ChefSteps is a team of chefs, writers, and food lovers who develop recipes, techniques, and guides to help people cook better at home.

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Ah, the humble egg. The foundational building block of life, an egg is an enigma. (Egg-nigma?) At once both simple and complex, they make so many culinary experiences possible.In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684800012/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0684800012&linkCode=as2&tag=chefsteps02-20&linkId=e058e289dc38c9790b7cbe0c36cf90bf">On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of The Kitchen</a>, Harold McGee writes of the humble egg, “Modern science has only deepened the egg’s aptness as an emblem of creation. The yolk is a stockpile of fuel obtained by the hen from seeds and leaves, which are in turn stockpiles of the sun’s radiant energy. The yellow pigments that gave the yolk its name also come directly from plants, where they protect the chemical machinery of photosynthesis from being overwhelmed by the sun. So the egg does embody the chain of creation, from the developing chick back through the hen to the plants that fed her, and then to the ultimate source of life’s fire, the yellow sphere of the sky. An egg is the sun’s light refracted into life.”Whether or not you wax poetic about eggs, it’s hard to deny the versatility of this seemingly simple singular ingredient. While they do so much in combination with other ingredients, an egg on its own is just as accomplished. Here are our favorite ways to cook the almighty egg.