Too Many Cooks: How Do You Like Your Eggs?

I would say that, if ever there were a time for egg-lovers, it's spring (and Easter weekend in particular). But truthfully, there's no one good time to be an egg-lover. They're eggs! They're extremely lovable.

But egg loyalties run deep and firm—or creamy and custardy, or flipped and just-cooked, or crispy-edged and well-oiled. You know.

We asked the team for their own preferences, and they run the gamut (and involve a whole lot of superstition, precision, practice...). Here's how they get cracking:

Micki: Runny yolks are a must. I'm definitely not a fan of that sulfury smell and chalkyness of hard-cooked yolks. I usually go sunny-side, over-easy, or poached, depending on how lazy I feel, and what I consider to be too much work at any given time (sometimes it's boiling water, sometimes it's taking out butter to fry an egg in). My poached egg technique gets me by, but I wish it were a lot better. And my favorite eggs are probably the lobster omelettes that my friend's mom makes (she's a caterer), but I think that has more to do with the lobster (she picks the meat leftovers from the body) than the eggs...

Caroline: When I'm at my favorite diner, it's the same: Two eggs, over-medium, home fries, buttered rye toast. At home, scrambled egg tacos are the best of all last-minute dinners/hangry cures. When I want to spend an hour making a salad, I do—and put a six-minute egg in there. I'm still working on my poaching technique too, Micki... The pot always ends up looking sort of spiderwebby.

Jovan: I'm all about coddling now (thanks to my new coddler!). But my method of choice, which is pretty fail-safe, is to fry a couple of lightly scrambled eggs (just a broken yolk, really) in butter, and flip it into an omelette shape. Sprinkle with with fresh chopped parsley!

Jackie: My favorite thing to do when visiting the South is eating a big traditional breakfast. It must include: a homemade biscuit, fried green tomatoes, two eggs over-medium or hard depending on my mood, some smoked bacon, and chicory coffee.

Leslie: I'm a longtime fan of eggs over-easy (where they're flipped so that they just touch the pan but are still completely runny, served with breakfast sausage and buttered toast), but recently I'm all about soft-boiled eggs, boiled for 8 minutes and 20 seconds exactly and then dunked into an ice water bath. I've been quartering them and putting them on top of barely-dressed greens with a tiny bit of pesto on top for dinner. So good! Why did it take me so long to discover them?

Olivia: I make a seven-minute soft-boiled egg every weekday morning before work. I've come to attach a lot of superstition to this process: When I accidentally crack my egg when lowering it into the water, or if the yolk is overdone or the white underdone, it's a bad omen for the day.

On the weekends, I make soft-scrambled eggs, and always order over-easy (with buttered white toast) at the diner.

Amanda Sims: Slow-scrambled forever! My dad has always made them for me this way, which I think was taught to him by his dad—he makes a big pan of them that takes basically a half-hour to cook. We each get a silky ladleful, crumble a piece of toast into the bowl like croutons, salt and pepper it, and eat the mess with a spoon as if it is porridge. I also love eggs very hard-boiled in a simple egg salad (which comes to about the same consistency as a slow scramble, now that I think about it).

Announce your own loyalties, tips, revelations, and poached egg techniques in the comments.