How to Fry an Egg

I remember as a kid waking on Saturday mornings to the sound and smell of eggs frying on a griddle. My dad would serve us two symmetrical fried eggs with creamy whites and beautiful golden yolks that looked like two balls of sunshine on the plate. Sometimes he'd serve them with scrapple or a side of bacon, sometimes frying the eggs in the bacon fat. Always there were two pieces of toast, buttery and cut into perfect triangles. The toast was for dipping in the yolks and sopping up whatever we couldn't get onto the fork. Dippy eggs, we called them.

As an adult I never mastered the art of making a dippy egg. I can make hard cooked eggs so that the yolks are lemony yellow without green rims. I can (almost) always fold a perfect, fluffy omelet. But fried eggs (or dippy eggs) has never been something I was able to grasp. Chefs say knowing how to cook a perfect egg is one of the most basic of culinary skills. During a quickfire challenge on Top Chef Masters, the chef contestants, all accomplished professional chefs, some with James Beard awards, had to make an egg dish with only one hand. Hmm. I can't do one with two functioning hands.

I recently acquired a set of NSF certified pots and pans, but even professional cookware didn't help my result. The eggs still stuck even though the pan was non-stick, and the bottom of my eggs browned and turned rubbery before the yolks and the white on top had time to set. Forget about trying to turn them. I couldn't do that without breaking the yolks, thus depriving me of the joy of piercing them with my toast points. I decided it was time to consult the professionals.

I tugged off the shelf one of my favorite books, The Professional Chef, a tome published by the Culinary Institute of America. If cooking eggs is one of the most basic of culinary skills, why do they wait until chapter 29 to cover it? The chapter fills over 20 pages and features 63 egg recipes, including one for red pickled eggs, what we Pennsylvania Dutch call red beet eggs. Since I'd never made those, I bookmarked that recipe for later reference.

About fried eggs The Professional Chef says, "Fried eggs call for perfectly fresh eggs, the correct heat level, an appropriate amount of cooking fat, and a deft hand." Well, I did have the fresh eggs, having bought them at an Amish store a few days ago. In less than fresh eggs, the white and yolk weaken and thin instead of the white being compact and thick when the egg is fresh. According to Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen the thin white can be strained off, whatever that means.

Another tip for perfectly fried eggs is to preheat a non-stick pan or griddle on medium heat. The idea temperature ranges between 250-280 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which butter has finished sizzling but has not browned. It is important to preheat the pan before adding your fat. The Professional Chef says you can use oils, butter (whole or clarified) or rendered bacon fat. I like the method in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It tells you to "swirl" one teaspoon to one tablespoon of butter around the pan and when the "foam subsides," crack your eggs into the pan. Then, as soon as the whites lose their translucence, reduce your heat to low. I had an epiphany. I had forgotten about the dial on the stove. I'd kept my burner on red hot, because I was afraid of salmonella poisoning. Even unbroken Grade A eggs can have salmonella but with the proper preventive measures you can minimize your risk. The main thing is to buy only refrigerated eggs and make sure they go directly to your refrigerator upon arriving home. Keep the eggs in the refrigerator until you're ready to cook them. When cooking your eggs, a holding temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit is hot enough to prevent salmonella.

My chef manual is a little vague about how long to cook the eggs. It says to cook the eggs to the doneness desired. "The eggs are done when the whites have coagulated and the yolks soft and runny or set." It describes the "properly fried egg" as having "shiny, tender, fully set whites and a fairly compact shape." I still didn't quite know how to get my fried eggs to look like the nice photograph in the book. I wondered if they were real eggs or perfect fake eggs ubiquitous in food photography. I guess professional chefs-in-training have an instinct regarding how to cook an egg and know when it's done. I closed the book and moved on. In How to Cook Everything the instructions are more specific, and beautifully written. It instructs you to cook the egg until the white is completely firm. To get the white to cook completely, it suggests two methods. The first is to trail through the uncooked part of the white with a knife so the liquid sinks to the pan surface. It will fry immediately. The other is to cover the pan for a minute or two. I also like the suggestion to fold the edges over the yolk to make a little "package." It's supposed to prevent the yolk from overcooking and keep its creamy texture. Hard yolks are bad for dippy eggs.

Don't forget to season your eggs. Surprisingly, the chef manual didn't even mention it or when to do it. The other sources I consulted tell you to add salt and pepper after the whites turn translucent. How to Cook Everything tells you it takes about a minute. I like to add cumin for the smokiness. It reminds me of family camping trips. You can also sprinkle fresh herbs or garlic at this time. How to Cook Everything encourages experimentation and suggests adding Worcestershire, soy or hot sauce to the white before it sets.

In How to Cook Everything the introduction to the fried eggs recipe said that after following the instructions carefully once or twice, "you'll never have trouble making fried eggs again." I eventually had no browning or blistering. The white was soft and velvety. The yolk was creamy and perfect for dipping. And it only took me three tries.

Sources

The Professional Chef. The Culinary Institute of America. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons 2006.

McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. New York: Scribner 1984, 2004.

Bittman, Mark. How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food. New York: Macmillan 1998.