What's The Difference Between Over-Easy Eggs And Sunny-Side Up Eggs

Breakfast, as the old saying goes, is considered to be the important meal of the day. As WebMD notes, having breakfast gets your metabolism moving for the day ahead. But it also matters what you have for breakfast, and for many, that involves an egg. In a survey commissioned by Happy Egg Co. and conducted by OnePoll, over 2,000 Americans were asked about their favorite breakfast items, and the egg came out on top with 42% of the vote.

Once your eggs are cracked, though, you're presented with a difficult choice: Which of the many ways of cooking an egg should you go with for your meal? And what to do when the options are very much alike? For example, two popular methods of egg preparation — over-easy and sunny-side up eggs — are rather similar. However, there is a distinct difference between the two styles, and it has to do with the yolk.

The primary difference between over-easy eggs and sunny-side up eggs comes down to a single flip of the spatula. Per MasterClass, a sunny-side up egg isn't flipped. It simply cooks until the whites are set, but the egg yolk remains raw. By only cooking your egg on one side, you preserve the shape of the yellow hemispherical glob of yolk, which is reminiscent of the sun, hence the name. You should cook your sunny-side egg for one to two minutes, watching it carefully, and remove it from the pan when the white has fully cooked.

The over-easy egg, on the other hand, is cooked on both sides. According to The Food Network, you should start by cooking an over-easy egg on one side (much like its sunny-side counterpart), but stop before the whites are fully cooked, then flip the egg over to fry for another 30 seconds or so. This will trap the yolk in white, where it'll patiently await the moment your fork cuts into the egg so that it can ooze out onto your plate.

Note: If you cook your over-easy egg for too long, it's no longer over-easy. If the egg is in the pan for a bit longer and the yolk becomes more solid, but still somewhat runny, you've made an over-medium egg. And if the yolk is cooked to the point of being entirely solid, it's over-hard (via HuffPost).

Of course, you might want to eat your over-easy and sunny-side up eggs plain, with a side of bread to sop up the runny yolk. However, they can also be used in a variety of different dishes.

When choosing which style of egg to use in a dish, the pleasing aesthetics of the sunny-side egg should be taken into account. In order to showcase the gorgeous yellow globe, you can use the egg style as a type of topping. Food & Wine recommends you delicately place a sunny-side up egg on top of a breakfast bake, for instance, or a bowl of ramen. You might also want to try this sunny-side up egg and goat cheese pizza.

However, it may be that your dish, such as an egg breakfast sandwich, calls for a more contained yolk. In that case, you should probably fry your egg over-easy.