I was out to breakfast with my uncle today, and he’s continually annoyed at not being able to communicate to restaurant staff how he likes his fried eggs cooked. Part of this, I’m sure, is that he doesn’t know what the style is called. But with as much effort as people put into their different ways of preparing eggs, he can’t be the only one, and there probably is a name out there, so I turn to you.
What he likes, is for the yolk to be broken in the pan, and then the whole thing lightly stirred together, and cooked hard like that. It’s not scrambled: The yolk and white should be sort of marbled together (not homogeneous), and then cooked and solidified all in one piece. I tried googling “marbled eggs”, but that seems to refer to something done to the shells.
Far as I can see, it’s just a form of scrambled. Maybe “wrecked”? Also, scrambled eggs are not usually whipped together like eggs for an omelet. Normally they’re supposed to be lightly mixed.
I don’t know what they would be called in restaurant parlance but I often cook mine like that. Particularly if I intend melting a cheese slice on the egg for a sandwich. I consider them lightly scrambled.
A Broken egg. A bit of cheese, some hot sauce or ketchup, between 2 pieces of buttered toast. …when I worked downtown decades ago, there was a tiny hole-in-the-wall diner that sold this, in a wax paper envelope, for 99 cents.
That’s exactly how I like mine. I hate that yellow lump they bring when you ask for “scrambled eggs.” I want there to be distinct pieces of white and yellow. I get that I’m the one asking for something non-standard. Typically I just ask for “over hard” and cut them up and “scramble” them on the plate myself. It’s not exactly what I want, but it’s as close as I’m going to get without having to do a lot of explanation and instruction that they’re not going to do anyways.
I don’t know of a term for that that everyone would understand. I would call it “lightly pan scrambled,” but that will probably mean nothing to most unless I was manning the eggs.
I can’t tell you what it should be called, but others have chimed in. What I will say is that this is exactly how I prepare eggs for bacon-and-egg sandwiches. I do not scramble, and I do NOT turn it over. I just ensure the yolk is broken and then cover on medium-high heat for just about the amount of time it takes to make toast. For some reason turning it over does something undesirable to the flavour or texture. And I agree that scrambled eggs are a different beast entirely.
When I make regular bacon and eggs, I make them sunny side up, and soak up the runny yolks with toast. It aggrieves me when I accidentally break a yolk. It produces what your uncle likes, but I prefer the yolks at least partially runny. If I was trying to order what your uncle likes, I’d probably say “like sunny side up, but break the yolks”.
Every morning about this time. But yes, especially right now. Shame my breakfast is at least an hour in the future, maybe two.
I agree this is a great way to cook eggs for sandwiches. And is otherwise indescribable in any terminology the wait-person and the cook will reliably understand and follow.
I’d suggest your uncle try “cooked like for an egg sandwich” in a few places and see what results he gets. IMO the best likelihood of success is at Mom and Pop places where he’d be (or become) a known regular.
I’ve always called that “scramble-fried”. I don’t usually order eggs that way in a restaurant but the couple of times that I have, that term got me the expected results.
I don’t have an answer, but I can sympathize. For years I’d describe to a server how I wanted my eggs. Finally one day a friend heard my spiel and, when the server left, said “You know that’s called ‘over medium’, right?” and I didn’t. And no server had ever said “OK, over medium”, which I would have picked up on!
And in the 30 years since, no server has ever been confused by “over medium”, either. Odd.
…when I worked downtown decades ago, there was a tiny hole-in-the-wall diner that sold this, in a wax paper envelope, for 99 cents.
But yes, especially right now. Shame my breakfast is at least an hour in the future, maybe two.
HA !