• When scrambling eggs, you can beat in either milk or water or use no liquid at all. In fact, if you cook wet ingredients in the pan before you add the eggs, you may have more than enough liquid. For gooey, creamy scrambled eggs, you might prefer to add cubes of cream cheese, dollops of cottage cheese, or shreds of any firm cheese that melts well. For added flavor, use a spoonful or two of a salad dressing, pesto sauce, or salsa or sprinkle on a dash of an herb or spice. Just keep in mind that colored foods will lend their color to the eggs.

• Beat as much or as little as you like. Light beating will produce more dense scrambled eggs with streaks of white and yellow. Vigorous beating will aerate the eggs to make lighter, fluffier curds of yellow scrambled eggs.

• For easy clean-up, use a nonstick pan with or without cooking spray or just a touch of oil, butter, or margarine. If you're watching your weight and/or your fat intake, there's no need to drown your scrambled eggs in fat.

• Because eggs go very well with other foods, you can scramble them with just about anything you have on hand, including leftovers. Use pasta, rice, or another grain; dices of cooked meat, poultry, fish, seafood, or veggies; cubes of soft cheese or shreds of firm cheese. Cook any raw flavoring foods before you pour on the eggs. The eggs cook so quickly, the flavoring foods won't get done if you add them later.

• Cook over medium heat until you can’t see any liquid egg anymore. If you cook scrambled eggs at too high a heat or cook or hold them for too long, the iron from the egg yolks and sulfur from the egg whites will unite and turn the eggs a harmless, but unsightly, green color. Using an iron skillet can also cause greening. Serve scrambled eggs as soon as possible after cooking. If necessary, you can hold scrambled eggs for a short time if you place the pan of cooked eggs over a pan of hot water instead of over direct heat.

• If you stir continually while cooking, your eggs will break into small crumbles as they set. For large, soft curds, use slow, gentle movements to move the eggs in the pan. To avoid tearing or breaking up fairly large pieces of flavoring foods, instead of stirring, use a spatula or pancake turner to turn the eggs as they cook.

• To scramble eggs in the microwave, use a microwave-safe dish. Styrofoam cups and plastic food-storage bags may melt, especially if you add fat to the eggs, or they may diffuse unwanted chemicals into the eggs. In a 10-ounce custard cup, beat together 2 eggs and 2 Tbsp. liquid with desired seasonings until blended. Omit or add butter, as you like. Cook on full power, stirring once or twice, until the eggs are almost set, about 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Stir. If necessary, cover the cup with plastic wrap and let the eggs stand until they’re thickened and no visible liquid egg remains, about 1 minute.

The Global Appeal of Scrambled Eggs

In other parts of the world, scrambled eggs take on a new identity. Chinese, Malaysian, and Thai cooks scramble eggs into cooked rice, bits of meat, or seafood and veggies to make stir-fried rice. A favorite lunch dish in Japan consists of chicken, pork or shrimp, mushrooms, green onions, and scrambled eggs over rice. Japanese and Thai cooks also scramble eggs with noodles and veggies and sometimes meat, too. Cooks in India flavor scrambled eggs with tomatoes, onions, green chiles, cumin, ginger, and cilantro and serve them with flat bread while the Vietnamese combine their scrambled eggs with cabbage, shallots, garlic, chiles, and fish sauce.

Italians prepare spaghetti carbonara by scrambling eggs into cooked pasta and bacon. In Latin America, scrambled eggs are flavored with a wide variety of ingredients including: beef jerky, cheese, mild peppers or hot chiles, cilantro or parsley, spicy chorizo pork sausage, ham or other meats or seafood, nopales (cactus paddles), garlic, onions, hearts of palm, peas, banana-like plantains, sour cream, tomatoes, salsas of all kinds, and even fried strips of stale tortillas.