Other than the lack of a shell, isn’t a poached egg identical?
Had no idea it was such a rarity in the USA, the dope does its work once again.
Still for all those doubters, yes indeed the soft boiled egg is a work of pure unalloyed delight.
And it is so simple on the surface but a devil to perfect. You need to take into account the temperature of the egg (it should be room temperature to start with…no need to refrigerate eggs), the size of the egg and the orientation of the eggs during cooking.
Then of course you have personal preference and the method to be used.
Personally? medium eggs, room temperature, place pointy end up on a rack in a steamer (up to temperature and steaming) and leave for for exactly 5 minutes.
In that time make sure you have all your coffee and toast ready because a soft boiled egg waits for no man.
Put straight into cup, knock the top off with a standard knife. If you are lucky the top will come off with a nicely set white and little blob of liquid yolk in the middle of it. This lid of course should be attended to first and the goodness scooped out with a spoon immediately. (any small spoon will do…the soft boiled egg laughs at formality)
Buttered toast “soldiers” are compulsory, as is little pile of salt and black pepper. Then follow the classic method of dipping the toast into the liquid yolk, then into the salt and pepper. When all the yolk is gone scoop out the white.
If you are having more than one eggs (you should) you must make a decision on how fast you eat the first one based on how near perfection it is and how the additional standing time will affect the second egg.
here endeth the lesson
:eek:
That’s the gastronmic equivalent of
“Yes, but apart from that Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?”
Eggs-actly! Here’s how I cook eggs: in a small pan over low-medium heat, sprinkle olive oil and a small amount of butter. After it melts and covers the pan break in two eggs. After one side cooks flip them over. After the whites are fully cooked, break the yolks and softly fold them a couple of times removing them after the yolk has firmed up a bit but is still uncooked. Serve with fresh ground pepper. Heaven.
Novelty Bobble knocks it out of the park. Minor details may vary, but that’s how it’s done.
Dunno, having to use two different fats sounds a bit over-elaborate to me. (It seems to be worth pointing out that Brits do know how to fry eggs too.)
What’s puzzling me is, do Americans not have egg cups because you don’t eat soft-boiled eggs, or do you not eat soft-boiled eggs because you don’t have egg-cups? I’m sure there’s a term for this kind of situation…
neither. the usual is eggs fried either sunny side up, or over easy. the white is set but the yolk is still runny for whatever you want to dip into it.
The only time I’ve ever had soft-boiled eggs was when I was staying with my mother’s in-laws the weekend she had her fourth child. I had just turned nine at the time, and had been born and raised in Minnesota.
I’ll never forget it. Saturday evening, the MIL made corned beef hash covered with soft-boiled eggs. Yeccch! The eggs were tepid and slimy and made me want to gag. My ears ached for an hour afterward because of some kind of allergic reaction. (Eggs cooked all the way through do **not **have that effect on me.)
Burned itself into my memory, that did. Have never had a soft-boiled egg since and never, ever want to again.
Egg cups are rare, and soft-boiled eggs are why the Brits lost their empire.
Gross.
The spoon with which one properly eats a soft-boiled egg in a cup, BTW, is a teeny-tiny little thing, smaller than a dessert spoon. I’ve only ever seen them in movies, but I’d guess they’re probably sold together with the egg cup, as a set.
My mom used to make us SBE when we were kiddos. I never perfected it, and just do poached. Which I know are not the same thing, but it’s as close as I can get.
I always find those threads about the little cultural differences fascinating. In Germany, it’s almost unthinkable to being served a boiled egg, be it soft or hard, for breakfast without an egg cup. You decapitate the egg at the pointy end with a knife and eat it with a, well, Eierlöffel aka egg spoon, a small spoon usually made of plastic, sometimes steel or wood: https://www.google.de/search?biw=360&bih=309&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=CItjWe6dOISwaba2iYAG&q=eierlöffel&oq=eierlöffel&gs_l=mobile-gws-img.3...0.0.0.4708.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1..64.mobile-gws-img..0.0.0.CsmB6ufze58.
Btw., my perfect boiling time for a middle sized egg is exactly seven minutes, then it’s pflaumweich, soft like a plum.
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Make mine scrambled or basted, and cooked long enough to make them firm: not wet and slimy, but not dry and rock-hard, either.
Hard-boiled eggs are great for tuna salad and (provided you have little packs of salt and pepper) bag lunches. Deviled eggs, made with mayonnaise and paprika, are heavenly! :o
On occasion, I’ll have a poached egg on buttered toast or an English muffin, provided the yolk is set and not runny. Add a shmear of Marmite, and/or a slice of XO white cheddar, and you’ve got a special breakfast!
The olive oil is supposed to keep the butter from burning. It’s a common cooking technique.
It may have once been more popular in the US than it is now. I remember egg cups being featured in an episode of The Andy Griffith Show (4:54 into this segment.) I can’t remember seeing one shown in a much more recent show depicting people eating breakfast (or on the table in commercials for breakfast foods.)
I have the memory of seeing somewhere some media depiction of someone tapping the top of a soft-boiled egg with the convex side of a spoon to crack it open, but can’t remember what movie or TV show it was in.
OK, quickly before I get back to work. Apologies if this has already been noted.
Boiling eggs is a bit of a pain. Hardboiled eggs need to be peeled, and they also need to be hot. Soft boiled eggs, I haven’t attempted yet. But the whites need to be set, and the yolks need to be liquid. Timing, for me, would be a problem. I prefer my eggs fried, easy and over. I can put one on buttered toast to achieve the same combination as with SBEs in a cup with ‘soldiers’, but without the hassle. Yeah, I miss out on the ‘ceremony’; but I’m more interested in getting the food in mah belleh.
I don’t eat boiled eggs, but I do know what egg cups are. My wife likes her soft-boiled eggs over rice with some patisse (fish sauce). No egg cup needed.
Yes, I know. Lucas was agreeing that egg-cups seemed to be like a monocle or a cigarette-holder - i.e. an over-elaborate affectation. Which he then followed up with detailed account of a finicky process for perfectly frying eggs.
What I’m trying to get at is that over-elaborate is in the eye of the beholder. Using olive oil and butter makes total sense from a practical point of view. So does boiling an egg for 3 minutes and putting in an egg-cup. Neither is any more hassle than the other.
I’ve been to England. No you don’t.
Which came first, the cannikin or the egg?