The Frittata Golden Ratio You Should Follow

Are you working on creating a waste-free kitchen? The frittata is your friend. You can throw practically anything in a frittata, from day-old fried rice to veggies that need to be cooked today. While you can shop for and create a gorgeous special occasion frittata, it can also be your use-it-up meal beloved by thrifty cooks. Leftover mashed potatoes? Whip up a rafanata, a southern Italian frittata with mashed potatoes, and a horseradish kick. Baby spinach that won't stay fresh much longer? Go for a classic spinach and cheese frittata.

Frittatas, as dishes go, don't have a lot of rules. Unlike quiches, they're crustless. But otherwise, your choices of cheeses, meats, and veggies ... all fairly flexible. You can serve frittatas for any meal — breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner, or even a midnight snack. MasterClass describes the frittata as a "MacGyver meal," but there is one important rule that you should follow if you're trying to achieve the ideal frittata consistency: Just set it with a bit of a jiggle and no watery bits.

While some aspects of the frittata allow you to wing it, there's one ratio you need to pay attention to: The egg-to-dairy proportion. For quiches, MasterClass explains the egg-to-dairy ratio is one egg to ½ cup dairy, giving you a rich, indulgent custard. The consistency of a proper frittata is quite different, though, and that's because the ratio of eggs to dairy is, according to both Bon Appétit and MasterClass, a full dozen eggs to just ½ cup of dairy. The higher proportion of egg to dairy results in a finished frittata that more closely resembles an open-faced omelet than the more custard-based quiche.

Frittatas are often cooked in a cast iron skillet, sometimes started on the stovetop and finished in the oven or cooked entirely in the oven. The cook time is relatively brief and depends both on the size of your frittata and the size of your skillet. Make sure you remove your frittata when it still has a jiggle, or you risk overcooking it. For the perfect brunch, serve your frittata with a batch of mimosas for a crowd.