No matter if you are making scrambled eggs or fried. Here is what you can use instead of butter. These five alternatives are carefully selected because of their cooking ability and lack of significant flavor.
Here is why you don’t want oil with a lot of flavor…
What makes a good cooking oil, is one that doesn’t overpower the flavor of the egg. You don’t want to taste the oil more than your breakfast.
The oils don’t need high smoking points, since eggs can be cooked quickly at low enough temperatures. Still you will find out that these oils actually have some of the highest smoking points.
I wanted to select the healthiest cooking oils to use for cooking eggs.
What To Cook Eggs In Besides Butter
You can use the following alternatives to fry eggs without butter. These oils are ranked from very high to slightly lower quality.
- Olive oil
- Coconut oil
- Avocado Oil
- Grapeseed oil
- Vegetable Oil
These oils can be pricey so I included the more affordable vegetable oil. This oil I consider lower quality just because most of the vegetable oil in grocery store shelves can be very unhealthy.
How a cooking oil is made can make a huge difference in quality. I will share exactly what it is you should look for.
1. Virgin Olive Oil
The best one you can use to cook eggs with is olive oil. There are two types of olive oil you should know about.
Virgin olive oil and extra virgin. Extra virgin olive oil is less processed and is more pure.
The reason I don’t recommend extra virgin olive oil for eggs is the flavor. It has a stronger flavor than just virgin olive oil.
Virgin olive oil has a neutral taste and is better for cooking with.
You can fry eggs in virgin olive oil as a healthier option. Pour a small amount of olive oil into a non-stick pan.
Pick the pan up and tilt it in circles so the olive oil coats all around the pan.
You don’t need very much olive oil. As it heats the oil will thin and can splatter. Use a splatter guard if you want to avoid any mess.
Use medium heat and once the pan is hot add in your egg and you can start frying.
2. Avocado Oil
Second on a list is avocado oil. The only reason it’s not number one is because it’s less common. Meaning possibly harder to find and more expensive and olive oil.
Other than that it’s equally as healthy as olive oil. The surprising thing about avocado oil is that the flavor is very neutral.
There is a slight taste but it is mild enough to be nearly flavorless.
This is great for cooking eggs especially if you dislike the flavor of other oils.
Although avocado oil is not suitable for deep frying foods. You can cook your eggs in what is called the shallow frying.
Don’t worry about burning your avocado oil. Avocado oil has a smoke point 500 to 520° Fahrenheit.
Smoke point refers to the temperature that oil begins to burn and smoke.
Similar to olive oil you should heat it up in the pan first. go for about 20 to 30 seconds then add in your egg.
3. Coconut Oil
You won’t be disappointed with coconut oil. Unless of course you hate the flavor.
Coconut oil will impart it’s coconut flavor into your eggs. But if you use the right amount it’s not overwhelming.
Coconut oil is great to cook with as it’s very stable and doesn’t burn easily. Coconut oil like olive oil can be heated to a very high temperature without losing its health qualities. In other words the vitamins and compounds in the oils can withstand high heat.
So don’t worry about using coconut oil to fry foods. You will still end up with a healthier meal than using butter.
Cooking eggs with coconut oil is different from using olive oil. With coconut oil you need to first melt the oil in your pan.
Coconut oil remains solid to about 76° Fahrenheit. So before you start frying eggs just melt the oil in the pan first, similar to butter.
4. Grapeseed Oil
Grapeseed oil is very light and color and has less flavor than olive oil. Not only is grape seed very mild tasting it’s also nearly odorless.
This again makes for a great cooking oil.
One problem with grapeseed oil is the smoke point is lower than other oils. So you have to be careful not to overheat the oil.
The smoke point of grapeseed oil is between 390 and 420° Fahrenheit.
When buying grapeseed oil and for that matter most other oils. You want to buy cold pressed or expeller pressed.
It also doesn’t hurt to look for organic or non-gmo.
Cold pressed or expeller pressing, refers to how the oil was extracted. Both these methods don’t involve high temperatures, which can ruin the quality and nutrition of a cooking oil.
Cold pressing is also a great extraction method. Because instead of using chemical solvents to extract the oil. It is simply mechanically squeezing the oil.
The only main difference between cold-pressed and expeller-pressed is that cold-pressed is a temperature controlled process.
5. Vegetable Oil
Vegetable oil refers to many types of oils. Such as canola, sunflower, soybean or corn oil.
The reason I consider these lower quality is because they are usually highly processed.
Normally I would say avoid them at all costs, but if you buy cold pressed canola oil for example you are getting a much better product.
So if you want to go for canola oil make sure it is expeller or cold pressed. Also doesn’t hurt by organic or non-gmo.
Vegetable oils are going to be a lot cheaper than the more expensive olive, avocado and coconut oil.
Another Alternative: Spray Oils
Instead of buying your oils in a bottle you can use spray oils. Common spray oils like Pam or Crisco brand usually use vegetable oil.
Although they are starting to use more premium types of oil.
The types you want to avoid are sprays that use propellant. These propellants are either butane or propane or other aerosol propellants.
Just look for a propellant free premium oil spray. You can’t use these as a substitute for butter when cooking eggs.