Andrew Zimmern's No. 1 Rule For Frying Eggs Is 'Not Moving Them'

Way back when the ancient Egyptians fried the first ostrich egg, it's hard to say if they took to heart Chef Andrew Zimmern's number one rule for frying eggs: Don't move them.

Otherwise, they suffered the same fate that Zimmern warns us modern cooks about when we throw caution to the wind and recklessly disturb a frying egg: Moving it around bursts the yoke. Also, you get in the way of the artistry of food science — like the uncurling of the protein strands of your egg whites that then form a chemical, congealed bond that can range from delicious to rubbery if you mess with it.

In other words, don't move the egg.

Zimmern, a Food Network TV personality who has long had the respect of the food universe plus three James Beard awards under his belt, likes his perfect fried egg to feature a few signature markings. He told his AndrewZimmern.com audience that you want a crispy, brown filigree around the edges of your egg — with a yolk that's warm, soft, and intact — thank you very much.

Other incidentals to consider in order to pull off your perfect fried egg include your choice of oil, your pan, and — perhaps most importantly — your patience. Here's more on what the best chefs have to say about each.

Ancient Egyptians may have been the first to crack an egg over fire; but it was Fernand Point, a French chef painstakingly committed to two things — technique and butter — who lays claim to the absolute best way to make a fried egg. According to What's Cooking America, Point was a Master Chef at La Pyramide in the 1950s when he cajoled fellow chefs who dared neglect the civility called for when frying an egg. His strategy was to slide a cracked egg into a frying pan with a nice, fat pad of butter that had been heated to the perfect (not crackling — how gauche!) cooking temperature.

Not all chefs agree that butter reigns supreme when it comes to frying an egg, but Food Network star Duff Goldman thinks those other chefs are wrong. So much so that he called out Food Network colleague Chef Robert Irvine for frying an egg in grapeseed oil instead of butter.

Food52 put the question of whether butter is best to the test — 42 tests to be exact — frying eggs in everything from cream to coconut oil. The results were mixed and revealed another matter: Namely, what pan you use matters as much as your oil of choice. Nonstick won for the best option that will ultimately deliver the coveted, undisturbed yolk — a point Chef Zimmern would remind you is within your reach if you discipline your spatula hand from poking that egg while it fries.