Cooking Basics- How to Make Really Good Tasting Scrambled Eggs

Keeping Scrambled Eggs Simple

Sometimes the simplest things in life can be tweaked to the point of difficulty. Scrambled eggs are a good example of this. There are recipes everywhere for the perfect scrambled egg. The problem is that once you start bombarding this once simple dish with fifteen exotic ingredients, it somehow loses what it originally was and people forget the simplicity of it all and how good simplicity can actually taste.  Keep it simple.

The most important ingredient in scrambled eggs is the eggs. The fresher the egg, the better the dish will be. I have my own chickens in my back yard so I am lucky enough to have just about a never ending supply of the freshest eggs available. The eggs that I used for this recipe were laid sometime yesterday afternoon. You can't get much fresher than that!

If you don't have your own chickens, the best place to purchase freshly laid eggs is your local farmers market. You can expect to pay approximately $3.00 per dozen depending on your area and, believe me, it's worth every penny. Fresh eggs are more nutritious, have less cholesterol and create a much creamier texture scrambled eggs. The color might be a bit different in a fresh egg but that's a good thing because they haven't been sitting around long enough for the color to fade and the nutritional value to go out the window.

This recipe makes enough scrambled eggs for two people.

What You Need to Make Scrambled Eggs

1. 3 fresh chicken eggs
2. 2 teaspoons butter (do NOT use margarine, it is not even close to being the same thing)
3. 1/4 cup of milk or cream (I do admit that cream in scrambled eggs is even more amazing)
4. pinch of salt
5. pinch of pepper
6. cheese- optional and really good!
7. fresh cherry tomatoes- optional and again, really good!

How to Make Really Good Tasting and Simple Scrambled Eggs

You'll need a pan to cook your eggs in. If you pan is non-stick then you really won't need any butter. If you pan does not have a non-stick coating, you'll want to have a couple of tablespoons of butter to keep the eggs from sticking to the pan. Put the pan on the burner, add the butter if needed and set the temp to medium heat so the butter can melt while you are beating the eggs. If you don't use the butter, wait a few minutes before heating the pan up.

Crack your eggs open into a bowl and add the milk (or cream). I always poke the egg yolks to break them but that's optional. Next, as my grandmother used to say, you'll want to whisk the tar out of them. The purpose of whisking is to not only blend the milk and the eggs together, you want to do it fast enough to actually beat air into the eggs. This helps make them fluffier during cooking.  There's a video on the sidebar that will show you how to easily beat eggs in a bowl.

If you are using the non-buttered pan, now is a good time to turn on the heat. Add your salt and pepper to the eggs and beat them some more!

After a total time of about 5ish minutes, pour the eggs into the pan. Here's where your test of patience comes into play. Do NOT stir the eggs. You'll need to wait a few minutes and let them start to cook first. Turn the heat down to medium/low.

After waiting a few minutes, give the eggs a little, gentle stir. You should see that the eggs have started to cook and firm up. Wait a few more minutes, adjust the heat if needed and let them cook uninterrupted. That's one of the keys to fluffy eggs. You beat them when they are raw, not when they are in the skillet.

After about 10 minutes and between 3 and 5 quick, gentle stirs the eggs should be just about done. You don't want them browned. You want them to look solid, soft and a little bit glossy.

Right at that moment, it's decision time. Do you want to eat your eggs plain or do you want to add a few yummy ingredients to them? This time, I chose to add two things to my fluffy, yummy scrambled eggs. Fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden and some shredded cheddar cheese.

If you choose to have your eggs plain, cook them just a few seconds longer, put them on a plate and enjoy! For any added extras, now is the time to add them. I just tossed in the tomatoes after quartering them, gave it a quick stir and put the cheese on top. Turn the fire off and put a lid on it for a couple of minutes for the cheese to melt.

After the cheese has melted, the eggs are ready to enjoy! Or devour. No one could have ever guessed that plain jane scrambled eggs could taste so darn good!