This Unexpected Kitchen Tool Is the Secret to Better Fried Eggs
The first thing I learned to cook was an egg. There was no recipe — just a lesson in ingredients, heat, and patience. Since then, I’ve experimented with butter-basted eggs, learned the best way to poach, and mastered the scrambled egg. I thought I knew as much as I needed to know about making eggs. And then I saw the now-famous recipe for Fried Egg Salad from Ideas In Food. It’s egg salad! With fried eggs! (Instead of hard-boiled ones!) It got a lot of attention and, in studying that revolutionary recipe, I watched Food52’s review.
It wasn’t the eggs that caught my eye, though — it was the silicone pot lid Food52’s Founding Editor Kristen Miglore reached for that I had to have. It sealed in heat, producing flawless, perfectly cooked eggs with zero fuss.
I was interested. I did already have an entire drawer dedicated to pot lids — but none like the lid Miglore used in her video. I thought about buying the exact same one she used, but then I found this one from Made In and it seemed even more versatile, able to fit all my pots, so I bought it faster than you can fry an egg.
The first surprise came even before I opened the package. I anticipated a light, flexible silicone lid, but the box was shockingly heavy: Turns out, the cherry red lid is made from silicone-wrapped stainless steel. A stout silicone handle is offset from the center. And the underside has multiple raised concentric circles.
The lid is sturdy enough to sit atop every pan I own — be it a saucepan, Dutch oven, or nonstick skillet — without slipping or bending dangerously close to the heating element (as a flexible lid might). The raised rounds fit snugly within the inner lip of each pot, sealing in the heat. Unlike traditional metal lids, the handle of Made In’s universal lid is also wrapped in silicone so it never gets hot when used on the stovetop. (The lid is oven safe to 400°F, too.)
The only drawback I’ve discovered is that steam collects and condenses on the underside of the lid. So, use caution with removing it, as the hot water will drip down. I’ve used this lid to boil, braise, simmer, and steam. The real test, though, was trying this lid when eggs were on the menu. The lid slid snugly inside the lip of my nonstick skillet and trapped heat for perfectly cooked sunny-side-up eggs, shakshuka, and fried eggs for egg salad. You could say it’s, ahem, eggcellent.
This article originally published on The Kitchn. See it there: This Unexpected Tool Is the Secret to Better Fried Eggs
