

Butter and water (per this Martha Stewart–touted method, where you start with butter and then add water to steam)Ĭanola oil: The canola-oil egg sort of balled itself up as it cooked, as if it were being deep-fried.Do I want duck oil fried eggs? Absolutely. I tested nine fats, based on which were the most commonly recommended and which ones a home cook would likely have in their pantry. There are as many cooking fats in which an egg can be fried as there are pun-opportunities about the social life of someone with time to fry 42 eggs (must be a total yolk!). I waited to serve the fried egg over avocado toast or a sourdough English muffin until I knew which one was the very best because avocado toast doesn’t deserve anything less than perfection. The salt enhanced both of those elements, but pepper would provide heat, as would hot sauce. It was important to me that I tried each fried egg in a mostly unadulterated form, meaning there were no flavors to distract from the creamy yolk and crunchy, oily white.
GEO DUCK FLAM ADDED SALT CRACKED
Accordingly, Bun was not consulted as a taste-tester.ĭuring both phases, every egg was cracked into its own small receptacle before making its way, gently, into the hot fat, so as to avoid broken yolks (a major bummer), and each one received a single pinch of salt across its surface before submitting itself to tasting and analysis. Based on the results of phase one, olive oil was used as the sole cooking fat across all pan types. (Exceptions: the eggs cooked in cream, and the butter-water fellows-more on each of those in a bit.)ĭuring phase two, three eggs were fried in each of five pan types, again using a medium-high flame to heat the pan and fat, and a medium flame to fry the egg. Three eggs were fried in each cooking fat, over a medium flame, while the whites were spoon-basted with the hot fat until they set. In the first phase of trials, several tablespoons of each of nine cooking fats was used to coat the bottom of a nonstick pan, heated over a medium-high flame.

GEO DUCK FLAM ADDED SALT SERIES
This series of tests falls under the "second method" umbrella, the shallow fry.
GEO DUCK FLAM ADDED SALT HOW TO
In 1868's Eggs, and How to Use Them, chef Adolphe Meyer describes two main ways to coagulate those classes of matter such that they can be considered fried: the "French method," wherein an egg is submerged in a half pint of hot fat, and the "second method," where eggs are broken into a hot frying pan with an ounce of fat. Accordingly, I fried 42 eggs in nine different cooking fats and five pan types, to try to arrive at the truth: What is the absolute best way to fry an egg?Īn egg is but an albumen-alternating layers of protein and water, making up the "white"-and a yolk.

So, like any great marvel of the kitchen and nature, I thought it deserved the ABT treatment. But I’m not interested in the easy or the over-the-top methods. There are recipes that claim to be the easiest method for perfect fried eggs, others admit to being a little more complex. Martha Stewart would have you steam your cracked egg in the style of Lucinda Scala Quinn’s Mad Hungry, while Bon Appétit suggests enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a nonstick pan for fried eggs that come out “perfectly, every time.” At Food52, we’ve written about cracking an egg into a cold pan, cooking them in heavy cream, and even baking fried eggs. There are fried eggs pictured with lacy edges, and others, framed by silky whites that taper off without so much as gentle browning. Some call for butter, and others recommend frying with olive oil or bacon fat. Google it, and you’ll find ambiguity even among the top results. We’re not the only ones who can’t agree on the best way to fry an egg, apparently.
