SWF, 37, Can't Cook Eggs, GSOH
 

Sorry, I just can't.

Omelettes I thought I got. Turns out, when I'm turned out in to the wide world, that what we called omelettes at home were called overcooked placemats elsewhere.

Mum never fried an egg the whole time I lived at home, so I never got the knack. Mostly because my Dad's Mum was a real East End mother and fried everything so my Mum was trying to lower the grease:blood ratio after she married Dad.

And their poached eggs are (by preference) mostly hard, except for a tiny leaking yolk right in the centre. I want to make really soft yolked ones.

Boiled eggs, I can't excuse. I didn't eat them ALL my adult life and now am too embarrassed to ask Mum how to cook them, at 37. And that's what this post has been precipitated by. Mum left me three eggs. I have tried to make myself a soft-boiled egg three times. I have failed every time.

I don't know if I'm starting off with the water too cold. Or too hot. Or if I have the cooking heat too high or too low. I KNOW there must be a rule, but I'd rather hear it from Dwellars than google it, because you might be able to help with my other egg issues on the back of this.

Truth is, in Food & Nutrition (at school) we learned the temperature of the coagulation points of both egg yolk and egg white. Well, I say learned. I didn't. It was numbers! I didn't know it then and I don't know it now.

I find I still have runny white when the yolk is just right. For poached, fried and boiled. If I get the white right, the yolk is hard as old whatsits. I can eat hard boiled eggs of course, but if I have soldiers ready (or toast in the case of poached/ fried) it's a real upset.

Should I raise or lower the temp/ increase or decrease the cooking time?

If someone could detail exactly how to cook a perfect soft boiled egg - and please don't miss out any stage! - I would really appreciate it. More general help would also be great. Just don't use temperatures :)

Boy scout eggs ,
Get some freezer zip top bags ,
crack 2-3 eggs in the bag ,
add salt pepper , onions , Bacon bits , cheese , what ever floats yer boat
squeeze it all togather untill thurly mixed
put in a Big pot of boiling water ,
cook untill they feel right
open bag , put the eggs on a Plate and Enjoy

Easy Peasy Kiddo !!

Properly done omelette is inedible as far as I am concerned. Semi set liquid egg. Mmm. *bleh*

I do omelettes the way my Dad taught me. Folded in the pan. Fluffy on the inside, golden brown on the outside and a little salt and pepper.

Put the omlette under the broiler after you're done with the pan work. yummish!

How I do the perfect hard boiled egg...without numbers! (Well, a few well counted minutes, but that's about it).

But X number of eggs in water to cover. Put them on the heat, and bring them to a boil. Let boil for 3 minutes, then turn the heat off and let them sit for 18 minutes.

Perfectly boiled every time - and never a green yolk to be found.

Thanks Dagney! That was exactly what I was looking for.
Hang on - are you sure that's soft boiled? ETA - nope, reread and that's hard boiled. Sorry hon, even I can manage a hard boiled egg. Similar timings to yours in fact.

You other guys - cheers, but I'm afraid it doesn't help.
Zips - that's an interesting take on eggs, but not one I'm ready to embrace.
Dani - I'd be completely happy to have that kind of omelette, but I still seem to get it rubbery on the bottom and liquid on top - am I cooking too high or too low?
Griff - ummmmm. Actually, is that how it's done? Am I waiting too long for the top to cook when I should be grilling it?

Timings and approx heats would really help.

I like a 6 minute egg... not soft boiled, but not hard, chalky or green (boil for longer than 10 minutes to achieve this). Sounds like you might like a 5 min or less egg SG.
Put eggs in pot, cover with water, put on high heat until water boils then start timing. When time is up, put pot in sink and run cold water over eggs to stop the cooking.

If the bottom is cooking too quickly before the top has a chance to start to set, that means your heat is too high. Lower heat on the stove will allow more time for the heat to travel up to the top of the eggs before the bottom gets hot enough to overcook.

I just fry pan it to the consistancy the target audience wants then only about 2 minutes under the broiler on high to brown the top. It is a complete eyeball deal. For me cooking is about adjusting on the fly not following precise directions...

Drop the heat and cover the omlette pan after the bottom has set up somewhat, SG. The trapped steam will help set the top.

Or you can throw it under the broiler to get a drier, 'souffle' effect, as Griff suggested.

I make a lot of eggs. :yum: Three-minute eggs are my favorite for dunking toast soldiers into. Omelets, frittata, fried, scrambled, en casserole, baked in red wine...

Here's a good write up of different stages of boiled egg, and how to achieve each.

Yeah, covering it for a little while lets the top catch up.

I then fold mine over in the pan whilst the top is still soft. It continues to cook whilst you're transferring from the pan.

I just say a Julia Child thing on TV where she demonstrated omellete making. She made, like 15 omelletes, one after another (which I thought was kinda weird). They took like 20 seconds to make on high heat.

I don't recommend that way! The biggest obstacle to pan eggs is overcooking.

As far as hard/soft boiled eggs go--the cooking time is variable. It depends on the size of the egg, how cold it is, and maybe some other factors. So you have to experiment a bit with your stove, and your eggs. I usually like 9 minute medium boiled eggs and make my hard boiled eggs about 15 minutes with eggs out of the frig.

My two thoughts:

- with fried eggs, there's a sack on the albumen (the egg whites) that is akin to the yolk sack. So if you want an egg where the whites are crispy and the yolk is runny, you need a pretty hot surface and you need to be clear to pop the outer sack without popping the inner, allowing it to thin out and cook faster.

- with omlettes and such, you're really managing moisture content. You can cheat by adding a lot of oil or, better, a lot of medium-soft cheese like feta or cheddar. Other people add milk while scrambling the eggs. But the reality of the situation is that visual aesthetics aren't important once it's in your mouth, and how it tastes is way more important. "Pan scrambles" or a "frittata" are much more realistically attainable and delicious for the lack of stress involved.

When I do fried eggs, I crack them onto a hot pan which has a small amount of oil or butter, then I immediately put the lid on the pan. This gives the eggs the effect of poaching on top, so there's no raw white left, but you have all the yumminess of a fried egg from the pan. You just leave the lid on for as long as you need to get the desired degree of yolk hardness you prefer. Usually best to leave it on for at least 2 minutes at first to begin the cooking process. Once it's begun, the yolks wont take long to go hard, so keep an eye on them. Obviously, a glass lid is ideal for this because you can see what's happening and take them off at the right time.

Sounds complicated, but give it a go. It's really easy.

hot pan with butter

crack in two or 3 eggs quickly...one handed if you're cool

leave them alone until they get firm underneath and begin to bubble

then wiggle the pan and get them loose

if you want a good sunny side up, lift the edge of the egg and let the raw stuff on top slide under.

for over light, quick flip them, and cook for 30 seconds and flip them back, plate them

cook longer on the top for over easy, longer still for over medium.

never eat over hard or over well. unless you also put ketchup on hotdogs....because damn.

Also, cooking is one of those things where you have to actually DO it until you get some experience. The best chefs in the world can describe what has to happen, but in the end, you have to go for it and make a few mistakes. In cooking, mistakes are definitely how we learn. The good news is that eggs are cheap, so you can just throw away anything that doesn't work and it's 10 minutes to try again.

And don't forget 1/4 t salt and a dash of pepper... the simple egg requires seasoning.

To The Manor Born Eggs


one egg

a safety pin

some thread

A bunsen burner ....

Soft Boiled Eggs
 

Not sure if someone has mentioned it, don't take too big a pot. - A small pot with just enough water to cover the egg(s), bring to boil with the lid on with maximum heat (on a gas ring), when boiling revert to minimum heat for four and a half minutes; that does it for me. Time may vary a little, depending on whether your have small or large eggs.

Some great ideas for me to try - thank you, thank you, thank you.
Our frying pans here don't have covers, so if I want a fried egg I will try using a saucepan in future. And the help with soft-boiled eggs was what really I was looking for.

For those who've said it's trial and error - I completely agree.
I'd just come to end end of my tether after these three most recent trials. And they were presaged by some previously of course.

With the soft boiled, it turns out I've been cooking too fast and on too high a heat.
With fried eggs it's the opposite - and big thanks re the piercing idea!

I used to date a guy who made perfect fried eggs (another reason I never learned :)).
He loved my roast dinners, I loved his breakfasts.
But in his case, he knew what he was doing - he could fry eggs and bacon to specification (having been a breakfast cook in a greasy spoon) and with me it was mostly sticking to rigid rules and cheating where I had no skill (yorkshire puddings!)...

Still, a girl's gotta know her meat & two veg :yum:

Zen - I seem to remember that resulted in raw egg?
And UT - I so hate wasting food :(
I've eaten my previous non-learning curve.
I just didn't want t eat unsatisfactory eggs (as opposed to factory farmed eggs!) for the next 37 years.

Sundae, another point for any fried-egg type application: use a teflon coated pan. If it's a plain steel pan (or aluminum, etc) the egg WILL STICK BADLY, no matter how much butter you use. Not fun to clean.

Oh, and the 'cover' for the frypan can be a plate or saucer, or the lid off another pot. Nuthin' fancy. Just trying to trap a little steam in with the egg.

A pie plate works nicely as well. I've used one many times when I'm like "where the heck are all my lids?"

I'm hungry for eggs. :yum:

I use a properly cured cast iron skillet having banned teflon from my home after the cancer scare a few years ago. I don't know the current science on the coatings but I found them neither necessary nor durable. That said, they are an easy short cut and I believe the carcinogen thing was only at crazy high temps. (not looking for an argument)

My teflon died in 9/11, you insensitive bastard! (There, you weren't looking for an argument but you got one!)

I could never get the hang of a cast iron skillet. Is it hard to get used to? I have a gas stove...is it better for cast iron?

Giff I use a pan for eggs, another just for cornbread. Nothing sticks.
Softboiled eggs are an art. I lived with a lady once, that had it down to an art. She learned making them for her hung-over Dad and also for me.:right:

The key is not washing it. Clean it with salt and oil allowing the crevasses to fill with nasty old greases. I've used both, heavy cast iron could be rough on a glass surface. Right on BB.

We've been told to avoid all teflon for potential toxins as well (on the assumption that part of the kids' inherent illness is being unable to excrete toxins like normal people.) I'm down with the glass and stainless steel... but the wafflemaker is still nonstick. I tell myself that it's an extremely high quality nonstick though.

This is wisdom to pass on to your children:
If you meet someone who can cook eggs like you like them, never let them go.

Easier than teaching them to cook eggs after all.

Bought some more today. I may be experimenting.
I may be dead from salmonella poisoning (if I don't report back, don't panic, my bro has instructions to post here if anything happens to me).
Or I may just be living on Slimfast/ honey and toast because the 'rents are away and I'm suffering extreme culinary laziness (my alcohol counsellour kindly calls this "reverting to childhood" given it means I'm not drinking).

We have no teflon in our house at all. I don't like it anyway. It always just peels up after a while.

We use all stainless steel cookware with the exception of the wok which is an old rock coated dinosour (and I'm planning on replacing it soon because it's getting too heavy for my wrists to cope with).

I don't find that my fried eggs stick to the pan if I've heated the oil properly - which is normally the case because I cook them after the bacon - and I find that my fried/poaching method causes them to stick even less. Probably the moisture from the steam I suppose.

No argument from me -- cast iron will do the trick a treat, if you have a well-seasoned pan. I'm sure it would be a good idea to entirely reject teflon, but I'm lazy. I also don't have kids to protect.

Step by step by step - thanks Merc!

Except that we keep our eggs at room temp anyway. Eggs don't live in the fridge.
But that's a whole other argument :)

On a random note, I was digging through recipe sites last night and came upon this gem of an "egg recipe" from the Discovery Health website. They're really letting the creative juices flow on that one.

I've been reading My Life In France (Julia Child) and she's acts like eggs in aspic is a normal thing.

Ewwwwwww. Aspic! So gross!

I have to agree. If you are cooking, you shouldn't be picking your ass.

Making egg curry for dinner tonight. :yum:

I've never had eggs in aspic, but I like pressed tongue in aspic. My mum used to make it, but she never showed me how, so I haven't had it since she passed away. Maybe I should look up a recipe and make some in honour of her memory...cept I think I'd have to buy a new press because I don't know where mum's old one went.

Have to say, quail eggs in aspic are yummy.
But egg curry is far yummier!

Pie, we used to go to a "real" Indian restaurant in Leicester.
Actually, most of them were real, but this was the first I went to.
In fact another far more accessible one opened up round the corner from where I worked, I posted the menu of our Christmas meal from there - a thread you responded to.

We only went there (the place originally mentioned!) because a friend of a friend was married to a Punjabi guy. He refused to eat anywhere else. It wasn't a completely veggie menu, but I always had the egg curry (on Vijay's recommendation) and my bessie mate always had the sweetcorn.

Delish.

:lol2:

SG, ur doing it wrong. If you want a recipe, post a pic in image of the day.

sheesh.

(the cuter the image, the better the recipe, so maybe draw a picture of the baby Jebus on one eggshell ...oh and a good argument works too, so draw a dolphin/shark on the other)

Cast iron works better on a gas stove than on an electric one, although both work fine.
Just remember to turn your heat settings down at least two from the settings that you normally use. Cast iron heats more evenly than any other pan and when properly seasoned is as non stick as the teflon ones.

Cast iron imparts a flavor and taste like no other cooking pans.
I have cast iron pans that date back to 1865 and is better today than ever.

Here's a cast iron dutch oven that I have had for many years. Anything cooked in this is exquisite.

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...Camp102503.jpg

After cooking wipe with a paper towel. If necessary, rinse out with hot water only, no soap. Reheat till dry and grease lightly, inside and out with crisco or any good cooking oil.

The more you cook with it, the better it gets. Especially bacon!

I question whether it's Dutch, but am willing to accept it is aware of its own ethnicity.
But, oven?

That pan needs to call Maury for a paternity test!

Sorry if this is a commonly used term in the US.
For us (the UK) an oven is a cooker, a stove - something large in your kitchen.
But hey - the internet means there are no nationalities.
Sorry, haven't let that go yet, because every day I am reminded how patently ridiculous it is.

Same thing for us, SG. The dutch 'oven' is referred to as such because it was used to simulate an oven out in the wild frontier; put it on a bed of coals, cover it with more coals, and you can bake bread, make pies, etc. in it. It's still excellent for that purpose when camping.

Ah, bless you!
Even as I was writing it I was thinking of a tandoor - which is also called an oven. I just wrote it in a pedantic mood :rolleyes:

Actually, we had a 'Tuscan Oven' when I was little that looked quite like that but made of some kind of pot. Dad made chilli con carne with it and accidentally poisoned Mum, two aunties and three uncles, because the kidney beans weren't cooked enough.

Dad was fine of course. He'd eaten a few of them raw whilst cooking. Iron stomach.

Over here a dutch oven is when you fart in bed then quickly pull the covers over your partners head.

*Shakes head* Aussies....whatcha gonna do? :P

Be very careful if you get into bed with one. That's what. ;)

We call those pots camp ovens. They're good for making Damper.

Down here, a dutch oven involves several people, a large stash of weed, and a car with rolled up windows.

Yeah well, we have those up here too, but it can be a bit dangerous. It's not quite legal to smoke pot here.

Not "quite" legal here either.

And now we have driver drug testing, which frankly I support. Driving should be taken seriously.

agreed.

The correct term for that is hotboxing

Kidney stones? :)

I know a "hot box" when I see one. That is no hot box.

No no no nonononononono! hotbox is where they train the firefighters. They light a big fnckoff fire in a container and then send a firefighter in there to see if he can come out again. If they don't come out they don't make the grade ... :headshake

I clean my cast iron by sprinkling with salt and rubbing with foil... I wipe it down with a cloth and use another cloth to apply another layer of oil.

Burlap works well and does not interfere with the seasoning patina on well used cast iron.

Here's a few of my cast iron skillets and dutch ovens.......I collect Griswold's and others.

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...P1010058-1.jpg

Dutch ovens were imported from Europe 300 years ago and sold to American colonists by English, Dutch, and German traders.

George Washington fed his army from Dutch ovens. Paul Revere is credited for developing the flanged lid. Lewis and Clark carried Dutch ovens as they explored and mapped the West, and Dutch ovens were used by "forty-niners" for baking sourdough bread during the California goldrush.

Wow!!! Do you use them all or display them? I've never seen so many in one place outside of a specialty kitchen store.

This makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it. Foil...shudder. :o

It takes ages at parties.

"Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, Pot. Kettle, 10" skillet. 10" Skillet, Number 4 Dutch Oven....."