BTW, prompted by a post in the frying in bacon grease thread.
Sometimes I feel like my father, big brother and I are the only ones on the planet that ever order basted eggs. For fried eggs at home, I only prepare basted eggs with the exception of over hard for sandwiches. Over the years, these have been harder and harder to get. Often I have to settle for over easy at restaurants where the wait staff say “huh, basted?”.
Do you even know what a basted egg is? Is it an American thing? Certainly, I’ve never been able to get a basted egg in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore. Can’t remember if I tried in Australia and if Australia is part of Asia these days anyhoo I digress.
Here are photosif you don’t know what basted is. And for a description, basically a basted egg is a fried egg sunny side up except that you put a tiny bit of water in the pan to steam up and cover it with a lid so the top of the fried egg is effectively poached but the yolk is still runny. Traditionalists spoon bacon grease over the egg as it is frying to cook the top part but that is even more of a minority that your basic basted egg.
Basted eggs over pan fried potatoes [/homer Simpson]yummmmmmmmmmmmm[/end homer Simpson].
I am a fan of corned beef hash…into the skillet with margarine and fried until almost crispy, and then I put on eggs and cover the skillet with a glass top cover. As soon as the eggs are no longer yellow on top, they are done (from the steam of the corned beef hash) and they are basically neat, poached eggs.
Yeah. I call those “steam basted” eggs, as opposed to the traditional basted eggs which use butter or whatever fat is in the pan. Never tried ordering them, but I make them commonly, and my mother used to make them all the time when I was growing up.
I usually cook fried eggs this way, especially for a fried egg sandwich - adding a little water, then a lid - it spits and seethes, and the top part of the white just cooks nicely, leaving the yolk warm, but almost completely liquid.
Then spend the next half hour washing egg yolk off my hands, face, shirt, the table, ceiling, etc.
This thread and another poster are the only time I’ve heard of this thing with the water. In a thread I’m feeling too lazy to search for, someone else gave us Hispanics that word “basting/basted” as “tossing the liquid on which something is cooking over the something (juices for a roast, oil for an egg)” but your description doesn’t match - the word appeared in response to our remarks about American “fried eggs” not being at all like Spanish “huevos fritos”, no matter what dictionaries say (British fried eggs are fritos, tho). The water part seems like an absurd complication over using a rasera* to just toss some of the oil over the egg as God intended.
Rasera: a round, fried-egg-sized spatula with holes. They’re used to toss oil over the egg as you fry it and to take the egg out of the oil while leaving most of the oil behind.
I occasionally have these, but I much prefer my own invention of slow-cooked cheesy eggs, where you top the eggs with grated cheese before you put the lid on, and only add, like, a tiny teaspoon of water - there’s still steam in the pan, the cheese melts, it’s all good.
Basted and poached are the only two ways I make eggs at home (ok, I sometimes do scrambled for the wife). For a treat try using chicken broth instead of water. It adds a whole new level to the flavour.
When I was a kid, I considered the egg white that formed over the top of the yolk via bacon grease to be the greatest of delicacies. Even better than wolf nipple chips or jaguar earlobes.
That’s my prefered method of making eggs as well. Except I don’t find adding water necessary. I put the lid on the pan about half way through cooking the eggs and the moisture from the butter and eggs is sufficient to set the top just enough and leave the yoke runny.
And now I know what I’m having for dinner tonight.
I’m curious–what’s the difference between American fried eggs and Spanish huevos fritos? A typical American fried egg is not basted or steam basted. The usual generic “fried egg” is just cracked over a griddle or in a pan and fried, “sunny side up”, although typically the server will ask you how you like it.
As for “steam basting,” the water part isn’t really a complication, it’s a time saver. You put a dash of water (or not) and a lid to steam the top part. You don’t have to dirty any raseras/ladles/spoons, you don’t need excess cooking fat to baste (I usually use only as much fat as necessary when cooking eggs, so not enough to baste them in butter or oil), you don’t have to hover over the pan basting, etc. It can quite often be done without even adding water. My Polish mother used to make eggs like this all the time when she was cooking them over Canadian bacon (smoked, cured pork loin.)
Yeah, I do it as a shortcut to “over easy” sometimes, especially when I want to do four or more eggs at a time. Normally, with one or two eggs, I just grease up the pan and do the wrist-flick-and-flip method (no spatula, just the pan and gravity). At three eggs, it becomes difficult, at four or more, pretty much impossible for me, unless I make the eggs in two batches. So I just cheat and do the steam baste.
With a proper pan, you can easily learn to flip the egg without any tools. It’s the only way I do it. A nonstick pan works best. Make sure the eggs are set on the bottom and then loose (sliding around) in the pan. Lift the pan off the stove and with a quick move of your hand (sort of like stabbing with a knife, but with a small upward circular motion at the end of the thrust) slide the eggs up the far end of the pan and catch them at the end of the flip. Here’s a video: fast forward to about two minutes for the method.
