Scrambled eggs may not be the fanciest of dishes, but it’s one of the quickest and easiest meals to whip up if you don’t want to spend hours slaving over a stove.
It may be quick to prepare, but it’s also easy to make errors in the short cooking time, which means you end up with rubbery, tasteless and overcooked eggs that are less than satisfying to eat. Scrambled eggs rely on good timing to avoid ruining the texture, so it’s important to pay attention to the heat and stirring as they cook.
But while timing is important, cooking experts say adding one ingredient to your eggs can contribute to a silkier and fluffier texture.
That ingredient is lemon juice. The acidity from the lemon juice reacts with the proteins in the egg, helping them to form a stronger structure that can hold air bubbles, which helps create that wonderful light fluffiness.
As the eggs cook, the water in the lemon juice turns to steam, creating air pockets, to achieve a silkier and softer texture.
Not only that, but the lemon juice also dilutes the egg proteins, which then slows down the cooking process, meaning the eggs cook more gradually.
Food scientist Makenzie Bryson Jackson, MS, explains: “Whipping the eggs beforehand with some acid such as lemon juice can create a stiffer structure that holds air bubbles.
“The water in the juice dilutes those egg proteins, so they aren’t as quick to coagulate. They cook more slowly because there is more water to evaporate, and the water creates steam as it cooks, creating a softer, fluffier texture.”
Experts recommend adding a few tablespoons of lemon juice to your eggs before you whisk them, and this will then help to create air pockets as you begin stirring the eggs in the pan, resulting in silkier, lighter and fluffier eggs when they’re cooked.
Happy Egg Co says: “Adding a few tablespoons of lemon juice (AKA acid) to your eggs before you whisk them gives the eggs more structure and helps to create air pockets when you begin scrambling them in the pan. This translates to super light and fluffy eggs once they’re done cooking. The extra liquid combined with the eggs also slows the cooking process, a big plus whenever you’re scrambled eggs.
“But adding lemon to scrambled eggs before you cook them isn’t the only way chefs are working with this citrus juice, they’re also scrambling their eggs as usual, and then finishing them with a quick squirt of lemon juice once they’re plated. Some are even grating lemon zest for an extra zing!
“Adding lemon juice this way gives scrambled eggs a light, bright flavor that’s pretty irresistible, according to those who have tried it.”