Whisk Vs Fork: Here's How You Should Be Scrambling Your Eggs

If your scrambled eggs turned out rubbery, you might assume that you accidentally cooked them for too long or at too high of a temperature. It's certainly a common mishap, but according to Fine Dining Lovers, over-beating could also be to blame. The purpose of beating eggs is to achieve a fluffy texture by incorporating more air, but contrary to popular belief, more air isn't better when it comes to scrambled eggs. That's why forks are actually a better option than whisks. Because beating with a fork requires using a side-by-side motion, the amount of air that gets added into the eggs is more controlled than when using a whisk.

As The Kitchn further elaborates, eggs are composed of protein, and when you add air into the equation, the protein has to rearrange itself to accommodate, creating a network that traps the air in. As you continue to whisk, more air gets trapped in, but that also means that the network of proteins needs to bind together more tightly. And when that network of proteins gets too tight, water then gets pushed out, and this ultimately results in dry, rubbery eggs with plenty of air and not enough moisture.

Instead of reaching for a whisk or even a fork to beat your scrambled eggs, try using chopsticks. If you've ever seen the Japanese omelets that went viral on TikTok, you may have noticed that they always use chopsticks before and while cooking the eggs. You'd think that using two wooden sticks won't be nearly as effective as a four-pronged fork, but as you'll see in the TikToks, this technique results in a silky yet fluffy texture every time.

Chef and culinary professor David Barry explains in Fine Cooking that this is due to the fact that chopsticks allow you to handle the eggs a lot more gently. Not only is this a great way to avoid overbeating the eggs, but chopsticks also help break down the coagulated proteins into small curds during the cooking process. Barry shares that when the curds are smaller, they're also creamier and less likely to clump together into big rubbery chunks.

You may not think of scrambled eggs in terms of chemical reactions and protein molecules, but it all comes down to a science, and you might as well use it to your advantage. Staying away from a whisk and opting for a fork or, better yet, chopsticks can make a big difference.