Ingredient

Scrambled eggs

Scrambled eggs are a custard you stir. They set between about 62 and 70°C, they carry on cooking in the pan after you take it off the heat, and almost every bad plate of them has simply been cooked too far.

Why they go wrong

Egg proteins unfold with heat and link into a network that traps the water around them. Push that further and the links tighten, squeezing the water out — which is exactly why overcooked scrambled eggs are simultaneously rubbery and sitting in a puddle. Both symptoms are the same fault.

The window is narrow and the pan holds a great deal of heat, so eggs taken off when they look right will be overcooked by the time they reach the plate. Take them off while they still look slightly too wet.

A splash of cream, crème fraîche or cold butter stirred in at the end does two useful things: it stops the cooking immediately, and the fat gets between the proteins and makes over-tightening harder.

The two schools

Low and slow

A low heat, constant stirring, five to ten minutes. Gives small, soft, creamy curds. The restaurant style.

Fast and folded

A medium heat, gentle folding rather than stirring, under two minutes. Gives large soft curds. The café style.

Off the heat repeatedly

Moving the pan on and off the heat every twenty seconds. Gives excellent control and is what to do if unsure.

Bain-marie

Over a pan of hot water. Nearly foolproof and very slow.

The method

1. Beat the eggs thoroughly, until completely uniform. Streaks of white cook differently and give a patchy result.
2. Melt butter in a cold or barely warm non-stick pan and add the eggs.
3. Cook over a low to medium heat, stirring or folding continuously and scraping the base and corners.
4. Watch for the moment curds start forming. From here it moves fast.
5. Take the pan off the heat while roughly a third of the mixture still looks liquid. It will finish in the residual heat.
6. Stir in a knob of cold butter or a spoonful of crème fraîche to stop the cooking and enrich them.
7. Season now, and serve immediately onto warm — not hot — plates.

Details that matter

• Season at the end. Salt added early has time to draw water out of the proteins, which makes them looser and more likely to weep. The effect is real if modest.
• Non-stick pan, and a silicone spatula. You need to scrape the base continuously.
• Do not add milk. It dilutes and encourages weeping. Cream or butter, if anything.
• Toast first. Scrambled eggs wait for nothing.
• Do not scramble more than four eggs at a time in a domestic pan without moving up to a wider one.
• Warm plates, not hot ones. A hot plate carries on cooking them.

For more than two people

The method that works for two fails for eight, because the pan is the limiting factor and it cannot be scaled by cooking longer.

1. Use the widest pan you have, not the deepest. Depth is what makes a large batch cook unevenly.
2. Do not exceed about eight eggs in one domestic pan. Beyond that, cook in batches or change dish.
3. Take the heat lower than you would for two, and accept that it takes longer.
4. Stir more, and reach the corners and the base constantly.
5. Take them off further from done than you would for a small batch — a large mass carries far more residual heat.
6. Have everything else ready first. A big pan of eggs cannot wait for anything.
7. For more than eight people, make a baked egg dish, a frittata or shakshuka instead. Those scale; scrambled eggs do not.

Common questions