Thereabouts

The greatest breakfast food in existence

I’m talking about eggs. Here’s why they’re the greatest:

I’ve eaten eggs nearly every day for years. Don’t let anyone fool you into believing eggs are bad for your cholesterol either. That’s been thoroughly debunked (here’s one example: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11161868/).

My preferred style is scrambled, but all of them are good. I’ve gotten an absurd number of reps making eggs. I consider myself an expert, in a friendly, neighborhood sense.

Restaurants will only give you one or two eggs when you order them. I think that’s a shame. It’s usually because they are served alongside something else, but I’ll eat four every morning as a complete breakfast.

I'm all about stainless steel pans. I used to use nonstick, but since I watched the movie Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo, plus the growing analyses and evidence that nonstick still isn’t healthy, I stay away. It’s easy to make stainless steel behave almost identically to a nonstick pan. It took me just a couple practice rounds.

Butter is one of the secrets to making fantastic eggs. No olive oil, margarine, nor any kind of spray. Never. I use butter, and a lot of it.

I crack the eggs into a bowl and stir them before putting them in the pan. I do this because it’s how my parents did it when I was growing up, but it seems to help them cook more evenly as well.

If I have a gas stove, I use the higher-heat, hot-pan, cook quickly method. Controlling the heat and temperature is much easier vs. an electric stove. If that’s what I have access to, I turn to the “low and slow” method. It’s more tedious, but the results are better.

Overcooking eggs is a great sin. I err on undercooking them. The residual heat cooks them once they’re out of the pan anyway. If I see any bit of brown in my scrambled eggs, I hide my face in shame. I have failed.

I always start the toppings with salt and pepper. It depends on my mood from there. Some of my other options include shredded cheese, hot sauce, salsa, and avocado.

I frequently have some sourdough toast on the side., but if I want a morning of maximum mental clarity, I skip everything else and just have eggs and coffee. It’s a power breakfast.

If there are any other egg lovers out there that have dishes or ideas I should try, send me an email. and let me know. I’d love to give them a shot.