Why You Should Consider Boiling Your Scrambled Eggs

When it comes to making scrambled eggs, the old adage "there's more than one way to skin a cat" rings true. Everyone has their own style of preparing the popular breakfast dish, whether it's adding extra ingredients or cooking them a specific way. Gordon Ramsay always adds a splash of crème fraîche for extra creaminess. Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond actually puts her whisked eggs through a mesh strainer before she cooks them (weird, we know, but apparently effective). And Alton Brown recommends taking your eggs off the stove one minute before they're even fully cooked if you want them nice and fluffy.

While the above are all great ideas, another lesser-known hack for perfect scrambled eggs involves the type of pan you use — or rather the type of pot you use. According to some foodies (including The New York Times cooking section), you should boil your eggs before you scramble them. Here's why.

If you can poach eggs in water, theoretically shouldn't you be able to scramble them the same way? That's what San Francisco chef Daniel Patterson decided to try out, after he grew tired of cooking eggs in a cast iron pan only to end up with burnt bits followed by hours of scrubbing post-breakfast. And he was surprisingly successful. In an interview with Bloomberg, Patterson explained how it works: "The intense heat of the water bath would cause the air bubbles in the eggs to expand, while simultaneously setting the protein. The resulting eggs are terrifically light, fluffy, and tender, like an expertly made omelet."

The blogger behind Kitchen Konfidence also uses this bizarre method. He says he whisks the eggs in a bowl and then pours them into a pot of boiling water. He covers the mixture, waits just 20 seconds, and voilà! Perfect cloud-like scrambled eggs. If you're liking the sound of this idea, The New York Times has an equally easy-to-follow recipe.