Fried eggs will be crispy and bursting with flavour if cooked with 1 ingredient

Eggs are the golden ingredient hiding in your fridge that you can always turn to when you aren't really in the mood to cook a big slap-up meal.

The humble egg can be dished up in a variety of ways and in very little time, so they're ideal for those occasions when you want something quick and tasty. It's basically a case of cracking open the shell, throwing the egg in a pan and heating it, so there's not too much that can go wrong, even if you're not the most experienced of cooks. If you get your timing right you should have a delicious fried egg that's ready to eat in around five minutes, but if you want to enhance the flavour - with very little effort - then there's one ingredient that's worth adding to the mix.

When cooking fried eggs most recipes say to use oil in the pan as this helps stop the egg from sticking and is considered a healthy choice. The downside is that most oils - like sunflower, olive or vegetable - have a pretty neutral flavour, so you don't really get anything extra out of it in terms of the overall taste of your eggs. That's where butter steps in.

Cooking experts say adding a few knobs of butter to the pan instead of oil will not only give your fried eggs a much richer flavour, but it will also result in a crispier texture too.

Butter has a higher fat content than oil and this gives fried eggs a more flavourful and creamier taste, and it also allows for more browning and caramelisation of the whites to creates a tasty crispy edge.

The Happy Egg Co. explains: "The best thing about frying eggs in butter is the taste. Because butter is higher in fat than oil, your eggs will naturally take on that rich butter flavour as they crisp in the pan. It's similar to the way some chefs add a pad of butter to their scrambled eggs as they cook.

"There aren't many health benefits to frying eggs in butter, but you're not adding butter to the pan for the health benefits, you're adding it for the extra flavour!"

Cooking experts also recommend basting your fried egg with melted butter while it's in the pan as this helps it to distribute heat for a more even cook and it helps to create the deliciously crispy edges on the egg whites.

The Kitchn adds: "Sizzle a generous curl of butter - about a tablespoon per egg - in the pan until it goes foamy, then crack in the eggs. The whites will quickly start to set, and when they do, tilt the pan just far enough so that butter puddles at the edge.

"Use your spoon to dribble butter over the eggs continuously, until the whites are just set. By this time, the butter will have browned and started to give off that toasty, nutty smell, also known as the best smell in the world."