The 9 Very Best Ways to Cook Eggs

Eggs—almost everyone loves them, and for good reason: They're a perfect protein that you can add to nearly any dish. Plus, since eggs are so adaptable, there's an almost infinite number of ways to cook them.

Chances are, you probably have a favorite, go-to style of cooking your own eggs. You've probably even perfected your technique over time and have no plans of changing how you do things. You might have even gone so far as to convince yourself that your egg recipe is the perfect recipe, and no other methods even matter.

Here's a truth bomb, though: There isn't just one best way to cook eggs. In fact, there several ways to cook eggs, each of which can be used to help you avoid meal boredom and expand your culinary horizons.

To that end, we've put together a list of what we consider the nine best ways to cook an egg. Some cooking styles you’ll be familiar with (Who doesn’t like a good scrambled egg?), while other techniques might be new to you. Who knows? You might even find a new favorite.

Are you egg-cited? Let's get going!

Hard-Boiled Eggs: How to Cook the Perfect Portable Breakfast

We all know how to cook a hard-boiled egg, but do you know the best way? The best way to start is to understand what you’re going for. A hard-boiled egg is an egg cooked in its shell in boiling water until the egg white (or albumen) and the yolk are both cooked solid. Seems easy enough, right? But there’s a ton of misinformation out there.

The simplest way to the best hard-boiled eggs is the "heat and soak" approach: Cover the eggs with about an inch of water and then slowly bring the water to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, remove the pot from the burner, cover it and let it sit for 12 minutes. Martha suggests 12 minutes, but I’m more of an eight-minute man myself; it depends on the consistency for which you are looking. Then, remove the eggs from the stovetop and run under cold water.

For easier peeling, remove the eggs from the hot water with a slotted spoon and place them in an ice water bath for a few minutes. The quick switch from hot to cold water causes the egg to pull away from the shell, making the shells easier to remove.

Many enjoy eating hard-boiled eggs with either a sprinkle of kosher salt or a splash of hot sauce, but some people like to add a few veggies and turn them into little chicks!

Soft Boiled: A Slightly Shorter Cooking Time, but an Amazing Difference in Taste

Soft-boiled eggs are like hard-boiled eggs but cooked in roughly half the time. The goal here is to cook the egg white completely while leaving the yolk runny.

To make the perfect soft-boiled egg, add the same amount of water to a pot as with hard-boiled eggs, bring the water to a boil and then lower the temperature to a strong simmer. Gently place your eggs in the pot and then start your timer. For one or two eggs, expect to leave them in for around five minutes for a runny yolk and up to around seven minutes for a more firmly set yolk. Once the eggs are to your desired doneness, remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon and place them in an ice bath to halt further cooking.

Hard Scrambled: Learn How to Cook Your Eggs Like a Short-Order Cook

Hard scrambled eggs will seem familiar to anyone who’s spent time in a diner. It's the easiest way to scramble an egg and is a great first step into scrambling if you're new to the style. But just because hard scrambling is easy doesn't mean you can ignore the heat! Keep an eye on the temperature and note how often you stir the curds of egg and you'll have a delicious dish in no time at all!

To make a hard scrambled egg, use a non-stick pan. Heat it for a few minutes over medium-high heat, add butter and heat until bubbly. Don't let the butter brown. Then, crack a few eggs into a bowl, add salt and pepper to taste and stir with a whisk or beat vigorously with a fork.

Pour the eggs into the pan and keep them moving with a spatula. Every minute or so, fold your eggs to break up any large curds and scrape the bottom of your pan back and forth. Cook the eggs until there is no liquid left in the pan, about four to seven minutes. Take the pan off the heat and transfer the eggs to a plate; leaving eggs in the pan can make them rubbery.

There's no secret as to how you can eat these eggs, you just eat them. Maybe add some toast and jam, or some home fries on the side. Or goetta, if you’re adventurous.

Soft Scrambled: Scramble Your Eggs Like the French Do

Soft scrambled eggs are the creamier, meltier sibling of hard scrambled eggs. They take a little longer to make and quite a bit more patience, but the velvety, soft mound of eggs you'll end up with is totally worth the extra attention. While keeping an eye on the heat is key to mastering hard scrambled eggs, it's even more important if you want to lock in perfect soft scrambled eggs.

For this how-to, start with four cracked eggs, a nonstick pan, a spatula, about a tablespoon of butter, salt and pepper. Melt your butter in a nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Make sure the butter coats the whole pan. Whisk the eggs vigorously in a separate bowl. With the butter just barely bubbling, gently pour the eggs into the center of the pan so that the butter gets pushed out toward the sides.

As the edge of your eggs barely starts setting, lightly scoop your spatula around the edges of the pan to create soft, big curds. Don’t flip the curds; we're just trying to help them set. Push the eggs around the pan consistently, but pause now and then to allow the eggs to cook a bit between scoops. Work quickly but calmly—we don't want to overcook the eggs. Your eggs should set into a soft scramble in two to three minutes. If the eggs seem to be cooking too quickly, lower your heat.

When the eggs are just barely set, remove them from the heat. We like them on a breakfast sandwich or by themselves. If you’re feeling fancy, try broiled asparagus on the side and feel like royalty!

Over Easy, Over Medium, Over Hard and Sunny Side Up: What's the Difference?

If you're a denizen of diners, you know the most important breakfast question is, "How you want your eggs?" The most common answers are either the hard scramble or one of the four other options below. We all have our preferences, but do you really know the difference between the sunny side up and the over easy? Maybe you've been ordering the wrong one all along!

• Sunny Side Up: The egg is fried on one side and isn't flipped. The yolk stays runny and the whites are barely set.
• Over Easy: The egg is cooked the same way as the sunny side up egg, but it's flipped at the end and lightly fried on the other side. Also—and this is important—the yolk is still runny.
• Over Medium: The egg is fried the same way as the over easy egg, but is cooked a little longer after the flip. The yolk is only slightly runny.
• Over Hard: The egg is fried the same way as the over medium egg, but is left in the pan longer, until the yolk is cooked hard.

So how do you cook them? Just like soft scrambled eggs, but without the whisking. Add a tablespoon of butter to a nonstick pan and melt fully. Rotate the butter around until the whole pan is covered, but don't let the butter brown. Slide the eggs into the pan and keep the heat at a medium to medium-low setting. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Keep an eye on the eggs until they reach your desired level of doneness. If you’re not a sunny side up fan, remember to flip the egg so that the white and yolk can set to your desired texture.

Baked Eggs: In Shell or Not?

I remember when baked eggs were all the rage a few years ago, around Easter. I had just had my first kid and wanted to make a rainbow of eggs, so I found this recipe by Alton Brown. I was eager and made more eggs than we could possibly eat. I set my oven temperature at 320 degrees Fahrenheit, baked the eggs in a muffin pan for 30 minutes, and then moved the eggs to an ice bath to chill. They came out just perfectly, and now I bake my eggs every Easter, though I use fewer eggs now.

But before I learned about baking eggs in their shell, I had thought that the only way you could bake eggs in a muffin pan was by greasing the pan, cracking an egg into each section and sprinkling a little cheese on top. There are a ton of great recipes for this dish like this one and this one, but generally, you can expect to set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, oil every section of your pan, add your egg and bake them for around 10 to 15 minutes. The process is super easy, and it's a great way to meal plan your breakfast for days!

Basted Eggs: Not as Hard As You Think, More Delicious Than You Remember

Basting eggs sounds so fancy that you'll probably be surprised to learn that they're super easy to make at home! For those who have never come across this type of egg before, basted eggs are prepared by combining frying and steaming; when cooked properly they have a wonderfully nutty flavor.

Like most of the options above, you’ll need a good nonstick pan heated over the medium heat setting to make basted eggs. While the pan is heating up, crack two eggs into a small bowl and put it to the side.

Melt two tablespoons of butter in the pan until foamy, but not brown. Reduce the heat to medium-low and slide the eggs into the pan. Cook until the edges begin to turn white and then add a tablespoon of water to the pan. Cover the pan and cook the eggs for one and a half to two minutes. Lift the cover and peak at the eggs to see if they're at your preferred level of doneness.

How to eat them? I like to slide them on top of a piece of toast covered with mashed avocado, but they hold up just fine on their own, too. If you want to try a tasty variation, check out this recipe on how to butter-baste eggs.

Poached Eggs: They're Not Just for Ramen

You might know this style of egg from the first time you saw it perched at the apex of a bowl of ramen, but for me, this is the type of egg my grandpa always ordered at diners. There's an old-timey elegance to poaching an egg—it's a style that takes a little practice to perfect, but it's so worth the end result. Set aside a little time, buy a carton of eggs and practice; the first few won't be pretty, but by the time you hit the end of the carton, you'll poach eggs like a culinary superhero.

Poaching eggs takes patience and observation. First, crack your egg into a small bowl and set to the side. Very fresh eggs work best. Heat up an inch or two of water in a small pot until it reaches a low simmer. Add a teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of white vinegar to the pot. Stir the simmering water in one direction until you have a smooth, whirlpool effect—the swirling water will keep the egg from spreading too much, and will result in a prettier poaching. If you are poaching more than one egg at a time, do not stir the water mixture first.

Slide the egg into the center of the whirlpool, turn off the heat and cover the pot. Set your timer for five minutes and stare at the pot. You will feel the need to check on the egg to make sure it's properly poaching. Ignore this feeling and trust that the water, the egg, the vinegar and the salt are working their magic without your help. When your timer buzzes, remove the egg with a slotted spoon and serve immediately.

You may have your favorite ramen recipe, but if not may we suggest this awesome how-to guide on how to make restaurant-quality ramen at home? It is just delicious and your ramen will be fabulous.

Shirred: You Stuck Around for the Last One—Good On You!

I've saved my favorite egg style for last. I didn't even know shirred eggs existed until about 10 years ago when my grandmother-in-law gave me little, floral dishes she picked up in England years before. She said they were for shirred eggs, but that she never got around to making them anymore, and she thought I might like them because I like to cook. She was more right than she could have imagined. They are now my favorite style of egg, and are pretty easy to boot!

You don't need British egg pots to make the perfect shirred egg. You will need a ramekin or a small ceramic bowl though, as this is an egg technique that takes place outside of the shell. You'll also need a pot with enough water in it to reach almost all the way to the top of your ramekin, but not with so much water that a light simmer will send the water over the edge, into your ramekin.

Butter your ramekin, crack an egg into the dish and add two to three tablespoons of cream. Grate in another two tablespoons of your favorite cheese and sprinkle in any egg-friendly herbs. Place your ramekin into its water bath and bring the temperature up to a slow simmer, then cook until the egg has reached your preferred stage of doneness. (Please make sure the whites are done at least.)

This cooking style is incredibly versatile. The end result of a shirred egg with cheddar and chives is a totally different dish than a shirred egg made with gruyere and tarragon. This is the egg cooking technique you can daydream about, fleshing out different flavor combinations for the next morning's breakfast. The shirred egg is the egg that dreams are made of.

Did we get to your favorite style of egg? If not, let us know in the comments and maybe we'll add it to the list!

And if you’re looking for some of our favorite egg dishes, check out these three wonderful recipes:

Scrambled Eggs with Beet Greens and Onions

Low Carb Sausage and Egg Casserole

Garden Vegetable Frittata

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Now You Can Tag Your Friends in the Community Feed

Starting RIGHT NOW, all Android users of the SparkPeople mobile app can tag their friends and invite them into a Community Feed conversation. (Don’t worry website and iOS users--this function will be coming to you in the next few weeks.)

It’s easy: All you need to do to tag your friends is to type the @ symbol and start spelling out your friend’s username. After a character or two, we’ll start to suggest SparkPeople members you’re connected with--or members who have already replied to the conversation you’re taking part in--and you can tap to tag that member as quick as can be!

If your friend is also on Android and they have notifications enabled for our app, they’ll get a message that they’ve been mentioned in a conversation. If your friend clicks on the message they’ll be taken to the wherever in the discussion you tagged them, where they can reply right away.

It’s a great way to dig deeper into subjects you’re interested about and keep your friends accountable. And it’s also a great way to meet new friends, right there in the community feed: If you see an “@” symbol before a member’s username, you can click on it and check out their SparkPage, right there in the app. :)

We will be rolling out this functionality to iOS users toward the end of this month, and to all users by early June. (If you don’t use the app, we’ll send you email notifications whenever you’re tagged.) So make sure to turn your notifications on for our app so you don’t get left out of the conversation!

If you have any questions about this feature, ask away in the comments below, and we’ll be sure to get back to you!

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How to Make Facebook Healthier in Two Easy Steps

We've heard from many of our members recently that they aren't seeing SparkPeople in their Facebook feed as much as they used to. Many of you have wanted to know if we're posting less, or if we stopped posting all together.

Fear not, we are still posting on Facebook…it's just that Facebook keeps changing the algorithim they have in place that determines what you see in your feed. With each change it usually means you see less of our posts—even if you’ve signed up to follow us. This doesn't affect just us here at SparkPeople, but happens to all kinds of publishers and businesses on Facebook, and lately, it seems like they’ve stopped sharing our posts almost entirely.

There are a few things you can do to get sparked on Facebook—either by sharing and interacting with our posts (this signals to Facebook that you want to see more from our page), or joining our Daily Motivation group to get inspired by other members (more on this below), but there's two other ways that are super effective and incredibly easy to do!

While Facebook gives you the right to have SparkPeople posts show in your feed, you can take two easy steps right now to make sure you see all of our posts, right when they’re posted. It takes just five seconds. Follow these instructions, and you will be notified every time we post. 

On Desktop:

1. Go to https://www.facebook.com/sparkpeople.
2. Underneath our cover photo, click the dropdown arrow next to the "Follow" button.
3. Under "Notifications," click on the edit button. (The "edit" button looks like a little pencil. If you look at the image below, we point it out.) Once you click on the edit button, you'll see a popup.
4. On the popup, select the "Standard" option. 
5. To take it a step further and ensure you’re seeing our content, under "In Your Newsfeed," check "See First." Now, you will see our posts when you open Facebook AND you will receive an alert whenever we post from the page.
6. Celebrate. :)

If you're more of a visual person, this might help:



And then you'll see this popup:

On Mobile:

1. Go to our Facebook page, either in a browser or on the Facebook app.
2. Underneath the "Use App" button, tap the "Following" icon. You'll be taken to a new screen.
3. Flip the button next to "Get Notifications" so that it turns blue.
4. To take it a step further and ensure you’re seeing our content, under "In Your Newsfeed," check "See First." Now, you will see our posts when you open Facebook AND you will receive an alert whenever we post from the page.
5. Party.

Again, if you're more of a visual person, this might help. To switch it up a little, I used our SparkRecipes facebook page for this example:



That's it! Super easy, wasn't it?

And if you read all the way to the bottom of this blog, I'll let you in on two other, almost-secret ways to use Facebook to help you reach your goals:

1. Join our Facebook Group. We launched this group a few months ago (and wrote an awesome blog about why we did it.) The group is a great place to stop in for some motivation while you're browsing Facebook. We can't wait to see you there!
2. Share, like and comment on our stories whenever you find something you really like...or would really like to discuss. We've written a little about this in the past, but it boils down to this: if Facebook sees that you like the articles we publish, they're more likely to show these articles to other Facebook users. It's an easy way to spread the spark and support us with our mission to help millions of people to live healthier, happier lives!

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Get Fit In Less Than 5 Minutes a Day With These 4 Proven Tips

There is a good deal of conflicting advice out there about how to get fit, lose weight and be a better you. If you’ve followed SparkPeople for awhile, you know that we spend much of our time introducing you to workouts that really work, delving into diets that will help you lose weight and disproving health and fitness trends that aren’t worth your time.

But sometimes we don’t spend enough time tying everything together. We don’t list which workouts burn the most fat with the least chance of injury, or which diets perfectly balance your total nutritional needs. With the spring season upon us, we thought we’d take a break from our normal routine and tell you, in no uncertain terms, how you can reach your goals as efficiently as possible. We hope you enjoy these four ironclad rules to improve your diet and fitness.

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New: Get Daily Motivation from Our Facebook Group!

Hi SparkFriends!

Boy, do we have some great news for you: We just launched a new group where you can find support and motivation whenever you’re on Facebook. You can join in under a minute and start talking to SparkPeople members from all over the world!

Why a Facebook Group?

Many of you who are regularly on Facebook might already be familiar with Facebook groups, but for those of you who don’t know, let us offer this quick explanation: "Groups" on Facebook are a type of forum where you can meet and engage with other people who have similar interests.

The group we built for you is focused on daily motivation. It's a SparkPeople group for sure, but the specific goal of this group is to inspire you to reach your goals each day.

How Does It Work?

To start, someone from SparkPeople will post a conversation starter every day. This might be one of our favorite articles from our site, but it's just as likely that we'll post a link to research around health and fitness trends we've been thinking about, or a poll to get your opinion on a certain topic. We'll post it in the morning so you can start your day off thinking about your goals and how to achieve them. But we're not the only people who can post to the group.

If you have a question about health and fitness that’s been on your mind, go ahead and ask! Want to share an image of something that’s made you feel particularly proud recently? Share it with the group! This space is just as much a place for you to discuss what's on your mind as it is for us to share what's on ours.

Is This Group Just for SparkPeople Members?

Not at all. While we made this group for you, our members, we believe that it can help anyone who needs a little pick-me-up throughout the day. So if you know someone who could use a little motivation in their lives, invite them to join! It doesn't matter if it's a friend, a family member or even someone who isn't interested in losing weight and keeping it off; this group is for anyone who wants a little extra support on their path to living a healthier life!

So what are you waiting for? Join the group today! We have some fun and fantastic things planned throughout the year, and you won’t want to miss out.

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Spare Us a Minute, We Could Use Your Help

Hi, SparkFriends!

As you may have heard, Facebook is changing how their newsfeed works. This change might mean you see fewer posts from pages like ours whenever you visit Facebook. We know that not all of you spend your time over on that particular social network, so if that’s you, feel free to ignore this post and go read about our new SparkChallenges, which are awesome.

Facebook is Changing and We Need to Change With It

For those who do spend some of your time on Facebook and follow us there, this post is for you. We’ve been on Facebook for years now, and it’s always been a great place for us to spread the spark. When our members share articles that we post to our page, a whole new group of people can see the awesome advice we work hard to deliver every day.

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Get Improved Fitness Reporting in the App!

Yes, it's true! We just pushed out another app update that will take your reporting to a whole new level. Provided, of course, that you track your fitness with a fitness tracker that's synced to your SparkPeople account.

As you probably know, SparkPeople makes it easy for you to seamlessly sync your fitness data to your account from FitBit, Misfit, Garmin and other devices. We also have tight integration with Apple Health and Google Fit for those of you who use your phones as fitness trackers. (For a complete list of all the devices and apps we sync with, click here.) Syncing this data makes tracking your fitness easier and quicker, but now it's even more useful!

Visualizing Your Fitness Data

With this latest update, you’ll be able to visualize your fitness minutes, calories burned and steps walked more easily.

We've built a new tool into the app that can generate bar charts to show you how you're performing over time, so you can see which days you knock it out of the park and which days could use a little work. You set the date range and it’s easy to see if you follow certain fitness trends over time.

You'll also be able to view your cumulative results, which is a great way to remind yourself how far you've come.

And, best of all, we can show you your own personal record--both for all-time and for the last 30 days. While improving your fitness doesn't have to be a competition, it’s nice to know how you're doing now compared with how you've done in the past.

It's Easy to Get Started

To start seeing these charts, all you need to do is connect your SparkPeople account with a supported device or app on this page. Once you do, you'll see a little logo of the device or app you've connected on the log screen, underneath the "Exercise" section. Click on it to see your reports. Keep in mind that this will only show if your device or app has tracked fitness for that day and synced that data over to SparkPeople.

Let us know in the comments below if you have any questions. Thanks for using our app!

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SparkChallenges: Fun for Personal Goals or With Friends!

2018 is well underway, and we know you’re knocking your resolutions out of the park this year. Way to go! :) But if you feel your resolve slipping a little this January, or if you’d like to one-up your goal game, we have a new and super-fun feature you can start using today. Queue inspirational music:

SparkChallenges: Strive for Your Personal Goals or Contend With Friends!

We built a whole new challenge platform that will help you to make small improvements to your fitness, diet or general wellbeing for as little as a week or as long as three months! They’re a fun and positive way to feel a sense of accomplishment for healthy habits you set and stand by, even if you’re just getting started with a seven-day challenge. You can set up a personal challenge in a few minutes, or--if you want a little friendly rivalry--you can invite your friends, your Sparkfriends or even your family to participate too!

We have six new challenges to get you started (with more to come soon):

Posted 1/16/2018  10:00:00 AM By:   : 74 comments   39,661 views

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