Jacques Pépin's Temperature Tip For The Perfect Fried Eggs, Every Time

Eggs are practically synonymous with American breakfast fare, and culinary legend Jacques Pépin has a soft spot for these versatile protein-packed beauties. A father of the modern pantheon of celebrity food pros, Pépin has been the chef to three French heads of state, served as Dean of the French Culinary Institute, authored cookbooks, hosted cooking programs, and been honored with a James Beard lifetime achievement award, but his love of eggs goes straight back to his mom. His number one secret to never-crispy and always-tender eggs lies in cooking them at a low temperature.

In an episode of "American Masters: At Home with Jacques Pépin", he endearingly explained how to coax eggs into their perfectly cooked iteration: sliding beautifully from the pan and onto the plate featuring the most tender cooked whites and, to his mind, ideal still-runny yolks. He urges cooks to reliably re-create his ode to eggs by melting butter, nestling a few eggs in the pan, adding a bit of water and a touch of salt, covering, lowering the temperature, and letting the steam create a glazed effect over the eggs as they slowly cook through. Though this sounds like a lengthy process riddled with a need for patience, the actual cooking time is only about two minutes.

Jacques Pépin emphasized in the show that he learned from a young age to treat eggs gently and that by cooking them over a low heat, you are certain to achieve excellent results time and again. For fried eggs that reign supreme, always start with the freshest dozen, use a small skillet, and as Pépin presses, always crack the eggs on a flat surface so that bits of shell are not forced inside, which can break the yolks and introduce bacteria.

By adding a teaspoon of water around the perimeter of the eggs as they settle into the pan, you set yourself up beautifully to create an "ouef mirroire" or egg mirror that glistens across the top of the setting eggs as they are covered and cooked through. All that's left to do is sprinkle the finely cooked specimens with cracked pepper and some chopped chives, to taste.

To more fully understand Pépin's love for eggs any time of day, you may want to try the recipe he coined "Eggs Jeanette." An ode to his mom's stuffed egg dish, this hearty egg take was a feature in many Pépin family meals. The dish highlights yolks mixed with herbs that are stuffed back into hard-boiled whites, pan-fried, and then covered in a mustard vinaigrette dressing. Just remember Pépin's trusty advice that for breakfast: eggs always shine when cooked delicately.