How to Cook Eggs on a Griddle
by A.J. 
 
ANDREWS	 Last Updated: Jun 23, 2015
How to Cook Eggs on a Griddle
Cooking eggs on a griddle is all in the wrist. 
 
Functionally, the only difference in a griddle and a frying pan is the anchored cooking surface. 
 
To compensate for the unmovable cooking surface, you have to have a little finesse in your wrist, especially when cooking over-easy eggs. 
 
A large offset spatula will prove useful when you cook eggs on a griddle. 
 
Use a thin-profile metal spatula if you have a cast-iron griddle, and a silicone spatula for electric griddles with nonstick surfaces.
Sunny-Side Up

Step 1
Crack each egg in a cup. 
 
Crack the eggs on their broad side on the work surface so chips of shell won't get in the egg white.

Step 2
Set the cast-iron griddle on the stove and adjust the burner to medium-low. 
 
If you have an electric griddle, lightly oil the cooking surface and set it to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 3

Pour each egg from the cup onto the griddle surface. 
 
Season the eggs with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Step 4
Pour a small spoonful of water on the griddle and let it bubble for a second. 
 
Cover the eggs with a lid.

Step 5
Cook the eggs covered for 1 minute then uncover. 
 
Continue cooking until the whites set, about 30 seconds.

Step 6
Slide the offset spatula under the eggs and lift them from the pan. 
 
Pry up a corner of the eggs if you need to so you can slide the spatula under them cleanly.

Scrambled

Step 1
Heat the cast-iron griddle over medium heat or an oiled or buttered electric griddle to 325 F.

Step 2
Whisk the eggs together with about 1 tablespoon of dairy for each and season to taste. 
 
Although milk or cream is commonly used, a little sour cream, cultured buttermilk or yogurt not only works, but adds a bit of agreeable tartness that contrasts the fatty yolk.

Step 3
Break off little pieces of cold butter and whisk them in the eggs. 
 
The butter pieces lubricate the curds and make the eggs fluffier. 
 
You can also add a pinch of baking soda for extra fluffiness if you like.

Step 4
Pour the eggs onto the griddle. 
 
Gently slide the bottom of the offset spatula over the top of the eggs in a circular motion for about 1 minute.

Step 5
Turn the spatula over and rake the eggs toward you to turn them over. 
 
Turn the heat off on the griddle and let the eggs cook with residual heat until they reach the desired firmness. 
 
The eggs will reach full firmness if you leave them on the griddle for 30 seconds after you turn it off; they will be at their softest if you remove them as soon as you turn the griddle off.
Easy, Medium and Hard

Step 1
Crack each egg in a cup. 
 
Place a well-oiled cast-iron griddle over medium heat on the stove or set a well-oiled electric griddle to 325 F.

Step 2
Pour the egg from the cup onto the griddle. 
 
Cook the egg until the white sets and turns opaque, about 1 minute.

Step 3
Slide the left side of the spatula under the right side of the egg if you're right-handed; if you're left-handed, slide the right side of the spatula under the left side. 
 
You're not sliding the front of the spatula under the egg like you normally would; you're sliding the entire left or right side of the spatula under the egg.

Step 4
Roll your wrist over when you get the spatula under the egg. 
 
Don't lift the egg and drop back on the griddle upside down to turn it; you'll break the yolk every time. 
 
Simply roll the spatula over smoothly and fluidly with egg on top of it.

Step 5
Cook the egg for about 15 seconds after you turn it for over-easy; cook the egg for 30 seconds for over-medium; cook the egg for 1 minute after you turn it for over-hard.

Things You'll Need

Small cups or mugs
Butter or vegetable oil
Baking soda (optional)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Offset metal or silicone spatula



===
8 Genius Ways to Cook Like a Diner
TOMMY WERNER 06.29.16

SHAREShare “8 Genius Ways to Cook Like a Diner” on FacebookShare “8 Genius Ways to Cook Like a Diner” on TwitterShare “8 Genius Ways to Cook Like a Diner” on PinterestShare “8 Genius Ways to Cook Like a Diner” on Google+Email “8 Genius Ways to Cook Like a Diner” Print this page
You can't build a diner inside your kitchen. 
 
But you can get inside the heads of diner cooks.

Welcome to Epicurious' "Cook Like a Diner" series, where we obsess about the simple, iconic, super-crunchy pleasures of diner food—and figure out how to make those classic dishes at home.

You might not realize it, but when you make a simple breakfast of bacon and eggs at home, or a no-fuss tuna melt lunch, you’re aiming for diner-style excellence. 
 
You want crispiness on the corners of your sunny-side-up eggs, brown toasty spots on your omelets, and everything served really hot.

Great cooking's not about fancy sauces and fashionable plates. 
 
The efficiency, speed, and intuition of a diner is the stuff great cooking is made of, and I'd pick watching diner cooks busting out orders over a flashy episode of Chef’s Table any day. 
 
And as it turns out, it’s not impossible to set up your home kitchen for diner-style glory. 
 
Here are 8 tricks for how to do it yourself.

Diner Patty Melt Hero

BY ANNA STOCKWELL
1. 
 
GET A FLAT-TOP GRIDDLE
Guess what: you need a big, hot, and flat space for all of it. 
 
A two-burner griddle with ridged edges allows you to turn your stovetop into a diner-style cooking surface, with the ridges acting as a grease collector. 
 
If you’re making pancakes for the squad, a flat-top griddle allows you to skip cooking it all in batches as you get everyone’s order done at once. 
 
With all of that space, you're going to have some really hot spots and some cooler spots. 
 
Ashley Christensen, owner of Poole's Diner in Raleigh, NC (among other restaurants) and author of the upcoming Poole's cookbook, says utilizing those temperature differences can make for really awesome breakfast. 
 
"These hot and cold spots aren’t usually by design, but a good cook knows how to use them to their advantage, rather than letting them be an impediment," said Christensen, "Steak, hash browns, burgers all benefit from movement around the griddle."

2. 
 
MEET THE PRESS
When it comes to diner food, the word is "flat." Line cooks will smash, press, and shove foods to get them closer and closer to being flush with flat top surface, seeking crispiness at all costs. 
 
This boosts the crispiness of sausages, grilled cheese, toast, and burger patties. 
 
To master that diner-style burger crust, you want to get the patty smashed down onto the surface. 
 
A sturdy grill press (a rectangle of metal with a handle) allows you to evenly press down everything. 
 
The best ones are heavy for their size. 
 
Use it for bacon slices, toast, grilled cheese—anything you need thin and crispy.

3. 
 
USE ROOM-TEMPERATURE BUTTER
Look around the griddle’s border at a diner, and you’re probably going to see a tub of butter. 
 
It’s the software of the diner griddle operation, and it’s important for it to be slightly soft. 
 
As the butter sizzles melts quickly on the surface of a griddle, its milk solids provide some browning and add some flavor to whatever’s cooking.

It’s also important to have the butter at room temp for the sake of serving. 
 
Cold butter on pancakes and toast is just plain wrong—get your butter at room temperature so that it starts melting on contact and enters all of those nooks and pores in a pancake. 
 
And let's not forget that soft butter means easy spreading on toast, or for grilled-cheese sandwiches.

Normally, you'd almost always use unsalted butter in the kitchen, but for breakfast, salted butter is choice. 
 
"Salted butter has gone out of fashion a little bit in the cooking world, but one place where I love it is with a diner breakfast," said Christensen. 
 
Use soft salted butter on waffles, pancakes, and toast, and you'll notice everything's just a little more savory.

4. 
 
FLIP IT GOOD
Besides a griddle and hefty grill press, the other piece of heavy equipment every diner needs is a huge offset spatula. 
 
You can’t maneuver around a griddle the way you can with a frying pan, so the shape, size, and heavy duty metal is a cinch for turning and moving lots of foods on a very hot surface. 
 
Need to flip a row of sausages at once before checking on a smashed burger? Tongs aren’t going to cut it—you need a tool with a lot more surface area. 
 
The thin edge also makes the tool perfect for scraping and cleaning off your griddle surface.

5. 
 
KEEP EVERYTHING WITHIN REACH
Just like a Michelin chef keeps their mise-en-place easy to access, diner line cooks have pre-prepped ingredients within reach for faster and more efficient (see: better) cooking. 
 
That makes all the difference when you're juggling orders for scrambled, over-easy, and fried eggs, just like diner cooks do. 
 
If you’re making scrambles for a crowd, go ahead and tear the lid off of the egg carton for easy access. 
 
Keep your omelet mix-in's on hand and sorted by cook time, and have all bread out of the bag, sliced, and already loaded into the toaster before you start heating up the stove.

6. 
 
DO IT AHEAD
Just like the best grillers, legit diners know that sometimes you need two heat zones—one high, one low. 
 
Legit greasy spoon spots like Joe’s always keep a mini mountain of potatoes sizzling and warming on low heat. 
 
They’ve boiled their potatoes ahead of time, so when they get an order of “mystery in the alley” (that’s hash browns to everyone else), they’re pretty much ready to go. 
 
Keep one of the burners on lower heat, and use that zone to cook items like slow-cooking home fries or delicate scrambles.

7. 
 
ADD THE LITTLE TOUCHES
Diners have just as many essential details as a world-ranked restaurant, and while we're not advocating installing Formica counters, there are plenty of small flourishes that can turn your next breakfast into a classic. 
 
Cut buttered toast into triangles, keep half-and-half in a metal creamer, stash syrup in a pourer, and have your hot sauce on hand (bonus points if it's in a caddy). 
 
Serve your pancakes or waffles on a separate plate (though maple syrup and eggs is a winning combo for you, then by all means go for it).

8. 
 
AND NO FANCY STUFF
A diner cook isn't spending time "plating" up with edible flowers or swoops of sauces. 
 
There just aren't those kind of embellishments happening. 
 
A diner plate will have a sprig of curly parsley garnish or some snips of curly kale at best—most diner food is garnished with more diner food. 
 
Save the pour-over coffee for when you're serving a curd-free fluffy French omelet instead of the cheesy and salty goodness of a Western omelet. 
 
Keep breakfast simple, let the syrup drip where it may, and it'll be special.

Then make like a diner cook and do it all over again tomorrow.

Prop Credit: Select props courtesy of Fishs Eddy


===

The pefect fried egg (why did it take me 30 years to figure this out?)
alanbarnes | Mar 19, 2009 11:32 AM

Okay, so my favorite egg prep is sunny side up. 
 
A barely-cooked white (not hard, but with no plegm) and a bright, runny yolk are all I'm asking for. 
 
But getting the top of the white done without overcooking the bottom and/or the yolk has always evaded me. 
 
And as far as a proper sunny-side-up egg in a restaurant? You're more likely to get a winning lottery ticket.

For years I have compromised. 
 
The easiest thing to do is just give the egg a flip and let the top cook for a few seconds. 
 
Delicious, but that's over easy, not sunny side up. 
 
Steamed eggs are another good option: just put a lid on the pan with a little water and everything comes out great. 
 
Basted eggs work about the same, but require flipping fat over the top of the egg. 
 
Boiling, poaching, no problem. 
 
But none of these cooking methods give the bright, proud yolk I want to see on my breakfast plate.

In the wake of St. 
 
Patrick's Day and the attendant corned beef hash, I decided that it was time to master this process. 
 
So for the last couple of days, I've been cooking three batches of eggs a day. 
 
(No, not breakfast, lunch, and dinner - my kids' schools start at different times, so I can do one batch for each of them and another for me.) Scoured the internet for suggestions, and started trying all of them.

Anyway, this morning I finally nailed it. 
 
The secret is oil. 
 
Lots and lots of oil.

For years I have been cooking eggs with the minimum amount of oil needed to keep them from adhering to the pan. 
 
With a Teflon skillet, that means just a spritz of the stuff in the spray can. 
 
I was thinking of the oil as an anti-stick substance rather than a cooking medium.

This morning it occurred to me that oil transfers heat much more efficiently than air. 
 
So I poured a fairly deep puddle of bacon fat into the skillet, put it on a low burner until it hit 250F, and dropped in the eggs. 
 
The oil came up over the top of the whites, but the yolks stood high and dry. 
 
A minute or two later, voila! Perfect sunny-side-up eggs.

Of course, quite a bit of oil needed to be drained off before the eggs were served, but that's why God put slots in spatulas, right? And after the oil cooled, it got strained right back into its container - no waste!

Now the only question is how many extra minutes on the elliptical trainer are needed to compensate for the added fat calories. 
 
There's no such thing as a free lunch. 
 
Or breakfast.

===


===
How to scramble eggs on the grill

Posted by Chris Perrin on August 13, 2012

You’ve never had scrambled eggs until you’ve had them on the grill.
How to scramble eggs on the grill

Yields 1 serving

Scrambling eggs on the grill is about as easy as scrambling eggs on your stove. 
 
But stovetop eggs have never, ever tasted as good as grilled eggs. 
 
Even though they are only cooked for a short time, those few minutes are all the eggs need to absorb a big dose of smoky flavor which matches their natural earthiness perfectly.

Ingredients:

1 oven-safe nonstick skillet or metal pie plate
Aluminum foil
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pat butter
Chives, minced (optional)
Bagel, toasted (optional)
2 slices lox (optional)
Directions:

The first thing you want to do is make sure that what ever cooking vessel you use is oven safe. 
 
If it can handle the high temps in an oven, it can handle a grill.
Next, you want to protect it from the grill grates. 
 
The easiest way to do this is just wrap the bottom part of your skillet or pie plate with aluminum foil. 
 
This will prevent the skillet or pie plate from getting its own grill marks.
Next, build a fire like you would for any steak.
If you have not built many fires for a steak, simply lay the charcoal along the bottom of the grill, light it, and come back when the charcoal is gray. 
 
Place the grill grate on the grill and check for heat.
To check for heat, place your hand over the grill. 
 
You should be able to keep your hand over the fire for 3 seconds. 
 
Any more and the fire is too cold. 
 
Any less and it's too hot.
Once the fire is ready, place your cooking vessel on the grate. 
 
Brush the vegetable oil on the vessel.
Beat the eggs with salt and pepper. 
 
When the vessel is hot, pour the eggs on it. 
 
Use a wooden spoon to move the eggs around so that they don't get burned.
Cover the grill and cook for 1 minute. 
 
Flip the eggs and cook for another minute. 
 
Repeat until the eggs are no longer shiny.
Rub the butter along the top of the eggs and serve optionally topped with chives and alongside a bagel and smoked lox.
Want more eggs?
===
I embark upon this column in the full and certain knowledge that many of you already know how to fry an egg. 
 
Indeed, if you are completely confident in your abilities, and never find yourself disappointed by a sadly snotty white or tragically chalky yolk, then pat yourself on the back and then move along – I can teach you nothing. 
 
But if, like me, you can fry a perfectly decent egg but wouldn't stake your life on your habitual method, then you are more than welcome to join this brave voyage back to the basics of cookery.

Those still reading should take heart from the fact that the great Fernand Point, feted as the father of modern French cuisine, is said to have judged a chef by the way he fried eggs. 
 
He'd interrupt hopeful apprentices at the stove, legends including Paul Bocuse and the Troisgros brothers, with the cry, "Stop, unhappy man – you are making a dog's breakfast of it!" before demonstrating the only proper way to execute the dish.

Further reassurance comes from award winning Spanish chef José Andrés, who claims "my whole life I have been trying to cook an egg in the right way." Andrés exalts in what he calls "the humbleness" of the dish, but that doesn't mean he just slings it into a hot pan and goes off to make some toast – far from it. 
 
Both these culinary giants have very different ways of frying an egg – but who's right? (Note here I'm aiming for the standard British fried egg, known in the States (and perhaps elsewhere?) as "sunny-side up". 
 
There will be no flipping.)

The egg itself: when is an oeuf an oeuf?
Here I'll be concentrating on the hen's egg because, realistically, that's what most of us cook up, but it's worth pointing out that duck eggs have larger yolks, proportionally (and are also bigger all round) and, arguably, a better flavour than many commercial hen's eggs. 
 
Be aware, however, that the higher protein content of the white will mean it cooks through more quickly, so it may take some practice to get right. 
 
(With ostrich eggs, you're on your own.)

As ever, if you keep your eggs in the fridge, then you should let them come to room temperature before cooking – if you start with a cold egg, then you're more likely to end up overcooking the yolk trying to get the white to set. 
 
Very fresh eggs are best for frying, because the stronger proteins will give you a neater shape (this may sound obvious, but older eggs are better for things like boiling, because they're easier to peel).

The cooking fat

Frying obviously involves adding fat – that's why it's so popular. 
 
Bacon fat is the traditional choice in this country, and still advocated by Delia, but very few of us eat enough of the stuff to have any around: I often use it if I'm doing eggs and bacon for breakfast, but although the flavour's good, it does make for a messy looking egg. 
 
Delia also suggests substituting groundnut oil, which creates the opposite problem – it's clean, certainly, but deliberately neutral tastewise.

More popular are olive oil, as favoured by Jamie Oliver, the aforementioned Andrés, and American food writer David Rosengarten ("the unaccustomed marriage of fruity olive oil flavor with creamy egg defines anew the upper limits of fried-egg excitement"), and butter, beloved of Point, his culinary disciple Bernard Loiseau, and Cook's Illustrated, among others.

Both lend their distinctive flavours to the egg, so it depends what you're going to be serving the dish with – I'd default to butter, because I think the richness is a better complement for the yolk, but if I were plopping it on top of a pile of morcilla and chickpeas, I might go for olive oil instead. 
 
(For a fry up, however, I will brook naught but butter.)

The cooking temperature

Delia uses a high heat for her favourite fried egg, which, she explains, has a "slightly crispy, frilly edge; the white will be set and the yolk soft and runny". 
 
She cooks it at this temperature for 30 seconds, then turns the heat down to medium for another minute, which does indeed yield the crisp white she describes. 
 
I find it too tough for my taste though: it's like chewing through a hairball, although I concede that the yolk itself is satisfyingly runny.

Andrés goes for a medium-high heat instead and, like Delia, tilts the pan to baste the egg throughout cooking. 
 
Using a smaller, steep-sided sauté pan and more oil, however, means his egg sits in a pool of hot fat, almost as if it's being shallow fried. 
 
It takes me a few goes, and a lot of spitting oil, to get the technique right, but it yields a perfectly cooked egg in just 30 seconds – if you don't mind it looking like a brown poached egg rather than a cheery fried one. 
 
Andrés explains that the technique "achieves a higher level of browning around the entire surface of the white, which imparts a distinctive, much more flavourful taste, given the level of caramelisation of the proteins and sugars". 
 
Personally, although the contrast of texture between this outer shell and the soft, gooey yolk inside is undoubtedly interesting, it's not what I want on my breakfast plate.


Oliver dismisses such "crispy, bubbly eggs" in favour of cooking them gently over a medium-low heat. 
 
Indeed, he suggests cracking the egg into a cool pan, and allowing it to heat with the oil, cautioning that "if [it] starts to spit ... 
 
turn the heat right down". 
 
Far better from a cleaning point of view, certainly, but is the result noticeably nicer? It's certainly "soft and silky" as promised, but the white takes absolutely ages to cook through. 
 
They're the best eggs yet, but I'm not convinced they're perfect.

Point cooks his egg on a heat "so low that the white barely turns creamy", and then finishes it off with melted butter. 
 
This is certainly a nice idea, but apart from the fact it's more butter than egg (an idea not without its attractions, I admit), it leaves me with quite a lot of undercooked white. 
 
I assume this is a deficiency in the iteration of the recipe, rather than Point's technique, but a lump of melted butter is never going to cook a white that's not even changed colour properly.

Tricks of the trade

Cook's Illustrated stresses that the egg should be fried "over the lowest possible heat", but, unlike Point, the butter is allowed to foam rather than simply melt. 
 
They then cover the pan for the duration of the cooking to help speed up the process, which results in an almost perfectly cooked egg – a soft, but firm white, and a gorgeously runny yolk.


Martha Stewart's "executive food director" Lucinda Scala Quinn's perfect egg recipe is similar, but she adds a teaspoon of water to the pan to help steam the egg. 
 
I don't think this is necessary: the Cook's Illustrated egg is just as well cooked and has a better flavour without the dilution of the butter.


Loiseau takes Point's low-heat technique a step further by cooking his egg on a saucer set over a pan of simmering water and then basting it with hot butter as before. 
 
It's even softer, but I'm beginning to wonder whether this is an entirely desirable quality – on reflection, I'd quite like my egg white to have some bite to it.


Step forward David Rosengarten, who deep fries in olive oil for what he claims is "the crispiest, most flavorful fried eggs of all". 
 
He stresses the importance of sliding a spatula under the egg within 10 seconds of it entering the oil, a lesson I learn the hard way as I struggle to detach a monstrously overcooked egg from the pan, but otherwise, the technique is fairly simple. 
 
The results, however, are not for me – although the yolk is perfectly cooked, the white is almost crunchy, and very greasy. 
 
And as for the cleaning up ...

Lastly, and with some trepidation, I try the sous-vide technique from Dr Nathan Myrhvold's new Modernist Cuisine at Home, a book apparently "destined to set a new standard for home cookbooks". 
 
It certainly sets a new standard for fried eggs: to make his sunny-side up eggs, I first need to borrow a sous vide machine from Lakeland.


Myrhvold explains that cooking the perfect fried egg poses an inherent problem as the yolks and whites reach their ideal states at different temperatures. 
 
To counter this, he cooks whole eggs in a 67C water bath for 40 minutes, until the yolks are "jammy", and discards the soupy whites. 
 
Ten fresh whites (for 4 yolks!) are whisked together with double cream and salt, and then baked, covered, in an 160C oven for 12 minutes. 
 
Once they're just set, the yolks are plopped on top and it's ready to serve, a mere one-and-a-quarter hours after I started. 
 
Despite my scepticism, it's all delicious: the whites tender and creamy, the yolks sticky and rich (although I wish I'd noticed his instruction to cook the yolks at 62C for the runny centres I like) – but it doesn't taste like a fried egg, for all my efforts. 
 
More a dinner party dish than a breakfast staple.

In an attempt to simplify the process, I also try separating the eggs and then frying them as normal, adding the yolks a minute into cooking, but it's a fiddly business (relatively speaking) and I don't think the results are any better than the covered eggs I liked so much. 
 
So I'll be sticking with this simple but effective method – quick and easy enough to make the morning after the night before, and guaranteed to hit the spot every time.

Perfect fried eggs

For each egg

1 fresh egg, at room temperature
1 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper

1. 
 
Crack the egg on to a saucer to make it easier to slide into the pan. 
 
Heat the butter in a heavy-based frying pan over a low heat, and find a slightly domed saucepan lid, ideally slightly smaller than the pan itself, so you can place it over the cooking eggs.

2. 
 
Once the butter has melted, but not begun to foam, swirl it around the pan to coat, then slide in the egg. 
 
If you're cooking more than one, be careful not to crowd the pan.

3. 
 
Cover and leave for 3½ minutes, then check the white is cooked, lift out, season gently, and serve immediately

Fried eggs: the cornerstone of a good breakfast, or the fallback option for those who haven't mastered scrambled or poached? How do you cook your perfect fried egg, and what else do you serve them with apart from a hearty fry up?

Since you’re here …
… we’ve got a small favour to ask. 
 
More people are reading the Guardian than ever, but far fewer are paying for it. 
 
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. 
 
And unlike some other news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism open to all. 
 
So you can see why we need to ask for your help. 
 
The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. 
 
But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure.





 Place a saucepan lid over the cooking eggs