The Secret Ingredient Martha Stewart Uses In Her Scrambled Eggs
Ah, eggs. What would breakfast be without eggs? A hard-boiled egg when you're late for work, a microwaved mug omelet if you're living like a college student, frittatas and Benedict when you're feeling fancy — no matter your breakfast situation, there's an eggy solution at the ready.
Of all the ways in which Americans like their eggs cooked, it turns out about 36% of the population considers scrambled eggs to be the best (via YouGovAmerica). As popular as scrambled eggs are, they're a dish that's tough to perfect — you can easily undercook them, overcook them, burn them, or end up with a plate of eggs that simply aren't as fluffy as they should be. In fact, nailing scrambled eggs is so tricky that Gordon Ramsay uses the dish to test all his new chefs (via Eat This, Not That!). If they can make the perfect scrambled eggs, he knows they can cook.
Luckily, Martha Stewart has a scrambled egg trick that might win you a ticket into Ramsay's kitchen. During a cooking demo at an event hosted by Food & Wine in Aspen, Stewart revealed the secret ingredient to making the simple, yet tricky scrambled eggs perfect each time: clarified butter, also known as ghee. Stewart admitted that she found the trick accidentally when she decided to try swapping regular butter with clarified butter that she had sitting in her refrigerator, leftover from the previous day's dinner. "I cooked the eggs in the clarified butter, and they looked like golden, beautiful scrambled eggs," she said, adding that the dish turned out to be "the best scrambled eggs in the whole world."
Martha Stewart has lots of tricks for perfecting scrambled eggs
Using clarified butter to make scrambled eggs is, quite frankly, genius. PopSugar finds that clarified butter is suitable for high heat cooking and won't burn the way regular butter does when you're whisking your eggs — and it won't leave a weird aftertaste either. Clarified butter, or ghee, also adds a nutty flavor, which butter will not (via Bon Appetit). Plus, ghee has been used in the ancient Ayurvedic medicinal tradition for its seeming health benefits and anti-inflammatory properties for centuries.
While Martha Stewart's clarified butter trick seems to be a winner, this isn't the only trick Stewart has up her sleeve. When it comes to perfecting scrambled eggs, she suggests that it's not just the ingredients that matter, but also the technique. In a blog on her website, she says that one way to ensure light and fluffy scrambled eggs is to make sure that you whisk them constantly in the pan while cooking.
While you could add milk or heavy cream to make your scrambled eggs creamier and more decadent, Stewart adds that, if your eggs are of top-notch quality, you really don't need anything else added on top (via She Knows). Or, if you've just invested in a shiny new cappuccino machine, you can show it off to all your guests by using Stewart's method to scramble your eggs into a fluffy yellow heap using the steam wand of your coffee machine (via Food & Wine). Whether or not doing so will make your coffee the next day taste like scrambled eggs, however, is still up for debate.
When making scrambled eggs, Martha Stewart wants you to keep things simple
You could go hunting for secret ingredients that will magically ensure your scrambled eggs turn out near-perfect each time or try wacky Martha Stewart hacks like scrambling eggs in a mug using the steam wand of a cappuccino maker. But the most foolproof way to making soft and fluffy scrambled eggs, it seems, is to keep things simple and get the basics right.
In a video titled "Scrambled Eggs 101" shared on her website, Stewart walks cooks through the process of making simple scrambled eggs. According to the lesson, you don't really need any fancy mix-ins or gadgets to perfect the process. The most important thing to keep in mind is to cook the eggs over low heat whilst gently moving the eggs in a small pan constantly.
Stewart recommends using a generous amount of butter — about a tablespoon — so that the eggs don't stick to the pan and remain golden in color. You should also wait until the butter is just the right temperature. To test whether the butter is hot enough, Stewart recommends sprinkling a bit of water into the hot pan. If it sizzles and splutters, you are good to go. Once cooked, serve the eggs on a heated plate (preferably), toss in a pinch of salt, and ta-da! You'll have yourself a "perfectly good" plate of scrambled eggs that would make Martha Stewart proud.