Although the most helpful cooking tips are simply those that will encourage you to actually use the ingredients in your kitchen, it can still be informative to tinker for tinkering’s sake sometimes. You might even stumble on a better way to make something you’ve been satisfied with for your entire life so far. Eggs, in each of their abundant possible forms, are ripe for experimentation. Even something as supposedly easy as scrambled eggs offers oodles of secret ways to make them their very best. You probably have your own egg scrambling routine, which likely starts with butter in a hot pan. But cutting that heat, however unexpected, is yet another method to try on your journey to eggcellence.
Starting scrambled eggs in a cold pan allows for better temperature control to the finish line, helping to reduce any errant, overcooked bits in the mix. “Cold” is also a bit of a misnomer, as you’ll really just use the pan straight off the rack without preheating. Think about the last time you made scrambled eggs the typical way. They started sizzling the second they hit the metal, sending you into a tailspin of spatula acrobatics in an effort to force it to cook evenly, even though you already started from behind. A cold pan is just the head start to beat this breakfast blight.
Cracking the cold scrambled egg code at home
You’ll want to reach for a nonstick pan for the most painless cleanup later. Stainless steel and cast iron will adhere like glue absent preheating, no matter how much butter or other oil you add after the fact. Then, literally all you must do is leave the heat off before your egg mixture meets the pan.
You could remove your eggs from the refrigerator a little farther in advance to get them to room temperature for improved results, but they’ll get pretty close once cracked and exposed to the air for a bit in any case. Use the recipe or no-recipe-recipe of your choice. Combine the eggs together with salt and pepper, a few pats of butter, and maybe a dash of whole milk. You can even add crème fraîche to your scrambled eggs à la Bobby Flay. Just tip the incorporated ingredients into the pan before turning the knob to medium low, gently stirring until it all reaches your desired doneness. This cold pan technique also appears among celebrity chef tips for the best scrambled eggs from the famed cookware spox himself, Gordon Ramsay.
