11 common mistakes when preparing eggs

Eggs are indispensable in the kitchen for many people: for breakfast, at lunch, boiled as a snack or as a great budget option for dinner – eggs are always delicious. Yet, for something that seems simple at first glance, these mistakes are made surprisingly often…

And so, to brush up on the basics for everyone who loves eggs and may still be missing a few: here’s a list of the most common mistakes when preparing eggs:

Cracking the eggs directly into the pan for scrambled eggs

Making scrambled eggs is already so easy, so take that one extra minute to crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk them a little instead of cracking them into the pan one by one. This gives you evenly cooked and coloured scrambled eggs, rather than pieces of egg white or yolk that cook sooner and are therefore firmer than the rest.

Making scrambled eggs in a pan other than a non-stick pan

No matter how well you and your cast-iron pan work together, you’re genuinely better off making scrambled eggs in a small non-stick frying pan. You really don’t want to have to scrape burnt-on mess from your pan, and it’s a waste of egg too. Everything stuck to that cast-iron base could just as well have been on your plate.

Having the heat under your scrambled eggs too high

Eggs cook super quickly in a frying pan, and on high heat they dry out quickly too. Heat the pan over medium heat and turn it down slightly once the beaten eggs go in. With the heat lower, you have better control and it’s easier to take them off the heat at exactly the right moment.

You forget to stir the pan

The name says it all: scrambled eggs need to be stirred. Make sure a firmer crust doesn’t form on the bottom, because as mentioned, everything cooks incredibly quickly. Keep moving the beaten eggs back and forth gently in the frying pan with a suitable (wooden or silicone) spatula.

You leave the scrambled eggs in the pan after turning off the heat

Perhaps you thought you were doing the right thing by turning off the heat in time (when the scrambled eggs had not quite set completely yet). But then you left everything in the pan and went on to toast bread, pour the gravy and do a few other tasks. The eggs simply continue cooking in the hot pan, even off the heat, leaving you with overcooked, rubbery scrambled eggs after all. What a shame. Make sure the toast or bread—or simply the plate—is ready, spoon the scrambled eggs straight on top and eat immediately. Delicious!

Not using very fresh eggs for poached eggs

I’ll admit it right away: I’m no hero when it comes to poaching eggs. No matter how faithfully I follow all the tips, it rarely works. Still, according to many people, these are the tips that really seem to make the difference between failure and success. First: use very fresh eggs. If you buy them at the supermarket, check whether you have the box with the expiry date furthest away, and then don’t wait another week before poaching your eggs. Just do it right away. Or make friends with someone who keeps chickens and ask whether you can try it with a fresh egg.

Salting the water for poached eggs

You may have taken so firmly to heart that, for example, you should salt pasta water generously before adding the pasta that you’re inclined to do the same for poached eggs. You don’t need to—and shouldn’t! It could cause the egg to break apart, while you want the egg white to stay together. Only add salt once the egg is ready.

Cracking the egg directly into the pan for a poached egg

Yes, you probably see chefs doing this all the time, but for us ordinary mortals the same rule applies as with scrambled eggs: don’t crack it directly over the pan. It’s better to crack the egg into a shallow dish so you can easily slide it into the boiling water in one go, without splashing.

Letting the water boil too vigorously or too gently for a poached egg

If the water is boiling and bubbling too vigorously, your egg will almost certainly break apart in the pan, leaving you with a pan full of white strands. If the heat is too low and you can only see a few tiny bubbles in the water, the egg will almost immediately fall apart. What you want is gently simmering water with some bubbles just below the surface.

Putting too many eggs in one pan for boiled eggs

If you think you can make things easy by boiling a whole box of eggs at once, make sure you use a large pan. They need space to cook evenly on the inside, and cramming too many in at once also increases the chance that they’ll crack when they bump into one another.

Leaving boiled eggs in hot water for too long

Once those eggs are cooked exactly to your liking—whether hard- or soft-boiled—turn off the heat, but also make sure they can’t continue cooking in the hot water. Remove them from the water with a slotted spoon, or carefully drain the cooking water and replace it with cold water. Not to shock them and make them easier to peel, but to stop the cooking process.

There you go—now that you can see all these mistakes listed in one place, it may be easier to avoid them, and from now on you’ll always eat the most delicious eggs!

Read also:

• Dilemma: milk or no milk in your scrambled eggs?
• Where has the boiled egg gone?
• Recipe: soft-boiled egg from the Airfryer