What’s the Best Way to Salt Scrambled Eggs?
The New York Times
Paying close attention to timing can help you avoid watery eggs. Kenji López-Alt explains why.
In this column, Ask Kenji, the cookbook author Kenji López-Alt answers your questions. This week, he discusses the surprising science of salting scrambles.
Q. Should I add salt to scrambled eggs before cooking, during or after? — Ashley Allison, Chicago
A. “Don’t season it,” a young Gordon Ramsay warns in the viral video that has no-doubt landed his soft scrambled eggs on countless breakfast tables. Salt “breaks down the eggs” and turns them into “something very watery,” he says sternly, adding that salt should be added during the last moments of cooking. In a different scrambled egg tutorial, he claims that salt added too early will make the eggs “go gray.” Is he right? Will seasoning eggs before cooking them ruin them?
As with most simple questions, the answer can get quite complicated.
Let’s start with the quick version: It doesn’t really matter. Salting your eggs before cooking can improve texture and flavor incrementally, but adding salt at the last minute works just fine.
Got it? Now that I’ve revealed the stakes, let’s dive deeper.
The government space agency has vocally promoted diversity and inclusion for decades, even during the first Trump administration.
Faced with a rash of shark deaths marked by brain swelling, Canadian and American scientists are trying to solve a marine mystery.
Fake nurseries and town squares seem to comfort patients. But some experts wonder whether they are patronizing, even infantilizing.
A seismologist thinks natural phenomena could explain the Summerville Light and other mysteries around a South Carolina locale.
Two easy jam-filled desserts satisfy the craving for bright, bold berries when they’re far from their peak.
The case opens a new front in the battle between states that ban abortion and states that support providing abortion anywhere in the country.
When a scientist received a video of a spotted hyena in the southern part of his country, he thought someone was playing a trick on him.
The owner of Facebook and Instagram is incorporated in Delaware, but is considering a change. Its corporate headquarters would remain in Silicon Valley, people with knowledge of the matter said.