How do you like your eggs?

There are plenty of options out there for the discerning egg lover, but it’s hard to go past many of the classics. In today’s blog, we’ve listed five ways your eggs can be cooked and offer simple tips on how to do this.

1. Hard boiled

A hard boiled egg is achieved by placing eggs (still in their shell, of course) into a pot of boiling water for about 7 to 9 minutes, which should ensure the entire egg is cooked through. This means both the egg white and yolk have solidified. You can enjoy hard boiled eggs warm (immediately after cooking) or chilled. They’re commonly cut up and put in salads.

2. Soft boiled

A soft boiled egg is cooked in the same manner as a hard boiled egg, only it’s boiled for a shorter period of time – usually somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes. The result should be that the egg white is hard but the yolk remains soft, which allows you to dip in cuts of toast. It’s often a popular choice for a simple breakfast.

3. Sunny side up

We don’t hear this term as often in Australia, but no doubt you’ve heard it before somewhere. Sunny side up is very simple. All it means is that the egg is being cooked with the yolk sitting on top (so, essentially, how an egg naturally breaks open on a frying pan). You cook it until the egg white has completely colourised, with some slight crisping on the edges. The yolk should stay soft and runny.

4. Scrambled

If you want to make scrambled eggs, then the most common approach is to crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk them so the whites and yolks blend. If you want, you can add water or milk into the mixture. After this, the mixture is poured into a heated pan and consistently stirred until it forms into full curds and any/all liquid completely solidifies. Ideally, you want the end result to be scrambled eggs that are soft and fluffy.

5. Over easy/medium/hard

Over easy (or medium or hard) refers to when the egg is cooked on both side. Essentially, you have the sunny side up portion of the cooking process, then you flip the egg over onto the yolk so that it can cook. The terms easy, medium and hard all refer to how firm you want the yolk to be. Easy aims for a soft, runny yolk; medium refers to a semi-soft (or semi-firm) yolk; and hard refers to a yolk that will be as firm as the yolk in a hard-boiled egg.

Achieving each form of over [insert firmness here] is achieved purely by how long you cook. This does require a little trial and error at first as all stoves can affect how quickly or how long it takes for you to hit easy, medium or hard.