The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

prior   to

cooking

moist, soft curds

Just

before

cooking

Moderately  tender

and not watery

Toward

the end of

cooking

Toughest    of  the three,

with    a   tendency    to

weep    liquid  onto    the

plate

Turns out that salt can have quite a drastic effect
on how eggs cook. When eggs cook and coagulate,
the proteins in the yolks pull tighter and tighter
together as they get hotter. When they get too tight,
they begin to squeeze liquid out from the curds,
resulting in eggs that weep in a most embarrassing
manner. Adding salt to the eggs well before cooking
can prevent the proteins from bonding too tightly by
reducing their attraction to one another, resulting in
a more tender curd and less likelihood of
unattractive weeping. Adding salt immediately
before cooking helps, but to get the full effect, the
salt must have time to dissolve and become evenly