Don’t Make These Scrambled Egg Mistakes at Home

Short of pouring a bowl of Cheerios, scrambled eggs might be the easiest breakfast food to make. But there are still countless ways to screw up your scramble. To make sure your at-home eggs taste like the kind you’d spend $16 on at a fancy French bistro and not like the chafing dish of eggs at a hotel breakfast, you’ve got to follow these rules.

Unless you’re trying to make frambled eggs, the best way to make scrambled eggs is to beat them so well they’re one butter-yellow color. Otherwise you’re going to have streaky bits of cooked egg white in your scramble, and that’s not ideal. To make the eggs a completely homogeneous mixture, use a fork, whisk, or even a food processor.

If you salt your beaten eggs and then walk away to cook bacon or take a phone call, they’ll go tough and rubbery. You can beat eggs in advance and leave them in the fridge, then season them with salt just before dropping them in the pan.

You may think the best tool for scrambled eggs is a pancake-flipping spatula (I did for the first 20 years of my life!), but the best tool for scrambling eggs is a rubber spatula. As soon as the eggs hit the hot pan, begin stirring circles into the eggs with the spatula. This will help to form soft curds instead of omelet-like pieces.

The trick with scrambled eggs is to pull them off the heat just before they look done (and not two seconds after, like you might have been doing). Even in the few moments it takes to scrape the eggs onto a plate, they’ll continue to cook from the pan’s residual heat.

Don’t be afraid to season your eggs with salt a second time after putting them on a plate. They need it. Add a few grinds of black pepper for sure, and even some minced chives if you have them.