James Kenji Lopez-Alt
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Why You Should "Fry" Your Eggs in Cream
🕑 Added 2025-01-19 16:00:10 +0000 UTCYou can find this technique and a few others in my Youtube video Four Ways to Fry Eggs.
We all love the smell of browned butter, right? That nutty, savory aroma you get when you heat butter until the milk solids in it start to turn golden?
What if I told you that you can brown heavy cream in the same exact way. Not only that, but that it winds up tasting like an extra-intense version of browned butter?
It's true! And we'll get to the reason why it works, but first let me tell you the reason why you should care: Cream-Fried Eggs.
That's why.
This is not a new technique, but it may be new to you, so I thought it was worth sharing. I first saw came across it in the the blog Ideas in Food where my friends Alex Talbot and Aki Kamozawa wrote about it back in 2019.* Since then I've seen it covered in Lisa Steele's excellent book Fresh Eggs Daily. The idea is real counterintuitive but simple: heat up heavy cream in a skillet until it bubbles, then break a few eggs into it.
*Ideas in Food is a site I've followed since the mid-2000s, back before food blogs were even a thing and the internet was still a tween.
Like popularity of Bluey among adults or the gameplay of Portal, it's one of those things that doesn't seem to make sense at first, but clicks once you wrap your head around it. The key is to remember that cream and butter are composed of the same basic components, but in different ratios.
Here's what we've got:
Butter is:
about 81% butterfat
16 to 17% water
2 to 3% milk solids (mainly vitamins, minerals, and lactose)
Heavy cream, on the other hand, is:
about 36% butterfat
60% water
4% milk solids.
The flavor of browned butter comes from the caramelization and Maillard browning (the complex cascade of chemical reactions responsible for the complex flavor of proteins browned via heat) of the milk solids in hot butterfat.
But here's the thing: When you heat either butter or heavy cream in a skillet, eventually the water will all evaporate, leaving behind only the butterfat and milk solids. So what we really care about is the ratio of milk solids to butterfat. In butter that's about 3.5% while in heavy cream it's a whopping 11%, almost three times as much!
How to "Fry" Eggs in Cream
But what does it even mean to "fry" eggs in cream? Cream isn't a fat that you can fry in in the way that oil or melted butter is, right?
That's true. The cream we buy at the supermarket is an emulsified mixture of butterfat and water. However, like all culinary emulsions, its stability depends on the proper ratio of fat and water. As we heat cream in a skillet, we'll first see it bubble and boil as the water content starts to evaporate off. Eventually, there's not enough water left in the cream to keep the fat emulsified. At this stage, we'll start to see the cream "break,"–the fat separates out and what once looked creamy starts to look greasy.
You're also likely to notice that the cream leaves behind a lot more of those deliciously crispy-chewy browned bits that make eggs fried hot in butter so delicious. If you break eggs into that cream just as it starts to simmer, you'll find that they'll have perfectly-set whites and nice runny yolks right around the same time that the cream has finished brownings. It's really magical.
Incidentally, if you've ever made a Thai curry, you're probably familiar with this phenomena as many curry recipes begin by cooking down coconut milk until it breaks in the same manner and using the fat to fry curry paste.
If you want to make a whole meal of it, get yourself some pre-cooked sausage (I'm partial to Japanese arabiki sausage I pick up from Uwajimaya) or ham and add them to the skillet as the eggs cook. The'll pick up those browned bits the same way the eggs do.
By the way, eggs aren't the only things that are delicious fried in cream. Vegetables like carrots, cauliflower, sweet potatoes are delicious fried in heavy cream, as are other meats like chicken breasts or even a steak. Stay tuned.
The Recipe: Cream-Fried Eggs
Every recipe I publish here is personally tested, tasted, and approved.
What I like about this recipe:
Frying eggs in heavy cream yields eggs that taste like they were fried in extra-browned butter.
I love the contrast of the crispy edges and soft yolks.
YIELD:
Serves 2
ACTIVE TIME:
5 minutes
TOTAL TIME:
5 minutes
Notes: I use a non-stick or ceramic skillet for this but you can also use carbon steel or cast iron. Stainless steel will also work, but you are more likely to get sticking. If you prefer your yolks more cooked, you can reduce the heat and cover the skillet for the last few moments of cooking to set their tops.
Ingredients:
As many eggs as you'd like and and a non-stick skillet big enough to fit them (see note above)
Enough heavy cream to leave a thin layer on the bottom of the skillet
A few pre-cooked sausages (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sliced chives (optional)
1. Pour the cream into the skillet and set over medium-high heat until the cream starts to bubble. Break the eggs directly into the simmering cream. If using sausages, add them to the cream, nestling them around the eggs.
2. Continue to cook until the cream breaks and browns, the egg whites are fully set, and the yolks are warm but still liquid (see note). Use a silicone spatula to loosen the eggs from the pan until they slide around freely. Slide the eggs onto a plate. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with chives (if using). Serve immediately.
Comments
not_u
Ah perfect, thanks for the help understanding it!
dk382
The proportions *are* more important than the quantity. You want to maximize the milk solids because more milk solids = more nutty flavors. You could just throw more butter at the problem to get more milk solids, but then you'd have way too much butterfat. So using cream allows you to get more milk solids without increasing the quantity of butterfat.
Jon
Classic Kenji!
not_u
So the answer is that you're trying to maximize the remaining milk solids and not the butterfat? I understood that more water == higher concentration of what's left over, but the way I read it, it seemed like what mattered more was the *ratio* and not the *quantity* of milk:butterfat. If it's just that there's more milk+butterfat after water is gone, ezpz I can internalize it, but the writing felt like it was the proportions was more important than the quantity.
Steve Marseille
I think it's answered right here: "But here's the thing: When you heat either butter or heavy cream in a skillet, eventually the water will all evaporate, leaving behind only the butterfat and milk solids. So what we really care about is the ratio of milk solids to butterfat. In butter that's about 3.5% while in heavy cream it's a whopping 11%, almost three times as much!" So you end up with a higher proportion of milk solids with heavy cream than you would with butter, and those are what are caramelized and thus give you that crazy aroma/flavor nuttiness.
not_u
> So what we really care about is the ratio of milk solids to butterfat. But why do we care about this ratio? I feel like that's the missing piece of the post for me to put it all together.
Patrick Morrison
I don't have heavy cream on hand right now, but I happen to have half-and-half... longer simmer, same story?
Artifex Prime
I think it was years ago I commented on one of your instagram posts that I always scramble my eggs in cream. Absolutely delicious! I think I was inspired to take up the practice by a Helen Witty cookbook. I once owned a copy of a 19th century cookbook (ca 1885?) titled "The Buckeye Cookbook". It was there that I read about frying eggs in cream. I tried doing it, of course, and thought it was good, but bacon fat or olive oil won my allegiance. Nothing beats cream for scrambled eggs, though.
