The Trick For Perfectly Runny Fried Eggs Makes Sense

Once you've upgraded from a standard, loose, rubbery, sunnyside-up egg that could easily be mistaken for a child's play food to the fried egg, it's unlikely you'll turn back. Instead of cooking the egg at moderate heat in just a tablespoon or two of fat, fried eggs use oodles of oil and/or butter and a method called basting in order to get delicate brown edges, set whites, and runny yolks. But getting the timing just right for liquidy, poached-like yolks and set whites can be tricky.

But a simple idea from Eater may change all that. Instead of pouring the entire egg in at once, try separating the yolk from the whites before they hit the pan. When your oil is piping hot, plop the white in solo. Then, as you would with a normal fried egg, spoon the oil over the whites until they are nearly set and have brown doily-like edges. Finally, pour the yolk onto the center of the whites, as if it had always been there, and quickly baste it with one or two more spoonfuls of oil. You can even give it a flip if you prefer an over-easy egg. Then promptly remove it from the pan with a slotted spatula, careful not to get excess oil on the egg, as this will continue the cooking process off of the stove. And there you have a tantalizingly crispy but still-runny egg.