Some famous scrambled-egg recipes turned out better than others.
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- I followed recipes for scrambled eggs from eight celebrity chefs.
- The eggs I made using Paula Deen’s recipe were lacking in flavor.
- The eggs from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe were delicious, but Emeril Lagasse’s recipe was my favorite.
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Brown’s recipe had the simplest ingredients: eggs, salt, pepper, milk, and butter. These are kitchen staples, so this is an easy option to whip up without making a grocery run.
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These scrambled eggs are also quick to make. I especially liked his approach to warming the serving plate while cooking the eggs.
The idea is to pull the eggs off of the stove a bit early and let them finish cooking on the plate. I was weirded out by this part because I usually prefer my scrambled eggs slightly overcooked.
Still, I heated butter on the stove and then added my whisked eggs with salt and pepper to the hot pan.
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The recipe calls for high heat, but my stove often gets pretty hot, so I used medium. This meant my recipe took slightly longer to cook, but it was better than burning the eggs.
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Though they came out slightly less done than I prefer, the eggs were creamy and fluffy with a nice buttery flavor. The amount of salt and pepper was perfect for seasoning, though these were a bit runnier than I would like.
After taste-testing, I did throw them back on the pan for a minute or so, and they were more suited to my taste.
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Ramsay’s scrambled-egg recipe is well-known and loved by many. Luckily, it also calls for a short list of ingredients: eggs, salt, pepper, butter, chives, and crème fraîche, a thick soured cream that can add a buttery flavor to food.Â
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One of the first things I thought about this recipe is that it looked intimidating. Ramsay moves the pan with ease off the heat, on the heat, and off again, throwing in the additional ingredients (crème fraîche, salt, and pepper) toward the end.
I kept worrying I’d burn the eggs in my attempt to re-create this iconic dish.
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I appreciated that this recipe starts with breaking up the eggs right in a pot on the stove — I didn’t have to dirty extra dishes by whisking them in a separate bowl first.
From there, the cooking process was pretty simple.
I stirred constantly, treating it like risotto, per Ramsay’s recommendation, and the eggs came together in fluffy, smooth piles in no time. Right before turning the heat off, I added the crème fraîche, salt, and pepper.
Once I removed my pan from the heat, I folded in chives as well.
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My first reaction was simply, “Wow.” These scrambled eggs were incredibly creamy — partially from the crème fraîche and partially because Ramsay swears by adding salt toward the end of the process to prevent the eggs from becoming dry or rubbery.
Truthfully, I prefer my eggs more “done” or even a little overcooked — the texture of eggs is a little weird to me when they aren’t — but these were still pretty good.
He typically serves these eggs on sourdough, and I would probably love these creamy eggs on a crusty bread to balance the texture. As far as flavor goes, Ramsay’s eggs had a buttery taste, and the fresh chives brightened up the dish.
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Deen’s scrambled eggs are also easy to prepare as far as ingredients go.
The recipe I followed contianed eight eggs to serve multiple people, so I cut it down by a fourth, which meant I needed two eggs, half a tablespoon of sour cream, a quarter tablespoon of water, salt and pepper, half a tablespoon of butter, and an eighth cup of cheddar.
Though the recipe I followed from the Food Network website has since been taken down, Deen has a similar recipe without cheese available here.
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These scrambled eggs required little fuss. I whisked ingredients together, put them over medium-low heat, added cheese when they were close to done, then finished cooking them.
Of all of the egg recipes I tried, only a few mentioned cooking the eggs to your desired doneness, which I appreciated. Some people prefer runny or wet scrambled eggs, but I like mine to be pretty solidified. As such, I kept them cooking for about one minute after adding the cheese.
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These eggs lacked in flavor, though they were creamy thanks to the sour cream. They still had larger “curds” of egg, and even with the cheese they just tasted like plain scrambled eggs.
Overall, the texture was a win for me, but I’d add more seasoning or fresh herbs in the future.
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For Lagasse’s eggs, Baby Bam spice mix is one of the most important ingredients. I had to make the seasoning, which on its own requires 10 ingredients.
I slightly tweaked the Baby Bam recipe, though. I left out thyme because I hate the taste of it even in the smallest quantities. I also didn’t realize I was missing dried parsley, so I omitted it from the Baby Bam and added fresh parsley at the end.
Other than putting together this special seasoning, this recipe was straightforward: eggs, cheese, milk, butter, and salt.
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The cooking process was also easy. I whisked the eggs, milk, salt, and my Baby Bam together while butter melted in a pan over medium heat.
It seemed weird to me that this recipe called for stirring the eggs with a wooden spoon; I was worried the egg would stick to the wooden spoon more so than a silicone spatula.
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Lagasse’s recipe recommends cooking the eggs for 30 seconds until they set before adding cheese and removing them from heat. It took 120 seconds for my eggs to set.
Still, they came together quickly, and in the 30 seconds that they rested the eggs finished cooking to my preferred doneness.
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With such a robust seasoning, it makes sense these eggs had a wow factor. Even on the plate, they smelled so good and savory.
In the first bite, I noticed right away that the eggs were creamy without being runny, which I love, and cheesy but also packed with flavor from the Baby Bam.Â
I was glad I ended up adding fresh parsley at the end since it brightened the dish with a fresh element.
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I appreciated the simplicity of this recipe: three eggs plus an extra yolk, crème fraîche, butter, and sea salt.
There were no measurements for the crème fraîche or sea salt, which ultimately may have been a downfall for me.
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Florence seemed to have a pretty casual approach to cooking the eggs, and the instructions were a bit vague. I added the three whisked eggs and one yolk to a pan on the lowest heat per his instructions.
At some unstated point, I had to add in crème fraîche and sea salt, which I chose to do after about 10 minutes. The eggs weren’t setting at all at this time, so I knew this was going to take a while.
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After spending 40 minutes stirring these eggs, I got annoyed and turned the heat up just a bit. They still didn’t look right and came out orange and goopy.
I couldn’t even bring myself to taste this dish. Looking back, I’m unsure whether it was that my stove wasn’t getting hot enough or whether I added too much crème fraîche.
Either way, this recipe didn’t turn out the way I had imagined it would.
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Most of the ingredients in Flay’s recipe are kitchen staples, so you can just grab a bit of crème fraîche at the store to round out the list.
The recipe I followed didn’t specify measurements on butter or crème fraîche, so I used one heaping spoonful of crème fraîche and a tablespoon of butter.
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This recipe was super quick and easy to follow. Over medium heat, I melted cold butter and crème fraîche together. This seemed weird at first, but they melted together seamlessly and rapidly.
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I made sure to keep the salt to the side to add toward the end because Flay said adding it in too early could prevent the eggs from forming smooth curves.
Overall, it took only about five minutes for the eggs to firm up and finish cooking.
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Flay knows what he’s doing. These eggs were incredibly creamy and buttery.
There really weren’t large “curds” of eggs, resulting in the dish having a melt-in-your-mouth quality.
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Compared with the other recipes, this one calls for a lot of ingredients, plus 20 minutes of prep and 10 minutes of cooking. That seems like a long time just to make eggs.
I cut the recipe to one-fifth of the original to serve just one person, so I was hoping this would also minimize the prep and cook time. Though the recipe calls for a lot of fresh herbs, I also decided to swap fresh dill for dried since I had an abundance of dried dill on hand.
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It didn’t take me even close to 20 minutes to get my ingredients in order.
One thing I realized a little too late, though, is that I chopped my herbs with a dull knife. Because of this, the herbs bruised, turning darker and causing my eggs to end up a weird shade of green.
Aside from that, these eggs took about 15 minutes to cook on low heat. With the larger yield that the original recipe calls for, I imagine they’d have to cook for even longer.
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Though the color was a little unpleasant, it didn’t bother me. What did bother me was the overpowering flavor of dill.
I love dill in my eggs, but this was a bit too much. Had I used fresh dill, the flavor might be less powerful, though.
I liked the texture — these eggs were fully cooked without being dry. In the future, I would cook these eggs without herbs, and I would just add them on top before serving.
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I immediately expected these eggs to turn out rich, thanks to three eggs plus another yolk, sour cream, and a lot of butter. For flavor, Zakarian relies on salt, pepper, and chives.
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Like Ramsay, Zakarian recommends cranking up the heat but moving the pan of eggs on and off the heat to better control how the eggs are cooking.
I followed this direction, and it took about eight minutes for the eggs to get to a texture that was cooked but slightly runny.
I had to pay close attention to the pot because if I stopped stirring for even a few seconds, the eggs would stick to the bottom.
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Adding sour cream at the end of the cooking process made these eggs a little more wet than I would have liked, even after cooking them longer.
Even with all of the butter, the eggs weren’t as buttery as I expected either.
Overall, the flavor was good and these eggs were very, very creamy. I love the chives for a fresh flavor, and if I made these again, I’d add more salt.
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My taste buds love savory food, so the extra paprika, garlic, and other seasonings in the Baby Bam really kicked Lagasse’s eggs up another notch for me.Â
Of all the recipes, this was definitely my favorite. And luckily, I have plenty more homemade Baby Bam in my cabinet to whip these up many more times.
My other top recipes were Flay’s, which resulted in creamy and buttery eggs, and Ramsay’s, which led to eggs that would taste incredible on toasted sourdough.
The remaining recipes all had redeeming qualities, though, and I’d certainly try many of them again with a few changes.
Click to check out the other celebrity-chef recipes we’ve put head-to-head so far.