How to Cook Eggs including a Stupid Way!
In this post ...
Eggs are incredibly useful and versatile so here are some actually useful info, tips and opinions about the most usual ways of cooking them.
How to Boil Eggs
“Put fresh eggs into cold water and allow them to boil for the
duration of a Paternoster, or a little longer”
Aldo Buzzi
A Paternoster is the Lord’s Prayer which, hang on a minute … took me 21.36 seconds of slow praying (I am always very thorough in my research for this blog) and, that being the case, I think Mr. Buzzi is very much in error. More information on this matter at the end of the post.
I do agree with him, however, that although eggs can be boiled by plunging them into boiling water it is easier to do them well from cold, like this …
~ If you are in America bring your eggs to room temperature for two good reasons; they can
be timed more accurately and they are less likely to crack.
~ Put them in a small pan and add enough cold water to cover by about 1cm/½”.
~ Bring to a boil over high heat then turn down the heat and simmer for the following times.
~ Preheating the oven and keeping it on for 30 minutes is time consuming and costly compared to just boiling the buggers. If you have the oven on already I suppose it might be economical but not many things cook at such a low temperature.
~ The egg whites were discoloured, their texture was rubbery and they tasted strongly metallic/sulphurous.
~ The yolks tasted fine but seemed to have migrated to one side of the egg so not good for pretty presentation.
~ I noticed a distinct and long lasting eggy pong about the house which is not the case when boiling.
~ Very soft boiled with a still runny white – 3
minutes
~ Soft boiled with a runny yolk but a set white – 4
minutes
~ Semi firm yolks – 5 minutes
~ Hard boiled with a tender yolk– 8 minutes.
~ Really hard boiled – 10 minutes
More on timing boiled eggs!
Some years ago a reader wrote to the Daily Telegraph as follows …
“If you boil an egg while singing all five verses and
chorus of the hymn, ‘Onward Christian Soldiers.’
it will be cooked perfectly when you come to Amen.”
I think this may be a more reliable method than the Lord’s Prayer. And here, quite early in the post, is the stupid way to cook eggs …
Hard “Boiled” Eggs in the Oven!
~ Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325°F/140ºC fan/gas 3.
~ Put 1 whole raw egg in each individual cup in a muffin tray.
~ Bake for 30 minutes.
~ Immediately immerse in a large dish of ice cold water.
~ When completely cold (about 10 minutes) peel and do with them what you will.
When I saw this I wondered to myself “is this another of those daft hacks I’ve been seeing recently?” but tried it anyway. And the answer to my question?
In short – a definite yes; daft and pointless. In more detail …
Don’t try this at home – or anywhere else!
Why are such peculiar ideas becoming rife when there are easier, pleasanter, safer, quicker, deliciouser ways to do things? For more irritating “cooking hacks” see here.
Baked eggs can, of course, be delicious but you have to do them right, like this …
How to Bake Eggs
~ Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F/160ºC fan/gas 4.
~ Butter one ovenproof ramekin per egg and break said egg into the ramekin.
~ Season to taste.
~ Pour over a tablespoon of double cream.
~ Bake the egg(s) for 15-20 minutes till the white is set and the yolk isn’t.
~ Serve with crisp hot toast for dipping purposes.
You can bake eggs in other things too – eg. a tart case, half a avocado, a bacon lined muffin cup or, as here, in a tortilla lined ramekin.
How to Scramble Eggs
I have never, ever whisked milk or cream into eggs for scrambling, they are perfect just cooked with butter.
It is absolutely essential than any intended additions or accompaniments are ready before you start scrambling.
~ Melt a generous knob of butter (about 15g/½oz) over medium heat in a small pan – non-
stick preferably for washing up reasons.
~ Break two or three eggs directly into the partly melted butter and immediately stir the two
together.
~ Season and stir constantly over a low-ish heat.
~ As the eggs start to solidify fold them into the uncooked egg till you have a pan
of softly cooked eggs.
~ Immediately stir in a little more cold butter or some cream simply because this will stop the
eggs continuing to cook, any added deliciousness is purely incidental.
~ Serve absolutely immediately.
Using a goodly amount of butter makes the eggs rich and creamy both in taste and texture.
How to Poach Eggs
Click here for how to poach eggs plus how to make Eggs Benedict with some variations
How to Fry Eggs
To fry an egg …
~ Heat a tablespoon of oil or equivalent in butter (the egg will be more tender if cooked in
butter, more inclined to “puntillitas” or slightly crisp browned edges in oil) in the middle of a
preheated non-stick or well-seasoned frying pan.
~ Gently break the egg into the centre of the oil
~ Cook over medium heat for about a minute till the white is actually white and then do one
of the following:
Sunny side up either serve as is or briefly cover the pan with a lid so that the top of the
yolk sets lightly in the steam.
For slightly more set yolks, when the white looks pretty well cooked splash the hot fat over the yolk till it assumes a glazed look.
For over easy carefully flip the egg yolk side down and cook for about five seconds.
Over hard are the same as above but cooked till the yolk is firm.
Toast on Eggs!
Here’s a rather different way to serve fried eggs!
These crunchy breadcrumbs are known as Pangrattato – a quick, cheap, easy way to improve almost any meal!
How to make an Omelette
Omelettes are not as difficult as we have been led to believe, in fact they are quite easy.
This is how to make an omelette for one person and as you should always make an omelette for just one person this is all the info you need. For additional people make additional omelettes, they only take a minute or two and work out much better than trying to double up ingredients.
~ Break 2 or 3 eggs into a bowl.
~ Season and lightly beat together just to break the whites into the yolks, there is no need to
whisk till fully amalgamated.
~ Melt a knob of butter in a 24cm or thereabouts non-stick pan.
~ When the butter has melted and starts to foam swirl it about the pan and pour in the eggs.
~ Allow to sit over the heat for a few seconds and when you see the edges start to solidify
gently lift them with a spatula, tilt the pan towards the spatula and encourage the runny
egg on top to flow to the side of the pan and under the cooked egg.
~ Keep doing this till the top of the omelette is merely moist.
~ Add any fillings and fold one half of the omelette over the other.
~ Slide onto a warm plate.
You can add pretty well anything to the middle of an omelette (see here for loads of delicious omelette filling ideas!) remembering to pre-warm most fillings first (not cheese) as it will only be over the heat for a few seconds. I like to add crunchy croutons for a lovely texture contrast.
How to Store Eggs
Interestingly how we store our depends on whether we are European or American, and for very good reasons so check out egg storage here.
Suzy Bowler
Having been a somewhat itinerant chef for over 30 years I was amazed, on my return to the UK, at the blatant food waste that now seems to be rife in the country; amazed and irritated. So much so that I decided to start a blog about spontaneous cooking from leftovers to show people that there are great alternatives to throwing food away.
2 Comments
Aubergine In Texas
As most of America is much further south than England, I believe plays a larger part in the refrigeration issue. For instance, Dallas is just about the same latitude as Cairo.
Charlotte Oates
I keep my Tesco eggs at room temperature and they're absolutely fine, I always find they last longer than their use by date too. I agree that the hard boiled eggs in the oven sounds like a ridiculous hack when it's so easy to do in a pan on the hob.