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