This is a digression from
How do you prefer your egg yolks? Feel free to digress (we all will anyway) to general discussions of all things egg.
I like a little runny but not a lot. That applies to sunny side up, over easy, and indeed the combo fried/steamed in-a-mold to duplicate an Egg McMuffin. Scrambled eggs and matzo brei moist. Shakshuka with runny eggs. Poached eggs definitely runny.
My wife prefers hockey pucks.
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Cool topic!! I wonder what the handsome and witty source of your inspiration for this thread was? I like mine sunny side up, the yolks staring up at me is like the glance of an old friend. (I do have a history of poking an old friend in the eye with a fork, so there is a history there I guess you can say)
Honestly as stated I prefer yolk just not sunny side up. One flip on the grill/pan for about a minute then I’m good to go!! My ultimate breakfast order, prepared by any diner in NJ would be:
3 eggs over easy
sausage links
home fried potatoes
English muffin, not a big toast guy.
If some day I go to the chair and breakfast is my last meal, that would be it!
I’ve made broccoli rabe’ omelets before (a favorite veggie in our house) however I always chopped it up to put into the omelet. Recently while dining at an Italian restaurant they had a broccoli rabe’ frittata - using whole leafs with stems and all. It was an appetizer but it was ridiculously good, so much so I want to go back just for that dish. So simple but so delicious!
Also interesting / odd side note about me, I could NEVER get into “breakfast for dinner” thing. Nope, no eggs, French toast or pancakes for this guy after noon. I just can’t stand breakfast food anytime other than breakfast. {{shrugs}}
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Runny.
I’m normally a scrambled egg person at home, which need to be still moist. But, on the rare occasions that I fry an egg for breakfast it will be sunny side up as you ex-colonials call it. I don’t like crispy whites so fry at a low temperature. Once the whites have set, I spoon the oil over the top of the egg. As soon as the top of the yolk goes opaque, it’s ready. Perfectly runny - just waiting for some fried bread to be dunked into it.
I cannot poach eggs. And yes, I’ve tried all the usual advice. Swirling the water. Adding vinegar. Etc. I end up with rock hard eggs. So, given the choice, it’s what I order when I have breakfast out
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Just out of curiosity does McDonalds on that side of the pond have breakfast sandwiches? I’m not a big poached egg guy either, but on the rare occasion I make breakfast sandwiches I have a poaching pan I use which does a great job, but since I’m making a sandwich I like them to come out harder with no yolk, like the egg Mc’muffin. The pan does an excellent job of replicating those eggs. That’s all I use it for, maybe 2-3 times a year.
Great spousal choice! That way it’s almost impossible not to please everyone.
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Same, on both counts. A cooked yolk is utterly pointless. Hardened white is plastic like. I do make soft boiled eggs for a couple of things (asparagus and a spread for bread). But otherwise I hate hard boiled eggs.
I can poach eggs but success rate is really just by the skin of my teeth. And I can’t peel boiled eggs at all. Have tried everything. The partner makes eggs for us everyday. Takes out mine as soon as the water boils. The white is still very soft and yolk is almost raw.
To my surprise, I did eat raw egg mixed with rice for breakfast in Okinawa. All other Japanese guests at the guest house ate it like that. I watched them and copied.
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Yes, you can. Extrapolating from a Martha Stewart recipe, break each egg into a little bowl, like a custard cup. Bring water to boil and add several tablespoons vinegar. Holding one of the bowls over the water, tip the egg into the water, then immediately spoon water over the egg, then roll the egg over itself so it is now upsidedown. Continue with other eggs. The whites will form a surround on the eggs, and they will not stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove with slotted spoon and blot on paper towel. First egg should come out in 3 minutes.
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As is so often the case when someone raises the specter of a special purpose device, my response is “I use a pot.” Yogurt maker: I use a pot. Rice: I use a pot. I just ran up and counted - we have 26 power outlets in our kitchen. Plugged in are a coffee maker, a kettle, a toaster, and a small microwave. Clearly this house was built for small appliance mavens. Of course it’s all on only two circuits so that’s a problem. Rant over. For now.
For Egg McMuffins I use a homemade ring mold (top and bottom cut off from a can of–as it happens–Thai red curry. Ring in the lightly lubed pan, egg in the ring, water in the pan, cover. As near as I can tell this replicates how McDonald’s makes them. Regardless, it comes out cooked through but not overcooked. Definitely not poached.
For poached the deal for me has been cracking the egg into a little bowl and slipping the egg into the boiling water from the bowl. That’s it. Vinegar and stirring help cut down on strings but that’s all. It may test the Mrs. patience but I can probably get a video for @Harters if John wants to try again.
I can’t poach an egg in a pot to save my life. But the microwave method works for me.
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Runny yolks, hopefully NO hard cooked yellow, but the whites must be firm. Any wobbly, jellyish white immediately gets removed from my plate, as I can’t abide even looking at it.
I often make over-easy eggs whereby I cut the whites off and eat them, and then gently lift the yolks onto toasted and buttered English muffin halves. The yolk gets carefully stabbed and gently cut up so the runny yolk seeps into the nooks and crannies, and then the English muffin half gets eaten that way. Depending on how yolky the egg is, yes, it’ll run down my fingers.
Whereas my late stepfather always broke the yolk in the pan so they’d cook a bit. We’d always argue (friendly tones! LOL) that the other’s way of cooking/eating eggs was sacrilege.
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Poached eggs: usually you use a spoon to create swirling movement in the vinegar water, drop the egg in the centre, keep moving the liquid. When the egg is ready, spoon up the egg, use a scissor to cut the extra egg white. I didn’t do it a lot, but for the few times I made it, it was alright.
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Definitely a fun of runny yolk.
Right. And many people have a problem making your classic method work. The way I describe, spooning water OVER the egg and then rolling the egg over onto itself has worked 100% of the time for me. A guest chef on a Martha Stewart show showed this way, and I’ve never gone back.
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Indeed so (although I have no personal experience)
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This is what I grew up calling poached eggs, though that terminology seems incorrect.
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I’ll be the voice of dissent - I despise runny yolks (and whites). I love eggs but they must be fully cooked. Over hard and hard-boiled eggs are underrated, not to mention firm scrambled and omelettes!
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That’s the style pan thingy I have.
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I like eggs cooked a lot of different ways except fried - do not like crisp whites and don’t like hard scrambled. Also have never got the hang of cracking the shell off the top of a soft-boiled egg but love getting them in British B&B’s served in those darling egg cups with soldiers for dipping. Breakfast is an infrequent meal for me, and if we have a rare breakfast out I always order my eggs poached - leaves very little to up to chance although the last time I had them, they were served in individual ramekins swimming in vinegar flavored water…
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The interesting thing about eggs is that no matter how they’re fixed, whether it be fried, scrambled, hard boiled, poached etc. Each simple preparation tastes so differently. What other foodstuff can you say that about.
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