Know your eggs There are many ways to cook eggs – hard boiled, soft boiled, fried, poached or scrambled, but definitely not hard cooked. In English there is a big difference between to boil and to cook. To boil means to cook in boiling water. To cook means to heat foods so that you can eat it. You can’t cook water. An egg that is fried in a pan is a fried egg. You can have your fried eggs over easy, which means they are turned over so the yolk is cooked. Sonny side up means they eggs aren’t turned over and the yolk stays yellow. Some people like poached eggs, which are made by putting the egg in boiling water without its shell. Scrambled eggs are eggs that are cooked in a pan after you have beaten them to mix the yolks and the whites.