J. Kenji López-Alt's Cornstarch Trick For Making Scrambled Eggs Extra Creamy

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If you enjoy a soft scramble that's creamy rather than firm, take note of this hack courtesy of chef J. Kenji López-Alt, author of the James Beard award-winning book "The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science." López-Alt simply reaches for one extra ingredient: cornstarch. In a video on his YouTube channel, the food expert known for his scientific approach to cooking shares that adding just a bit of cornstarch to your egg mixture results in a rich, velvety scramble. 

During his tutorial, López-Alt explains that when eggs are overcooked, proteins in them tighten up until they ultimately release liquid. This leads to tough, rubbery eggs surrounded by watery liquid. Not so appetizing, right? Your eggs should retain that moisture, and cornstarch helps with this. The cornstarch blocks the proteins from linking together and overcoagulating, so the eggs hold onto moisture. If you do overcook them and some moisture seeps out, it thickens the starch to form a creamy sauce instead of leaving your eggs dry. López-Alt reveals he didn't come up with this idea himself, but saw it on a food blog called Lady and Pups run by Mandy Lee. In a blog post, Lee explains discovering this method for creamy scrambled eggs when she made an eggy goo mixture with cornstarch for her sick dog.

If you don't have cornstarch in your pantry, there are other methods of making scrambled eggs luxuriously rich and buttery. For example, Julia Child's hack for creamy scrambled eggs involves cooking most of your whipped eggs, except for a little bit that gets set aside until the last minute. Once your scramble is just about done, you transfer the small amount of raw egg left in the bowl to the pan to prevent any toughening. Pretty simple.

Meanwhile, chef Tom Colicchio's tip for extra creamy eggs without dairy calls for plenty of vigorous whisking while cooking to create air pockets. Basically, when you add air to the eggs, it results in a texture that is lighter and fluffier. Chef Gordon Ramsay utilizes this technique, too, whipping his eggs thoroughly throughout the cooking process. He goes one step further, though, adding a cold ingredient in the final minute to prevent overcooking. You might use sour cream, crème fraîche, or heavy whipping cream.