Eggs are such a simple, healthy food. They can be eaten poached, boiled, scrambled, fried, curried. They come in their own packaging. They’re cheap. And on the whole, you’d think they’re pretty simple to cook.
Poached aside, eggs are the kind of thing students manage to make without too much trouble. But apparently, boiling an egg is fraught with potential disaster. M.F.K Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf was first published in 1942 and then again some years later with additional notes in square brackets.
In it, the legendary food writer has a whole chapter on how to cook and eat an egg – including how to avoid the perils of a badly boiled breakfast.
The chapter begins: ‘The simplest way to eat an egg, if you refuse to swallow it raw, even in its fanciest high-tasting disguises, is to boil it. Rather it is not to boil it, for no more erroneous phrase ever existed than “to boil an egg”.’
Yes, Fisher continues, there are several ways not to boil an egg, which should result in a ‘tender, thoroughly cooked’ egg that’s ‘almost as easily digested as if it were raw’. Who knew that raw eggs were such a big deal in the ’40s. Clearly, salmonella wasn’t a huge deal in pre-Edwina Curry eras.
So, here are her two ways ‘not to boil an egg’…for the perfect boiled egg:
Method 1
- Run cold water over the egg to stop it from cracking
- Then drop the egg gently into simmering water
- Let it stand there in the gentle heat for ‘whatever time you wish’
Fisher says that your egg will cook just as fast as if the water ‘were hopping about in great bubbles’ but that it’ll be a ‘better-treated egg’ once opened.
Method 2
Fisher thinks this is a better way because the egg will be more tender than as if started in hot water. That’s because dropping an egg into boiling water cooks the white nearest the shell immediately while taking longer to cook the yolk, whereas you really want the whole thing to cook gently at the same time.
- Cover the egg with cold water in a little pan
- Heat it briskly and as soon as the water begins to bubble, the egg is done
This method, she says, also doesn’t really require a tactic for reducing the chance of eggs cracking.
However, Fisher’s later notes concede that since she wrote about this method, she often found that the eggs don’t peel properly – taking half of the white with the shell.
So if that doesn’t fill you with much hope, why not accept her idea for a good fried egg?
‘Try heating a shallow skillet or fire-proof dish, skirling a lump of butter [preferably waiting in the bottom, to absorb good melting heat from the egg . . .] or bacon grease or decent oil [This must have been a wartime aberration. Just lately I fired a cook who fried eggs in my best olive oil. The eggs, the oil, the whole house, and finally the cook took on an unbearable slipperiness.] in it until it looks very hot, and breaking a fresh egg or two into it.
‘Then… and this is the trick… turn off the heat at once, cover the pan tightly, and wait for about three minutes. The result will be tender and firm, and very good indeed with toast and coffee, or with a salad and white wine for supper.’
To recap:
- heat a skillet and swirl a lump of butter around until melted
- when it’s very hot, break a fresh egg into the pan
- turn off the heat at once and cover the pan tightly
- wait for three minutes before plating up
Who knew eggs were so tricky?
How to Cook a Wolf by M.F.K. Fisher is re-published on 4 June 2020 by Daunt Books, £9.99. It is available to pre-order here. You can read other eggy adventures from the book on the Vogue website.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/30/apparently-boiling-eggs-wrong-how-properly-12779510/
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