How to Fry an Egg

Guide Note:How to Fry an Egg offers tips, tricks and variations on how to make fried eggs.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• What You'll Need
• How to Fry an Egg
• Fried Egg Variations
• Tips, Tricks and Warnings
• Resources

Introduction

• Frying is one of the simplest and most popular ways to prepare an egg. While fried eggs are primarily associated with breakfast in the United States, they are used in cooking mid-day and evening meals all over the world. You'll find fried eggs served on top of rice, noodle dishes, stew, pizza and even fries.

What You'll Need

All you need is an egg and heat. Photo by Davide Guglielmo

• Frying an egg requires little more than an egg and heat. People like to fry eggs on everything from the sidewalk to their MacBooks. It's best, however, to start with a frying pan and work your way up to these more advanced frying techniques.

Ingredients

• Eggs
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Butter, Oil or Cooking Spray
• Salt and Pepper to taste

The color of the egg won't affect its taste. Photo by John Evans

Notes on Eggs

• You can use whatever type of eggs are available to you, but some cooks do have preferences when it comes to choosing which type of egg to fry.

1. Farm fresh and free range eggs have more durable yolks than their mass-produced brethren. Stronger yolks are less likely to break while frying. Fortunately, most grocery stores carry both free range and generic brand eggs.
2. The color of an egg has no effect on its taste. The egg color is determined by the hen's breed. The yolk color is determined by its diet.
3. Some recipes suggest that cold eggs are better for frying than room temperature eggs.

Equipment

• 8-10 Inch Non-Stick Frying Pan with Cover
• Spatula
• 2 Small Bowls or Cups

How to Fry an Egg

• There are a number of ways for fried eggs to go wrong -- broken yolks, eggs stuck to the pan, over- or under-cooking. Fortunately, avoiding these problems and arriving at your version of the ideal fried egg is easy with the help of a few simple tricks.

Sunny Side Up on Toast Photo by Jamie Gomez

1. Heat a non-stick pan over a low heat for 5 minutes.
2. While the pan is warming up, crack one egg into a cup or small bowl. Be careful to preserve the yolk.
3. If you want a second egg, crack it into a second cup or bowl. (Don't fry more than two eggs at a time.)
4. Add butter to the pan. Let it melt and foam. Swirl the pan to coat it with butter. (If the butter browns, your pan is too hot. Turn down the heat.)
5. Holding your cups or bowls close to the frying pan's surface, pour the eggs into opposite sides of the pan.
6. If the white albumen of the egg is clinging to the yolks, gently break the sac with the tip of a spatula to distribute the white evenly.
7. Season the eggs with salt and pepper if desired.
8. Cover and cook for 2 minutes for runny yolks. (2 1/2 minutes for set yolks; 3 minutes for firmly set yolks)
9. For eggs over easy, use a spatula to flip the eggs. Cook for an additional 30 seconds.
10. Slide eggs onto plate.
11. Serve immediately.

Fried Egg Variations

Popular Southeast Asian Dish Nasi Goreng Creative Commons photo by MR+G

• There are only so many ways to fry an egg, but there are an infinite number of ways to serve them - in toast, on noodles and over rice to name a few. The following recipes will give you some ideas of how to make the most of a fried egg:

How Do You Like Your Eggs?

• Just like having your meat cooked rare, medium or well, an egg's yolk can be fried to different degrees of firmness.

1. Over Hard: Cooked on both sides until the yolk is solid.
2. Over Medium: Cooked on both sides until the yolk is thick, but still liquid.
3. Over Easy: Cooked on both sides, but yolk is liquid. Also referred to as "runny."
4. Sunny Side Up: Cooked on one side. Yolk is liquid.
5. Steam-Fried: A teaspoon of water is poured over each egg and a cover placed on the pan for the last minute of cooking.
6. Fried: Cooked on both sides with a broken yolk, which is fried until hard. This variation is commonly used in Asian dishes and in fried egg sandwiches.

Eggs in a Basket

• Eggs in a Basket is a popular dish that refers to frying eggs in a hole cut into a piece of bread.

Eggs in a Basket Creative Commons photo by Noonch

1. Heat a non-stick pan over a low heat for 5 minutes.
2. While the pan is warming up, use a drinking glass to cut a circle out of the center of a piece of bread.
3. Melt butter in the pan.
4. Once the butter is melted, lay the bread down on the pan.
5. Let the bread brown on one side for 1 minute.
6. Turn the bread over.
7. Crack the egg into the hole in the bread.
8. Season with salt or pepper if desired.
9. Cover the pan.
10. Cook until the white is set.
11. Serve.

• VARIATIONS: Instead of a piece of toast, crack an egg into a green or red pepper ring. For funny shapes, cook the egg in a cookie cutter resting on the pan.

• Other Eggs in a Basket Recipes:
• Food Network: Eggs in a Basket Recipe 
• Cooks.com: Eggs in a Basket Recipes
• Recipezaar: Eggs in a Basket Recipe

Fried Egg Recipes from Around the World

• Try popular recipes from Korea, Cuba, Indonesia and Russia that incorporate fried eggs:

• Food Network: Bibimbap Recipe  
• Recipezaar: Nasi Goreng Recipe
• Recipezaar: Arroz a La Cubana
• Calorie-Count.com: Yaichnitsa  

Tips, Tricks and Warnings

Lessen the effects of this heart attack on a plate by blotting excess grease from the eggs. Creative Commons photo by Marcelo Teson

• Frying an egg isn't a complicated endeavor, but there are a few tips and tricks that can help separate you from the egg-frying amateurs:

1. Cold eggs give better frying results than room temperature eggs.
2. Be sure that your frying pan is level so that your eggs cook evenly.
3. Don't over-salt your eggs while they're cooking. It can make them hard.
4. Cook your eggs last when preparing a meal. They go rubbery if you leave them in a hot pan.
5. Rinse pan and utensils in cold water immediately after cooking to prevent the egg from hardening.
6. Fried eggs are higher in fat than boiled, poached or scrambled eggs. If high cholesterol is a concern for you, use an oil high in unsaturated fat like sunflower oil to fry the egg and blot excess oil from the egg with a paper towel.

Resources on How to Fry an Egg

• • Mahalo's Guide to Eggs
• Cook's Illustrated: How to Fry Perfect Eggs
• MarthaStewart.com: Eggs: Six Cooking Methods
• Tutorials.com: Learn2Fry an Egg
• eHow.com: How to Fry an Egg
• eHow.com: How to Fry an Egg Over Easy
• American Egg Board: Fried Eggs Recipe
• LoveToKnow Recipes: How to Fry an Egg
• Delia Online: How to Fry an Egg

Related Searches