Genius Recipes
The Crispy Fried Eggs That Made Me a Better Cook
The recipe that taught me to take a step back.
Every week in Genius Recipes—often with your help!—Food52 Founding Editor and lifelong Genius-hunter Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that will change the way you cook.
Sixteen years and seven homes in, my husband Mike’s fried eggs are a constant in our life—even, and especially, when life gets harder.
They were just as good on the twitchy gas burner in our fourth-floor walk-up apartment (our first, and highest, in Brooklyn) as they’ve been on all of the surprisingly aggressive electric stoves we’ve inherited since, from New York to California.
His eggs morph to fill out any half-formed meal idea or jumble of leftovers to become breakfast, lunch, and, most often, very late-night dinner. I’ve dissected what I think makes them so good to so many friends that eventually they became Mike’s Famous Fried Eggs. And if I were still cooking the way I cooked when Mike and I started dating, I might never have tasted them at all.
Because when I met Mike, I wanted to cook everything the best possible way (maybe some of you can relate): I was so eager to get better, so proud when I figured out a new trick, and so, apparently, unwilling to change course once I did, that I got fidgety as soon as I saw the meal starting to diverge from my plan.
It was usually an internal struggle, but in one especially low moment during a BLT phase, I watched Mike put the bacon into the skillet without cutting it in half first—my favorite way to rotate the strips so the edges wouldn’t burn before the middles crisped. So I found myself pulling the already-melting pieces of bacon out of the pan, cleaving them in half, and then slipping them back in. And then realizing uh oh—I...need to back off.
The bacon would have been fine. Even if the edges had burned, everything would have been fine. Mike said nothing and I just squirmed. Luckily, I decided then that I wanted to be more flexible, and curious, in the kitchen, and so I didn’t take over the night Mike fried the eggs.
Because my cooking education up to that point had been more influenced by French traditions than I realized, I had internalized the notion that eggs should be cooked gently and never browned—though even then the idea of there being only one way didn’t sound quite right, given all the other fried eggs I’d grown up eating. And Mike was about to cook them very, very differently.
He started heating the pan on high and wandered away. Smoke curled. He poured a stunning amount of oil into the pan. The eggs billowed and crisped at the edges, but instead of going tough like the cooking manuals had warned, they stayed impossibly tender within.
Mike by no means invented crispy, lacy-edged fried eggs, which are cooked and appreciated by people around the world. But ever since Mike’s eggs taught me to question the rules I’d been taught, I’ve loved learning about the differences in how his tend to come out, like little flying saucers, compared to ones gorgeously puffed and almost deep-fried, Thai-style; and the effects that different moves like flipping vs. basting vs. nudging can have.
But still, why share a recipe that’s already common and well-loved in so many food cultures? Because I hope that no matter what you’ve been taught, you might take a step back, watch other people cook, and reconsider what you think a dish has to be, just like I did. And I hope, no matter how you like to fry eggs, that you might try Mike’s. I think you'll be really happy you did.
| Neutral oil, such as canola | |
| Eggs (as many as you want to eat) | |
| Salt | |
| Freshly ground black pepper (optional) |
| Neutral oil, such as canola | |
| Eggs (as many as you want to eat) |
| Salt | |
| Freshly ground black pepper (optional) |
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Written by: Kristen Miglore
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32 Comments
As for the eggs sometimes I add a tablespoon of cold water once the eggs are partially set, the water steams and evaporates and puffs up the eggs even more.
I likes 'em with nice smooth cooked edges and the whites completely cooked. I make mine using bacon drippings and baste 'em with the hot fa
There are some who think crisp brown egg whites are some sort of heresy and refer to the situation as “lace curtains” and to be avoided at all costs. Don’t knock it until you try it!
You mentioned letting you know of favorite ways we cook our eggs and I will share with you how I’ve asked for and eaten eggs off and on for many years (50+). My Mother, a wonderful cook, would ask this (not a cheery morning person) nearly three years old, if she’d like fried eggs. I’d answer, “make pink eggs, Mommy!” Technique is typical, butter in the fry pan, crack eggs into it after heated, but take the pan lid, add 1-2 tablespoons of water in the lid, turn down the heat and and cover the eggs with the lid, for 30-40 seconds. The steaming process covers the yolk and makes it appear pink, thus “pink eggs”. I’ve done these for our children and ourselves for 40+ years. The yolk isn’t set all the way, depending on how long you leave the lid on, but you can adjust it to your liking. Haven’t seen others use this method, but they are good. Salt, or salt and pepper optional.
Just sharing this fond memory from my childhood. My Mother claimed my first words were “hot cookie” when I was sitting on the kitchen floor watching her get my Dad’s favorite: chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. I was eight-nine months old! Loved those cookies then and still do now!
I so enjoy Food52!
Lots to explore!
Kathy M.
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