The Simple Ingredient Swap For The Absolute Best Scrambled Eggs

Few foods engender the kind of debate that scrambled eggs do. Do you prefer them fluffy or creamy? When should you be adding salt to your scrambled eggs, before you cook or after? Some of these questions have actual answers, while others, like adding a little milk or cream, come down to personal preference. But everyone can agree that nobody likes hard, rubbery scrambled eggs. They're especially hated because, even for experienced cooks, eggs are finicky little things and it's really easy to let your mind wander for a few seconds too long until suddenly your perfectly cooked eggs are overdone. So we're always looking for tips and tricks that make the best scrambled eggs, and Tasting Table reached out to an expert, Nelson Serrano-Bahri, a chef and director of innovation at the American Egg Board, to get his top suggestions.

Serrano-Bahri told us that one of his favorite moves involves an ingredient swap, saying, "I actually like using butter instead of milk!" As he explains, "It adds fat without introducing additional liquid, which can make the eggs more cohesive and reduce the likelihood that they'll turn out watery." Not only that, but adding extra fat like butter helps keep eggs tender, because fats keep the proteins in eggs from binding together too tightly. Milk and cream have some fat, but neither are anywhere near as rich as butter, which makes the most foolproof scrambled eggs.

Of course, that butter fat doesn't just keep everything moist. As Serrano-Bahri reminds us, "butter can also enhance the flavor." Eggs made with milk can end up a little more bland, even as they stay soft, but butter does the double duty of ensuring the velvety texture that Serrano-Bahri is looking for and adding flavor. And Serrano-Bahri's method for using butter is simple and straightforward; "To do this, I recommend melting a small amount of butter in the pan before adding the beaten eggs." And if you want to incorporate the butter even more after pouring in the eggs, it helps to vigorously stir your eggs in the pan with the melted butter before they start to set.

If you want to go the extra mile in adding butter to your eggs instead of milk, there is one other trick you can deploy for maximum flavor and creaminess. Cut up some small cubes of butter and mix them in with the beaten egg before you pour it into the pan. While you'll still want some melted butter in the pan first, the extra butter cubes will melt into the eggs as they cook, ensuring more even distribution, and the cool butter helps regulate the temperature of the eggs as they cook, keeping them from getting overdone too quickly. We all know butter and eggs are a great match, but use it right and it's all you need for perfect scrambled eggs.