The Kitchn's food editor, Andrea Rivera Wawrzyn, tested various scrambled egg tricks and found that two simple rules make a significant difference to texture and taste: using cold butter and pre-salting the eggs.
Testing different methods
Wawrzyn experimented with several approaches, including using milk, adding an extra egg yolk, and using cornstarch. For each test, she used two large eggs, whisking the whites and yolks until "well-combined and the eggs were a bit frothy," and cooked them in melted unsalted butter. Despite the same base ingredients, each method produced different results.
Cold butter and pre-salting win
According to her findings, cold butter and pre-salting eggs both delivered impeccable results. She wrote: "Cold butter does a lot of work here towards achieving my ideal scramble, helping to regulate the temperature of the eggs so that they cook more slowly, yielding creamier, smoother eggs."
She added that the eggs "had a slightly fluffier texture and were, dare I say, a bit more balanced. The buttery flavour came through, but so did the eggy-ness. A very solid scramble."
Regarding pre-salting, Wawrzyn said she learned the trick from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's The Food Lab. She explained: "It turns out that when you add salt to scrambled eggs has a big effect on their final texture. Adding salt to eggs well before cooking 'prevents their proteins from bonding too tightly … resulting in a more tender curd.' The salt helps the eggs retain moisture, making for a delicious, fluffy scramble."
She concluded: "These eggs were the best of both worlds. The texture was what I was looking for — smooth but firm, moist but not damp — and the flavor was salty, buttery, creamy, and eggy, without sacrificing richness. These are my dream scrambled eggs."
