plankton[QUESTION] What is your easiest method to cook eggs?
KC_Royalz
e0qdkI basically just deglaze the pan after frying eggs in it. A little water and heat on the stove goes a hell of a long way to getting leftover egg gunk off my pans quickly…
My grandpa used to cook scrambled eggs in the microwave. I don’t remember his exact process for it, but it wasn’t too complicated. I don’t know if the clean up would be easier.
You could also hard boil eggs in advance and just peel them in the morning. They’ll keep a few days in the fridge.
I used to cook two eggs in a coffee cup in the microwave and a piece of bacon with a piece of toast almost every day before I moved to an off-grid house that can’t handle a microwave.
I keep seeing this method from Joses Andres and have been meaning to try it. Sounds about as easy as can be, with minimal cleanup.
It works and is quite good.
rudyharrelsonDo you want “easiest” or “most convenient”? You could buy powdered (dehydrated) eggs and just add water if you’re not picky. Probably on par with the quality of eggs cooked in a microwave. I’ve never cooked eggs in a microwave so I can’t be sure, though.
If you want like, good eggs for breakfast, I don’t think you can get around using at least a pan. If you have nonstick pans, it should be pretty easy to cook the eggs and barely have to wipe down the pan with a paper towel to clean it. If you’re always getting black, charred bits stuck to the pan, try turning down the heat when cooking them; it doesn’t take much heat to cook an egg (unless you wanna fry it and get that crispy exterior, but even then you don’t need high heat)
Guess you could go for boiling or poaching the eggs, since that involves submerging the egg in boiling water, which leaves virtually nothing to clean.
Or you could just crack a bunch of raw eggs into a glass and chug 'em Rocky-style. But raw eggs aren’t as nutritious as cooked eggs so I wouldn’t recommend it.
You have strong opinions on microwaved eggs before stating that you’ve never had them. Could you go into that further?
I am prejudiced against microwaved eggs. I am unashamed of this position.
Do you like microwaved eggs? How do you find the taste and texture compare to other cooking methods?
I’ve never had powdered eggs, they’re not really a thing where I’m from. But they don’t appeal, probably for the same reason as you: texture.
Microwaves function by heating up the water in food. That’s why they excel with frozen food (it’s more forgiving in timing). If you try to microwave bread, you get warm, soggy bread as a result, almost certainly not what you mean by toast (but it’s actually an interesting way to rescue a stale baguette). Effectively you can’t “make toast” in a microwave because toasting is a manner of cooking, not an end product. You can’t microwave a dinner in a toaster either. Won’t work. Toasters heat the outside exclusively, working their way in. Microwaves heat the inside almost exclusively (that’s where the water is). So whether they’re appropriate really depends on what you’re cooking. Bread? Bad. Eggs?
Because shell-on eggs are effectively water-sealed and shell-off eggs are effectively water, how you heat them up doesn’t really matter. Unless you are frying to get crispy edges, you are just heating water any way you do it. Water flows: you can’t heat the outside exclusively. It’s only when the egg is already cooked, the texture already changed, that you can then effectively cook it again/differently to get crispy edges.
I really don’t think it gets much easier than just cracking eggs into a pan personally, if you’re finding your having a lot of trouble with cooked-on egg gunk, that sounds to me like a technique/skill issue, pan to hot or not letting it preheat enough and/or not enough oil/butter/grease.
Get those variables right and you shouldn’t really have much cleaning to do, I can pretty much just rinse and wipe off my pans after frying an egg, no real scrubbing or scraping or anything needed no matter if I’m using stainless, nonstick, cast iron, etc.
If hard/soft boiled eggs are appealing to you, I have a little dash egg steamer doohickey that works really well, although personally I think peeling eggs is more fiddly than cleaning a pan
There’s a few doodads out there for poaching eggs in the microwave, but personally I’ve never had much luck with them, they always seem to come out overdone or explode which makes for more cleanup than a pan.
There’s a few ways to do eggs in the oven, my wife meal preps egg whites with various mix-ins in some oven safe glass containers and just heats them back up in the microwave throughout the week.
TuuktuukBreak the egg on a plate,add a little salt, break the egg-yellow and mix it with the egg-white. Put the the plate in a microwave for one minute. Stir the egg on the plate with a fork, put into the microwave for another minute. Repeat until ready.
Doesn’t get easier than this.
Just remember: if you let the egg-yellow stay whole, it’ll cause a mess. And if you let the egg warm for much longer than a minute without stirring it in between, it will cause a mess.
rhythmisaprancerEgg poachers are easier to clean compared to a skillet (lower temperature). Great if you like eggs over easy. You can basically rinse them off. Maybe could cook scrambled in them but I have never done that.
jordanlundEasiest way to cook or easiest way to clean up? 😉
I learned how to make Thai Omelettes and that’s now my favorite way…
In a large pan or wok, pour one cup of vegetable oil and heat it to boiling.
In a glass, crack 2 eggs, add a splash of water, a teaspoon of fish sauce, a teaspoon of lime juice and beat with a fork until combined.
Add a tablespoon of corn starch and mix well until there are no lumps.
When the oil is hot enough (water drops spatter when added) take the glass, hold it about a foot over the pan, and pour the egg mixture in.
What happens next is MAGIC!
It expands out into this giant flower of fried eggy goodness. It cooks fast, fast, fast. About 1 minute per side. Look for it to turn golden, flip it, golden again, and remove it.
Now, for clean up, it will have absorbed some, but not all, of the oil. If you find yourself cooking this a LOT (AND WHY WOULDN’T YOU?) you can keep using the same pan and oil, just keep topping it off.
Video:
Thai Omelette Recipe ไข่เจียว - Hot Thai Kitchen!
I’m breaking my 2 month interaction hiatus on this thread to spread the gospel of the 6 minute egg. Literally just boil an egg for 6 minutes, peel, and shove into face. If you wanna get fancy and/or you like ramen, make a mixture of ¼ cup soy sauce, ¼ cup mirin, ¼ cup sake or water, 1 tsp sugar per 4 eggs you’re cooking. After boiling and peeling, submerge the eggs in the mixture and soak in a covered container overnight (or at least 4 hours). Doesn’t get any better.
Do you have a dishwasher? Sounds like the cooking is not the problem, but the cleaning.
If you want minimal clean, soft boiled eggs. Saucepan just needs a quick rinse clean.
However, if you want fried, maybe a pan that is super.nin stick would do the trick. Those ones where when you fry an egg, you tilt it and the egg moves with no spatula needed. Very quick to clean.
My mum likes to break an egg into a cup and microwave it. I think that’s a crime against cooking. I don’t own a microwave, but also hate cooking so.couldnnot love without a dishwasher any more.
fallaciousBasisA non-stick pan. A little butter. Salt.
You might think microwave is better but that shit sticks hard. And if you add oil. Oh boy. Now your dishes are cracking into pieces.
any pan is a non stick pan if you know how to do it. we cook our eggs, pancakes, crepes, meat, basically anything on a enameled cast iron pan for years now. put oil in it and on full heat, when the oil has had the consistency of water and runs easiluly in the pan, turn the heat down and cook your eggs or anything else. you can also pay attention to when the oil becomes “wobbly” in the pan, that is the sweet spot where the non stick polymers form and the oil is still not burning.
Same thing with a stainless steel pan, but with none of the regular care needed for cast iron (cast iron has other benefits over stainless, but I’m not a good enough cook extract that worth).
Soak it, scour it, acids, alkalines, harsh chemical cleaners, chuck it in the dishwasher… the stainless steel cares not.
socsaI’ve recently finally learned how to fry eggs properly so they’re solid on the outside, but with soft yolk and without the albumen turning into rubber. The key is to use the largest burner, have it cranked up to the maximum strength and preheat the pan on that. Splash just about a teaspoon of oil into it. While you drop in the eggs, throw away the shells and wipe your hand, the first egg should already solidify on one side. Turn them over, then cook for like twenty more seconds while cutting the albumen with the spatula. Takes two minutes total tops, and all the egg should slide right off into the plate.
Alternatively, you can just hard-boil a dozen of eggs all at once, put them in the fridge, and take them away over the week. Boiled eggs are fine cold.
Air fryer. Very similar results to boiling. Zero mess.
KojichanThat sounds like microwaving… I’m suspicious. Not sure i want to test in my air fryer. XD
Unlike the microwave, air fryers do a good job circulating heat evenly around the food. 15 minutes on low heat, should be plenty safe.
I’ve had good results at around 120°C.
I never bother with preheating, but experiment to figure out what works for you!
You can cook a dozen eggs in a sheet pan, slice them up into patties, put them in breakfast sandwiches, and freeze them. One pan to wash, about an hour of prep, and that’s 12 breakfasts before you have to do it again.
I don’t even use a sheet pan, just right on the oven rack. I used to put a sheet pan on the rack below the eggs (i usually just do 2 at a time) in case of a Humpty Dumpty incident, but that has never happened.
Wait, like in the shell? How’s that work compared to hard boil?
🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 Scramble and microwave. About 1 minute for 3 eggs in a 1250watt microwave.
Easy and fast. Should still be just a tad bit wet when you pull them out. It will finish cooking with the residual heat after taking it out.