Recipe Mutiny: Is Oil or Butter Better for Fried Eggs?

Monday, June 3, 2019

Is Oil or Butter Better for Fried Eggs?

Breakfast Rice Cakes with Chinese Sausage recipe

Sunny side up or over easy isn’t the only important decision to make when frying eggs. Which fat the eggs are fried in affects both taste and texture. Oil, butter, or bacon grease—which is best for fried eggs?

Each one has its own merits, and it’s largely a matter of personal taste, but we’ll let our community members speak for their favorites.

Is Butter Better?

Many go traditional and fry eggs in butter. Chowhound srsone allows the butter to brown first, for extra flavor (never a bad ideas). Using clarified butter or ghee gives concentrated butter flavor with a higher smoke point than whole butter, notes rjbh20.

eggs in a nest egg Benedict breakfast sandwich recipe

Chowhound’s Egg In a Nest Sandwich (fried in butter)

Or Is Olive Oil Optimal?

“I started using olive oil when I went to a Greek diner and they were like my mom made, with some crunch on the edges and I could tell it was olive oil,” says Floridagirl. Frying eggs in oil “is especially nice with some minced herbs tossed in the oil,” says eight_inch_pestle.

Chowhound’s Porchetta and Fried Egg Sandwich (featuring olive oil)

The Best of Both Worlds

Chowhound user rabaja uses a combination of butter and oil. “I heat the oil, then swirl in a nob of butter before sliding in the egg,” she says. “Something about the oil gives you the nice crispy, lacy edges and the smidge of butter adds aroma and flavor.”

Fried Salami and Egg Breakfast Sandwich recipe

Chowhound’s Fried Salami Breakfast Sandwich (with oil and butter)

A Vote for Alternative Fats

For lots of Chowhounds, the ultimate fried eggs are cooked in bacon fat, duck fat, or goose fat for wonderful flavor. lynnlato loves eggs fried in bacon fat. “And spooning the rendered fat over the yolk until it gets a little hazy creates the most amazing dippy egg ever,” she notes.

Chowhound Breakfast Rice Cakes with Chinese Sausage (with eggs fried in sausage grease!)

T-fal Non-Stick One Egg Wonder, $8.17 at Walmart

Your own individual egg pan.

Buy Now

How do you like to fry your eggs? Let us know in the comments!

And learn about all your egg options (before you even get to cooking them), from which organic eggs are worth buying to the difference between white and brown eggs.