As a city boy I travelled to Greece by accident and landed in the island of Mykonos. In those days it wasn’t a party island, it was a get-a-way for young Europeans, many were Scandinavian. I met a local who had his own chickens and his eggs were farm fresh. The idea of farm fresh is a notion that has disappeared in our day and age, but for some locals they still have their chickens.

So what’s the secret behind a friend egg? If you fry an egg the key is to maintain the proteins in the egg so they are all stable and cooked evenly. But if you’ve made friend eggs, it almost impossible to get the white and yellow cooked consistently without over cooking the white. I won’t get into a long post about why and I’ll focus on how. Pan frying is difficult due to the yolk’s composition and protein.

Egg white’s clear liquid is known as albumen, and the primary purpose of egg white is to protect the yolk and provide additional nutrition for the growth of embryo. Egg white consists primarily of about 90% water into which is dissolved 10% proteins, so they cook very quickly!

The yolk is high in lipids /fats/ and takes longer, while the egg white contains almost no fat and get crispy easily. The reason is, egg whites contain just over 50% of the protein in the egg. Some are used to crispy egg whites but the trick to a silky egg is technique.

Step #1. take a pan with some oil and use low medium heat. The oil should be virgin olive oil and don’t worry you will not go high in temperature.

Step #2. crack the egg and place it into the pan when the oil starts to show signs of heat: it spreads.

Step #3. as soon as the egg white begins to set, tile the pan and use a spoon to collect the hot oil and douse it over the egg yolks until they are cooked as you wish.