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In this article:
- The egg has been a breakfast staple and a foundational ingredient in baking for centuries.
- With how versatile and affordable it is, people have invented hundreds of ways to cook eggs and incorporate them into other dishes.
- From just shooting them raw like a psychopath (or bodybuilder) to scrambling them in pan, here are nine ways to cook eggs tomorrow morning, ranked from the worst to the best.
Everyone has their own morning routine. Some people have a certain song that they like to wake up to. Some people drink coffee. Some drink tea. Some people recite a prayer. Personally, I listen to punk rock while taking an ice-cold shower, then move on to drinking a cup of black coffee and smoking a cigarette.
To each their own.
But, unless you’re vegan, there’s a pretty good chance that you involve a plate of eggs in your morning at least once in a while. Yes, let’s all take a moment of silence to thank all those innumerable hens who unwillingly give up their eggs to make our mornings healthy and delicious.
There are many, many different ways to cook eggs. Depending on who you ask, there are also many different answers as to what the best way to make eggs is. It’s not an easy question, and there are quite a few factors to take into consideration.
Does the amount of time that certain cooking methods take justify the way the eggs taste when they’re finished?
Are we putting these eggs over a plate of fried rice or eating them for breakfast with some bacon?
The age-old debate may never be resolved. Nonetheless, I’m going to attempt to identify the very best and worst of the different ways to cook eggs. Let’s start with the worst.
All the Ways to Cook Eggs, Ranked
9. Just Raw Eggs
Why on Earth would you ever eat an egg raw?
Maybe you’re a meathead who thinks that cooking your eggs in oil is just wasting calories that you can’t get back. Maybe you’re a frat boy who’s trying too hard to impress your buddies by shotgunning a beer with a raw egg in it. Maybe you’re just a lunatic.
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Anyway, people choosing to eat raw eggs is a travesty of epic proportions. If you’ve ever done it, you should be ashamed. Cook your eggs, people.
8. Hard-Boiled Eggs
Oh, what’s that? You like eating sawdust?
Well, then hard-boiled eggs should be your preferred method of preparation because that’s what the yolk of a hard-boiled egg feels like.
They’re bland, the texture is awful, and there’s really just no reason to hard-boil your eggs.
Some people say, “Oh, I like to hard-boil my eggs so I can keep a bunch in my refrigerator and just grab one in the morning on the way to work.” No. Wrong. Wake up ten minutes earlier and cook your eggs in a respectable way.
7. Cloud Eggs
This is one of the new, trendy ways to cook eggs that comes around once in awhile. It’s all over Instagram feeds because it looks super fancy and interesting.
And I absolutely hate it.
The cloud egg method involves removing the white from the yolk, whipping the white into a meringue, parbaking it, adding the yolk back, and then baking the whole thing together.
It will probably take you at least an hour to prepare a single egg.
And for what? I don’t want some fluffy egg white. I want my egg white to be rich and greasy. This method is for Instagram and TikTok and literally nothing else.
6. Sunny-Side-Up Eggs
Sunny-side-up eggs are alright. They don’t piss me off like the aforementioned cooking methods.
However, out of the many different ways to cook eggs, I would probably only choose this one if I was planning on putting my egg on top of some fried rice or chow mein.
The combination of the runny yolk and crunchy white makes sunny-side-up eggs great for topping other dishes. You get the yolk running into your food like a savory sauce and occasional bits of crunchy yolk as you eat through your dish.
But, as a way to eat an egg by itself, it’s not my favorite.
5. Soft-Boiled Eggs
I think that soft-boiled eggs are extremely underrated. How often do you hear about people eating them? Almost never.
That’s a shame because it’s one of the most rewarding side dishes you can possibly eat with your breakfast.
Sure, it’s tough to get that timing right when you’re soft-boiling your eggs. But, when you do, you get a creamy and pudding-like yolk that’s absolutely delicious when topped with a little salt and pepper.
Plus, you look really fancy eating a soft-boiled egg in a cup with a tiny spoon.
4. Basted Eggs
If you don’t know what basting eggs is, it’s a specific way of cooking eggs that involves putting a little water into your frying pan once the white is nearly fully set. The result is a fried egg that’s fairly well-cooked all the way through.
With basted eggs, you get a nice, runny yolk that you can spread over some toast and the basting process also gives the white a beautiful, fluffy texture that’s absolutely to die for.
Depending on how hot you get your pan before adding your egg, you can also get a nice crispy bottom to your egg, if that’s what you prefer. Either way, this is an awesome method.
3. Over-Easy Eggs
This method is rather similar to sunny-side-up eggs except for the fact that you cook the egg on both sides, giving you a nice crisp, brown layer on both sides. I love over-easy eggs on breakfast sandwiches or on a slice of avocado toast.
But you have to be careful not to break open the yolk when you’re flipping your egg. Biting into the crusty exterior of the runny yolk of an over-easy egg is quite possibly the best part of this cooking method.
2. Poached Eggs
It was a real toss-up between my two favorite ways to cook eggs, and poaching easily could have taken the cake.
Eggs Benedict is a staple of boozy brunches worldwide for good reason: the combination of that delicious Hollandaise sauce and the running yolk of a poached egg is just pure bliss.
Yes, making poached eggs is one of the more difficult ways to cook eggs, but the result is absolutely worth it.
First, get some water boiling. Then, crack your eggs into a cup. Next, you want to stir the water until it’s swirling around like a whirlpool. Finally, dump in your eggs.
The tornado-like motion of the water will wrap the white around the yolk and keep the whole thing together. Easy!
1. Scrambled Eggs
Gordon Ramsay’s scrambled eggs have become absolutely iconic and scrambling seems to be his preferred method of preparing eggs. So, how can you argue with a guy who’s been awarded 16 Michelin Stars throughout his career?
Scrambled eggs are the bomb! Over a piece of toast, stirred into some fried rice, on a breakfast sandwich, or simply by themselves, this is the best of all the ways to cook eggs. Period.
Now, not all scrambled eggs were created equal.
If you burn your scrambled eggs to a crisp and deny them that luscious, velvety texture they were meant to have, then you’re doing things wrong.
Watch the Gordon Ramsay video on how to prepare the perfect scrambled eggs and then watch it again. Learn how to cook scrambled eggs the correct way, and you’ll never go back to any of the other ways to cook eggs again (except maybe poaching now and then if you’re hosting brunch).
