"Two eggs cooked any style"

[ipsedixit]

You see that alot on breakfast menus.

It's become so ubiquitous that it sort of rolls off the tongue like "peanut butter and jelly"

But what is reasonable to expect, as a diner, when you see the words "two eggs cooked any style"?

Scrambled, fried, over easy and the like are par for the course, no-brainers.

But what about poached? When you order eggs at a restaurant is it reasonable for the kitchen to prepare your eggs soft-poached, esp. if the place does not offer an eggs Benedict type choice?

And what about basted eggs? Menu says "any style" and sure enough, last I checked, basting is one style of egg prep.

Or how about soft-boiled? Runny center, soft jiggly whites? Menu says "any style" right?

Curious as to the thoughts of the enlightened and hungry ...

[Bob W]

Wow, such a long thread and no one has admitted to ordering shirred eggs? 8>D

As for Bob Evans, we have to go there occasionally when my in-laws are in town. Their oatmeal is pretty good, and they have a breakfast combo on the healthy page with oatmeal and a fruit-filled crepe that is not bad at all. Do not, I repeat, do not, order non-breakfast food at Bob's.

[Muskrat]

I try to make it easy on the kitchen; don't have much regard for those who play "stump the cook.."

[italia84]

I prefer poached or over easy, but when I say poached I mean POACHED. One time I ordered poached eggs at Cracker Barrel (yes, I know), and they seemed to have been microwaved. They came to me in a small bowl, and they were the same shape as the bowl and stuck just a little bit to it. They were clearly just microwaved. Weird.

[thew]

how was the texture? the taste? how did poached in water in the microwave differ from poached in water on the stove?

[EWSflash]

I have a coworker who's inclined to burst into foreign (for him, being from upstate NY) accents for parts of his speech. One day he said, in a very convincing Indian accent, "I would like two pair of toast with the eggs faced to the sun." It made me LOL even as I was thinking about what a lovely description it was of sunny-side up eggs.

[yfunk3]

....okay. I'm REALLY glad I'm not Indian right now.

[FoodFuser]

So glad that your friend has mastered the vernacular
of eggs bi-spectacular
in whatever language needs be.

Two yolks, upright, smiling
are sort of beguiling
to the short-order cooks
of the nature I see,

Imagine the ruckus he'd have caused in the kitchen
had he slid to the waiter, in sunny-side expectation,
a jar of some really good ghee.

[EWSflash]

Bravo, FoodFuser!

yfunk3, if you knew Bill you'd know he was not being critical or negative in any way. Nor was I.

[paulj]

Anyone try to order 65 deg (C) eggs? Or is that something they've only mastered in Europe?

[ryback]

Ask for them fried in the style of the Italian renaisance and watch for the deer in the headlights reaction.

[Bada Bing]

You're recalling the comic Steven Wright's quip in response to a diner sign that said, "Breakfast Anytime"?

His request: "Eggs in the Renaissance!"

[FoodFuser]

And as long as old Steven has sure been around
quipping his drone to his audience,
he's sly-ly been plotting to go back farther with eggs
than just 500 years to the Renaissance.

He's had time to smear eggs with salt, clay, lime, ash
to place in his curly head hairs, that can hold quite a stash,
which, with time,
will become 1000 year old eggs.

I'll admit the original tone of this thread
spake of what we get served at the resto.
But if 1000 years eggs rolled forth from Steve's head
I'd at least take a spoon, and examine with gusto.

[Naguere]

Has anyone noticed how different nationalities open their boiled egg.

Keiko the Japanese student starred at the egg in the cup and said 'what do i do?'
Her mother always put the shelled egg on her plate.

Sabine the Swedish girl took up a table knife and swiped the top off in one easy swing

Naguere (a Brit) puts the egg in the cup narrow side down, taps all over then levers the top off with a spoon.

[linguafood]

Petra the German girl will tap the top of the egg shell and peel some of it off, then spooning the rest of it out.

[jujuthomas]

my DH taught me to cut the top off, his mom is a Brit.

[John E.]

Old thread I know...My father ordered his two eggs basted at a cafeteria style place with a short order cook doing eggs and pancakes to order. The cook apparently didn't know anything about basted eggs. After cracking them onto the flat-top he took the corner of the spatula and broke both yolks...two eggs 'busted'.

[cgarner]

My family went traveling from PA to TN once and stopped at a Waffle House, my Dad ordered scrapple with his breakfast (not looking at the menu, just assuming they'd have "two eggs, sunny side up, hash browns and scrapple")
the waitress looked at him kinda funny and when she brought his order, he had his two eggs, sunny side up, hash browns and then a side order of eggs, scrambled... when he asked her what the scrambled eggs were all about she read back the order, only instead of "scrapple" she said "side order of scrambled"
(I guess they don't eat scrapple in TN??)

[LaLa]

We eat something similar but we dont call it scrapple in Ky and Tn, I think scrapple is mostly a Philadelphia and surrounding area thing isnt it?

edit to add: we call it livermush

[Paulustrious]

Me:

I'd like them fried. Can you break the yolk in such a way that it flows into the pan and makes a hard yellow crust. If possible, can you incorporate bubbles of fat in the white and then cook them until the bottom has a brownish black colour. Finally, please don't scrape the grill clean because I want black chewy bits from previously prepared dishes.

Her:

I'm sorry we can't cook eggs like that.

Me:

Why not? You managed last week.

[FrankD]

Thread winner.

[FoodFuser]

Yes, it's great, but I'd vote for his "ova easy", because brevity is the soul of wit.

[ospreycove]

2 fertiles fried please

[mariacarmen]

Paulustrious - you are on fire! or are you always this funny??

[Paulustrious]

Ova easy

[FoodFuser]

"Two fallopian-extruded gametes scrambled on the flattop grill, please."

[mariacarmen]

ahahaha good one!

[Paulustrious]

Soft boiled balut springs to mind.

[ipsedixit]

Now, that's opening up a whole new can of worms.

Diner: "Not only do I want my eggs soft-poached, but I want you to use quail eggs ... What? You mean you only have chicken eggs? But you said two eggs ... you didn't say 'two chicken eggs cooked any style'"

[MGZ]

"Yes, may I have mine cooked in the style of _____________"

a) the day
b) the rich and famous
c) Louis Quatorze

(I could go on . . . .)

[ospreycove]

Cryo-eggs

[Fydeaux]

I had breakfast with a rather famous artist once. Seeing "2 eggs, any style" on his menu, he asked for one fried, one scrambled. He then asked for white toast. The waitress asked him if he was sure he didnt want one white, one wheat! (He did get his eggs as he asked for them. He left a HUGE tip.)

[wakko11]

I've ordered poached and soft-boiled eggs at Denny's.

[Paulustrious]

But the other way round....

When I poach eggs I boil them for 45 seconds before breaking them into the water. They hang together better.

[Muskrat]

Maybe in a fancy-dining restaurant.

In the kind of place I frequent, I think playing "let's see how hard I can make it on the cook" is somewhere between pointless and mean. And it would make me look -- at least to myself -- as an ass.

[Rasam]

I like eggs hard boiled, and most US restaurants who offer "any style" have flatly refused to hard boil eggs for me.
Even when I point out their menu says "any style". Preposterous excuses. Even when gas stations in the area sell hard boiled eggs (really).
I've seen this for 20+ years. The only exception was in the Grand Canyon area where a lot of European tourists come, but few US visitors..

Please explain why the bias against HBE's? It should be so easy for a restaurant! I've often wondered, so thanks ipse for raising this question.

[ospreycove]

Most restaurants have hard boiled eggs on hand, but they are in 5 gallon buckets peeled from their food distributors and ready for salads, garnish, etc. Maybe you can ask them to use one of those!!!

[monku]

Ask and you might get something like this (see pic).

[Paulustrious]

Now that's what I call a genetically modified chicken.

[ospreycove]

No, No, You are both wrong, That is the African Long Egg. Thought to be extinct since Dr Livingston's time. Special wild chickens lay these eggs through evolution to resemble PVC pipe, thus protecting and hiding them from the White Tailed Hairy Egg Eater.
Actually a friend of mine who works for a distributor calls them "prison eggs". Since he sells them to institutions (prisons). I guess it is hard to get into an egg fight with 12 inch long HBEs

[monku]

.....or to make a shiv out of egg shells.

[EWSflash]

The first time I saw those back in the kitchen at the cafeteria where I work, I was amazed, after that i started calling them Long Egg too, but i like your fleshed-out description a whole lot.

[John E.]

I think the bird that lays those eggs is right out of Dr. Seuss.

[c oliver]

If you want a warm HBE, I can see why they don't offer it. It's not a common item in the US. They would have to keep a pot of water, simmering on the stove just in case someone wants one. Takes up space and energy. Also, cooked to order HBEs would be 10+ minutes which might not please you.

I'm curious what part of the Grand Canyon you visited that had "few US visitors."

[Karl S]

The North Rim only gets about 10% of the canyon's visitors (at least that was so in the '90s), and tends to attract more serious hikers (think Germans and others).

[thew]

i've never found this to be the case. not that i order them often.....

[monku]

I could see ordering a hard boiled egg could be a time sensative issue more than anything.
Doesn't a hard boiled egg take 15 minutes?
That could hang up other orders in your party. Figure the time you order, cook & serve it's going to be probably 20 minutes for your order...you willing to wait that long?

[sbp]

Interesting. "Two Eggs Any Style, $2.99". "I'll have mine truffled with seared foie gras."

[mariacarmen]

ahahahaha! must try that the next time i want my waitress to sneeze in my eggs.

[sbp]

Hell, with sunny side up eggs that haven't been cooked enough, how could I tell the difference?

[mariacarmen]

eeeew yeahhh, you're right.

[mmalmad]

I remember taking my then 8 year old son to a diner and he ordered2 eggs, deviled, when the waitress said they don't have them that way he informed her that menu says "ANY STYLE"
neither was happy... he had pancakes.

[jujuthomas]

priceless!

[mariacarmen]

never been to any breakfast place ever that wouldn't poach eggs - diner, brunch places, upscale, whatever - regardless of what the menu said.

used to work in a Spires (think a little bit better than Denny's, maybe) as a young adult, and people asked for eggs every which way and we accommodated all wishes.

[The 1st and only KSyrahSyrah]

We always order poached eggs. I can't remember every bing told no.

[1sweetpea]

I've tried to order poached eggs in restaurants and usually wind up with poached eggs that have a very vinegary kick to them. I understand why, but don't care for that flavour with my eggs. At home I poach in a pot of lightly salted water to which I add a drizzle of oil. When I swirl the water and slip the egg into the water, it comes together beautifully, without having to use vinegar. I can't expect restaurants turning out dozens of breakfasts simultaneously to spend that kind of time on my eggs, so I've stopped trying to order poached.

[Will Owen]

The vinegar helps the white to coagulate better, but too many people think they need a lot. Not true at all - just a tiny bit in the water is all that's needed. I add a bit when I'm boiling eggs, too - in case one of the eggs springs a leak, it makes the eggwhite coagulate at the leaking point instead of doing a plume.

[aurora50]

Maybe I'm just going to the wrong restaurants!! LOL

[mlipps]

I used to work at Bob Evans (midwest breakfast chain) and we actually didn't do poached, but we did basted instead as a sub. Not sure if that's actually adequate or not, but it's what we did, even for Eggs Benedict.

[c oliver]

We've had breakfast at a place called Brickie's Tavern in Reno twice in the last month or two. Second time we ordered their corned beef hash which is made from scratch and is great. So I ordered "soft poached eggs" and the server said that they don't do poached. No problem. I got over easy. But that's the only time I can remember getting that reply. 'Course there are times that a place fails so abysmally at "soft poached" that I WISH they'd said they couldn't do it at all.

[Mag454]

I only ever order poached and I can only think of one time where I was told that the kitchen couldn;t do it. They substituted soft boiled instead. That was a longggg time ago and I think maybe at a Denny's??

[aurora50]

Also at Denny's: I think I've told this before, but a few years ago, when I tried to order poached eggs, the waitress came back and told me the cook had "run out of hot water to poach eggs, and couldn't do it"---!!!!????
At Coco's restaurants here in the West, you can't order poached eggs, I believe, after 11:00 a.m., which is a bit of a problem for me, since I'm a late riser in the weekends.

[ospreycove]

Another reason to be a regular, and overtip the breakfast waitress!!! I do not care for the griddle prep called "Mel-Fry" so my fav coffee shop uses butter on my soft scrambled. with dark toasted Whole Wheat and crispy griddled not deep fried potatoes. Damn, am I picky??? naw, just a regularwho gets along with the crew.

[bagelman01]

Finally, a post of yours I totally agree with...................
I can not tolerate Mel-Fry or Fry-Max (used in the northeast), and insist on real butter for scrambling eggs and on my toast. In most places, I tell the waitress to bring dry toast with butter on the side (the pcs tend to be real). In my regular haunt, the waitress and grill cook know and honor my preference. A good tip and good attitude go a long way.

[ospreycove]

Actually Frymax and Mel-Fry are competing products; the other crap is "Griddle Gold" with that "real" butter flavor, Hey just use butter. I know higher burn point, cost, no cholesterol, but a chemistry set of other ingredients, YUM!!!

[coll]

I thought Mel Fry and Frymax were strictly fry oils? Do places actually put it on their grills? I'm only asking because Bourdain said the same thing in his latest book, and I thought he was mistaken too.

Here the really old fashioned places use Kaola Gold in the can, otherwise if they're not using grill spray (usually Canola) a lot of time they just use the grease from the cooked off bacon.

I bet when you ask for your eggs cooked in butter, it's probably Butterblend, which is still half butter, but cheaper than margarine. And a lot cheaper than the $100 everyone is paying for a case of butter right now! Besides which, I can't imagine them babysitting real butter on a hot grill. On the toast though, yeah, unless they're cheapskates.

[jfood]

Jfood has posted elsewhere, but sometime Embassy Suites is the bed du jour. And they offer free hot breakfast. Here's the trick.

On the way to the grill stop at the toast station and grab some pats of butter. Bring to the hot food station, order your eggs and give the chef the butter and ask him to cook in the butter not the silicone spray. You usually see a big ole smile from the chef.

[ospreycove]

Jfood.....Excellent idea...... I stay at Embassy Suites and this point will be put to good use.

[jfood]

glad to help. it was tough looking at the eggs and they had the same finish as a wood floor and such an easy fix.

[Divamac]

Eggs any style absolutely mean poached in my world. I can't poach an egg - Lord knows I've tried - so it's one of the little joys of a diner breakfast: 2 Poached Eggs on Toast!

[thew]

i don't think there is a single diner in NYC that will not poach an egg for you
ditto for soft boiled

(this is called hyperbole people, please do not respond with the names of diners in NYC that don't poach eggs - i'm just saying these aren't unusual items)

[MGZ]

Yeah, same is basically true of diners on the western side of the Hudson.

[GraydonCarter]

I like to order things when I go out that are too hard to cook at home, and my poached eggs just always come out tasting of vinegar, no matter how well I bathe them, so I tend ot order poached eggs at restaurants. Except the last breakfast place I went and ordered poached, the waitress said, you know they microwave the eggs. I'm not sure what happens when you microwave eggs in water, but I figured if she was willing to warn me it must be bad.

[FrankD]

As I noted above, microwave "poached" eggs are not that uncommon. In fact, I bought a clamshell "poacher" for use at home. Trial and error taught me that for my little nuker, 58 seconds gives me two eggs with runny centres and set whites; it's way quicker than trying to do it in a pot (and as noted above, I lack the skill to do it properly anyway).

There's no water used, though; you break the egg into the poacher (or a ramekin), pierce the yolk, and nuke. Best to oil/butter the poacher first, but I wouldn't add water.

[soypower]

I always assumed it was any type that could be cooked on a flat top - which would exclude poached. If you want eggs basted with water I think that should definitely be a can do. Basting in oil/butter could prove to be more difficult.

[RealMenJulienne]

Yeah, this is my expectation too. Any style that can be cooked on a griddle.

[bagelman01]

Gee,
I always specify that I want my scrambled made in a pan, not on the cooktop. Ther's a big difference, when you want them scrambled soft. The cooktop if far too hot, and the thickness of the pan allows soft and not dried out scrambled eggs.

I've never had this request turned down in a diner or luncheonette.
Also, here in southern New England, poached is common. Alkl a good short order cook does, is draw the hot water from the coffee/tea urn and poach in an aluminum foil pan.

[TuteTibiImperes]

I usually specify 'barely over easy' and I get what I want - set whites, but a completely runny yolk with just the thinnest bit of fried film holding it together.

[EWSflash]

Nor sure I'd want to trust an oddball egg dish- I'm betting "any style" means "scrambled or fried, with fried you can order how well done you want them".

[Karl S]

Poached is commonly included in that option; coddled and shirred, not so.

I generally avoid scrambled because (1) I like mine very moist, French-style, and that's one of the great tests of a professional cook's skill, which I don't expect in US breakfast haunts, and (2) the scrambled eggs in many US breakfast haunts are already cooked, sitting in warming pan on the griddle or somewhere similar. Ordering scrambled eggs is basically ordering pre-cooked eggs, and since I think eggs deserve way better than that.

[sinjawns]

Many restaurants use liquid eggs for scrambled as well... yet another reason not to choose them.

I am with you on the french-style scramble; those coagulated rubber knobs that get passed off as scrambled are icky. Mind you, when I serve my delicious pillowy eggs to some friends they refuse them or ask me to cook them more and break them up... they have developed a taste for the icky rubbery kind. Go figure.

[Will Owen]

There was a restaurant whose breakfasts were recommended on the LA Board; I looked up their menu, and ALL the egg dishes were scrambled. To me that's a dead giveaway that all their eggs come from cartons. Now, I use some Egg Product in my weekday morning scramble - the "layered omelet" style that so many 'Hounds seem to dislike - but if I'm paying for eggs I want EGGS.

And, yes, I have had friends and relatives complain (gently) about eggs being "undercooked" when served soft and moist. Kind of annoying when I've put in the extra effort this requires...

[Sharuf]

What makes for a perfectly cooked egg is a very subjective thing. I find uncooked or undercooked eggwhite repulsive. When I order poached eggs, I always specify "medium" and hope for the best.

[MGZ]

"What makes for a perfectly cooked egg is a very subjective thing." Precisely!

There is little more sad and wasteful than an egg yolk that does not run. It's like putting ice in good scotch, grilling prime beef past 125 degrees, mushy pasta, salsa without cilantro . . .

[c oliver]

Clearly you and I were separated at birth. I've sent back many a poached egg that didn't "jiggle."

[Sharuf]

And I send back the ones that do jiggle. To each his own.

[ospreycove]

Sending back a $2.99 breakfast....Is that like "Revenge of the Nerds"?

[c oliver]

But I order mine "soft" and I'm bettin' you don't :)

[ospreycove]

Oh, NO...I am a soft poached, soft scrambled, and over light with rare exception. Exception, on my Taylor Ham sandwich, a seeded (poppy) hard roll, egg over hard, tomato and Taylor Ham well.. ?Oh, no....I am getting light -headed.......
Another reason I like "my breakfast place", not need to be disappointed, and if I am a stranger in a coffee shop, or a one timer, "Eh", write it off to experience.

[Will Owen]

Mrs. O frequently asks for poached, and usually gets them, except at some of our favorite "down-homey" breakfast spots when we visit Tennessee and Kentucky. I did notice on, a breakfast menu I downloaded the other day, a footnote saying that the eggs offered would be fried or scrambled only; I think it's nice of them to give the warning.

Places that serve a lot of Benedicts every day of course always have poached eggs available, the downside being that they're usually done by the bucketload and held in cold water, then reheated to fill orders. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you want your poached egg to be a tender, quivering thing still trying to decide whether it's cooked or not you'll be disappointed.

[FrankD]

I've seen a lot of places pass off microwaved eggs as poached. If they have the timing right, it's pretty hard to tell the difference from eggs poached in cups. (My mom used to poach eggs right in the pot; I never mastered her knack of swirling the water, and dropping the egg in so that the whites stayed close to the yolk, and didn't disperse throughout the pot.)

[Will Owen]

Won't go into detail because this is not Home Cooking, but if the eggs are quite fresh you can just drop them into slightly acidulated, lightly boiling water and then take it off the heat. The bulk of the white will coagulate around the yoke, and in about five minutes you'll have a perfectly poached egg. There are usually some trailing flags of white that you can trim off if you're fussy. If the eggs are not very fresh the white just trails all over the place.

[FrankD]

I know; mom used to put a few drops of vinegar in the water, swirl it with a wooden spoon, and plop in two eggs. There were always a few little strands of random white, but by and large the eggs were together. I tried many times, but I always ended up with lonely little yolks and widely dispersed watery whites. Finally, I cheated and bought a pan with five little inset cups, which worked fine, but when I found the microwave poacher, it was so much faster and easier, and the results were almost indistinguishable from the pan version, I've completely gone that way now.

I'll hand in my CH credentials at the door...

[small h]

<I always ended up with lonely little yolks and widely dispersed watery whites.>

It's not you. It's the eggs. An old egg will separate, while a fresh one will hold together. I thought I was a failed poacher myself 'til I started poaching only very fresh eggs. I think older eggs are perfectly fine for scrambling or omelets, though.

[Will Owen]

If you need eggs that will peel easily when they've been hard-boiled, use older ones. For poached, the fresher the better. There's a produce store down the street that has very fresh eggs every day; if I want to make devilled eggs I buy them a week in advance!

[Karl S]

Leave fresh ones overnight on the counter works just as easy...

[c oliver]

Really? Well now, how cool is that?

[Will Owen]

I leave mine out, period. Refrigerating eggs is an American peculiarity, for the most part, and if you buy wisely and use them within the week (as we always do) they're always ready at a moment's notice.

[Val]

er...I'll take one egg...soft boiled but... NO....JIGGLY... WHITES***...ahhhhhhh, therein lies the problem...I've kind of figured it out for little old me on my electric cooktop...JUST about 4 1/2 minutes...would I trust a restaurant...no freakin' way...I do it myself...breakfast is like something I totally don't go *out* for...but IF I HAD TO....this would be how I'd want it! (((ipse))))

[monku]

Maybe I'm not in the right circles, but no one I've dined with has ever ordered hard boiled or soft boiled eggs. I'm sure if you asked for a coddled egg, most places wouldn't know what it is. I'm sure you couldn't ask for Scotch eggs.

I remember years ago going to The Original Pantry in Los Angeles and they had this gizmo next to the grill for cooking hard and soft boiled eggs. It was a stainless steel contraption that you put the eggs into and it lowered the basket into the pot of boiling water. They must have done a lot of soft and hard boiled eggs in those days.

[FrankD]

Don't you ever wonder where the expression "3 minute egg" came from? Or an egg timer, for that matter? The prep is pretty simple; lower the egg into hard boiling water for the specified amount of time. Three minutes gives you set whites, without being rubbery, and a still goopy yolk, perfect for dipping your toast into.

I agree that it's pretty rare nowadays. Who even has egg cups at home anymore? I suspect that you could still get them in Britain in posher spots, but I could be instructed on that point.

[monku]

Think the last time I used an egg cup was 40 years ago at my grandparents home.

[toomuchfat]

I think that will result in a undercooked egg by my standards. I thought a 3-minute egg is started in cold water and brought to a hard boil. At the hard boil, kill the heat, cover the pain, and start your timer.

[Divamac]

That's what my mother taught me; 15 minutes for hard cooked. I must have called her every time I boiled an egg for 15 years because I could not remember!

[Mestralle]

I haven't lived with my parents for more than 20 years, and I still call my mother about eggs. My mother is not what you'd consider a gourmet cook (heck, she probably isn't even what you'd consider a cook), but she can turn out a perfect soft-boiled egg every time, which is something that continues to elude me.

[kmcarr]

Who even has egg cups at home anymore?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My mom always used shot glasses as egg cups when I was a youngster.

(You know, just reading that, I realized it didn't make my mom sound too good.)

[Paulustrious]

I've said this before somewhere...

Espresso cups

[smtucker]

I love my egg cups. In fact, I make soft boiled eggs just so I can use them! Also use them for sorbet desserts. I am going to make this a personal challenge and imagine what else I can serve in them.

[huiray]

You don't need any cups... Just break them into a small bowl (a rice bowl is great), add salt n pepper (I like a splash pf soy sauce) and kind-of DRINK them/slurp them up. All done in a minute or two!

I like them runny, with some "unwhitened" egg white, definitely soft yolks, when I do soft boiled eggs. Small pot w/ lid, 2-3 eggs - straight from the fridge is fine, pour boiling water over them so as to cover completely, put the lid on, put the pot on the same (still warm - but unlit) gas ring used to boil the water, 10 minutes. If I accidently leave them in the water too long, then I just use a spoon after breaking them into the bowl (with said spoon used to scrape the egg out from the shells).

:-)

[c oliver]

You certainly could do that. But drinking eggs just doesn't appeal to me particularly. And I don't think I would serve them to company that way.

I just ordered egg cups and spoons and even one of those little clipper thingies although P-keg told me afterwards that a skillful whack with a butter knife works just as well.

[linguafood]

Just make sure the egg spoons aren't metal. Plastic or mother of pearl are the way to go.

[c oliver]

I thought that was just for FISH eggs. If I eat all my other eggs with a metal fork, what's the rationale for using a non-metal utensil for soft boiled? Just asking.

[linguafood]

Nah. A soft-boiled egg just tastes better if you don't have that nasty metal taste along with it.

[huiray]

"And I don't think I would serve them to company that way. "
---------
Probably not. :-) Unless they asked for it that way. I've done it before in front of friends to demonstrate what I meant after they gave me funny looks when I described it. I usually do it for myself simply standing at the sink...pot to sink, eggs out, cracked, contents dumped into bowl, condiments added (short walk to fridge/cupboard), eggs down the hatch (yum!), bowl into sink. Easy peasy.

[srr]

I have egg cups at home and I use them all the time. I love soft boiled eggs!

[linguafood]

+1.

[AussieBeth]

+1

[jujuthomas]

i have a collection of cute little egg cups - hmmm... now i want some for breakfast! :)

[John E.]

I don't remember where I read this (Chow?) but you can microwave soft-cooked eggs. Wrap the egg in aluminum foil put it in a coffee mug, fill it with water and microwave for 6 minutes (depending on the wattage of the microwave). We do two at a time. I haven't figured out the timing for more. The whites are done and the yolks are runny.

[aurora50]

Wait a minute -
Aluminum foil in the microwave????!!!!

[John E.]

It's not a problem. The foil is submerged in water. The point of the foil is to have the eggs cooked by the heat of the water and not the microwaves.

The whole no metal in the microwave is a little misunderstood anyway. We have a metal shelf that came with our microwave. It's supposed to let you reheat two plates of leftovers at a time. It's mostly just in the way so we don't use it.

[jujuthomas]

Thanks John, I may just have to try that tomorrow! :)

[cgarner]

My mother has gotten my daughter "hooked" on soft boiled eggs, from an egg cup and toast cut into strips so that she can dunk right in the middle
(my 12 year old is quite the breakfast sophisticate)

[c oliver]

I'm going to do it cause it's healthier. We really enjoy eggs a lot for breakfast so figure it's a painless way to cut back.

[c oliver]

I can assure you that Caroline1 has them and they're on my (not so) short list.

[FoodFuser]

This is almost a trolling question on this hot and somnolent summer afternoon, Mr. Ips. Are you sure you're not a reincarn of the classic schoolmaster Peter O'Toole?

But since I'm getting ready to do some soft boiled ones, I will respond.

Scrambled or fried no expectations thus no room for disappointment.

Poached: only at home, or in business situations where the company and caterer feels it necessary to produce a faux benedict. Consume silently with that corporate grin.

Good eggs are best reserved for home. The nuance and the dance of the congealing ovum are best reserved for where you have communication with the eater. "How many seconds on that steam basting, or that oil basting?" They rarely (never) send them back, though often asks for repeats.

Soft boiled and poached are for home fabrication, unless you have a close relationship with the cook.

[toomuchfat]

Is this a long way of saying a restaurant can do any kind of fried egg but if you want something that takes some meticulousness, do it at home?

[Bada Bing]

Taking into account the phrase "nuance and the dance of the congealing ovum," I suggest that FoodFuser's view is not just long but a breath of rhetorical fresh air!

[cowboyardee]

There are upsides to preferring most of my eggs cooked sunny-side-up, and sidestepping this issue is one of them.

That said, I doubt that 'any style' actually means ANY style at most places you see this phrase on the menu. For starters, I wouldn't even expect the cook/waiter at a lot your typical breakfast dives to even know what a basted egg is.

I suspect that maybe 50% of these places would play along if you ordered eggs off the beaten path of preparations and try to give you what you want, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea from either your point of view or the kitchen's. Imagine you're sitting in Moe's Greasy Waffle Joint, having just ordered a rectangle of pre-frozen hashbrown and two pale rubbery sausage links. How long do you want to wait for a poached egg that's falling apart and over-set?

The 'perfect egg' cooked in a precise, temperature-controlled water bath is a style of preparation. And I doubt you'll find a breakfast dive with the equipment or training to cook an egg that way even if they wanted to.

It's a cruel, indifferent world for the dedicated literalist.

[funniduck]

Depends on the place, I guess. I like my eggs poached and I don't have a problem at a diner. But once at a local pancake house I ordered them poached they stared at me and said they only served them fried/scrambled/over easy. In retrospect, they probably didn't have hard boiled eggs either. They definitely didn't have eggs benedict.

[michelley]

At one place in New Orleans, I asked for over easy and was told that they only do scrambled, which was strange, since they had a full kitchen in view and were actually cooking the eggs.

[Will Owen]

But did you see them BREAKING the eggs? As noted below, I assume that any place that offers scrambled or omelets only is using eggs from a carton. Now, if they were using fresh eggs, I'd say your experience was bizarre.

[monku]

I don't think the menu has to even say, when the server asks you "how do you want them cooked?", then I'll get down to the nitty gritty. If I want poached I'll specify poached easy. I'm sure there are different ways people describe how they want their egg cooked to a specific doneness. Maybe a regional thing or people don't know what a basted egg is.
The only type of place you aren't going to get it your way is like a Burger King.

[ospreycove]

I think "Basted" is somewhat regional. I have asked for this in some areas and got a blank stare in return. Maybe the waitstaff thought I had a Boston accent and was being rude!!??

[monku]

I'll remember that if I order basted eggs in Boston.

[Heatherb]

What is "basted" anyways? I'm from Jersey. Never heard of it.

[Davwud]

I assume it's eggs that are fried in the pan where you just cooked your bacon and the bacon fat is then used to baste the eggs. My mom would just tip the pan a bit and use the spatula to splash a bit across the top. You can also ladle it from a spoon.
It is THE best way to eat a fried/SSU egg.

If it's not that, I'd be interested to know.

DT

[cowboyardee]

Thats it. Could use butter instead, btw.

[LaLa]

except where I live that is the only way to fry an egg...lol

[Davwud]

Unfortunately dietary restrictions mean I can't eat bacon much anymore or it would be about the only way I'd fry them.
Once in a while is a nice treat. Perhaps some bacon and eggs for Christmas morn.

DT

[John E.]

Basted used to mean splashing fat over the top of the egg to cook the white. Now it also means just cooking the top of the egg without going over-easy. The easiest way to cook eggs basted is to simply put a cover on the pan and the steam cooks the top of the egg. I recently have been adding maybe a teaspoon of water just before putting the lid on to create more steam.

[cgarner]

that's a "dippy egg" in my house...

[cowboyardee]

IMO, that's not a basted egg.

[c oliver]

I had that thought also. I do something similar where I crack the eggs in a tomato sauce, cover and simmer. I think of those eggs as poached.

[cgarner]

coliver that's eggs in purgatory and served with thickly sliced really good toasted Italian bread it's a real treat!

[huiray]

Isn't it also common (or is it just me?) to make a bowl of Ramen noodles [yes, yes, I know it's not very Chowhoundish] augmented with various veggies of all kinds as desired, maybe a sausage or two or some leftover meat slices of whatever kind [including roast duck :-)], and a couple eggs (minus shell, of course) poached in it, all added in stages together in the same pot, then all transferred to a single bowl and eaten as a "soupy noodle dish with fixin's?

[c oliver]

Wow, that sounds good.

[EWSflash]

+1!

[John E.]

Putting a cover over the eggs is how basted eggs are cooked in my neck of the woods. I never order eggs over easy because too often the yolks get hard. The result might be similar to poached only in that the yolk is soft and the white is fully cooked (but fat is used) but it wouldn't be similar to cooking eggs in any sort of sauce.

Basting is putting hot fat on top of the egg to cook the white. This method uses steam to cook the white, the result is the same.

[cowboyardee]

"This method uses steam to cook the white, the result is the same."
____

The differences:
A) No flavoring from fat (preferably browning butter or bacon grease)
B) Steaming the egg steams the tops of the yolks as well. Makes em look a little less pretty, and can harden them up when steamed for too long.

I'm familiar with cooking eggs on a flat top under a bowl. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. But if a menu advertised basted eggs and I got one cooked under a bowl, I'd be let down. Cuz they weren't basted.

[John E.]

Well, that's the way it is I guess. My suggestion would be to order something else.

[cowboyardee]

I would. But... this restaurant was hypothetical and all. Where I am, I pretty much never see basted eggs as a listed menu option, and the bowl + flattop method is most often employed when someone just orders sunny side up. Granted, I only frequent so many breakfast diners.

[John E.]

I don't really recall the various egg preparations being listed in menus. Even though I eat breakfast in restaurants on occasion, I just order them that way because that's the way my mother prepared them and that's the way I prefer them. (Can't stand sunny side up or as my brother says, snotty side up. The whites are usually undercooked).

[ospreycove]

I was on the road the other day and stopped in a "Bob Evans" chain restaurant. I ordered 2 poached eggs with a breakfast that included too many things to list; when the order came I noticed the eggs looked overeasy or at best basted. The very courteous waitress replied to my questioning the order, "oh that is the way we do poached eggs, we put the eggs on the grill and add a little water before covering them' Ta Da....Bob Evans "poached eggs"

[jfood]

priceless.

[cowboyardee]

Wow.

This steaming under a bowl on a flat top thing really needs a term of its own. I sorta like 'poached a la Bob Evans,' though no one else will get it.

[soupkitten]

pretty sure i live in the same "neck of the woods." basted means basted with fat, although here in the dairyland the eggs are usually basted with clarified butter rather than bacon grease. ordering your eggs basted is also a really good way to piss off the hungover brunch cook during the height of a busy rush. maybe that's why people are getting the steamed, or "bob evans" version? i've never seen that before.

[John E.]

Not having worked in a restaurant kitchen, I don't know exactly how they prepare them. I know that my mother covered them to get the whites cooked and the result is the samexas basted.

I have never even seen a Bob Evans Restaurant let alone eat at one.

[soupkitten]

i've seen bob evans establishments "down south (insert ironic winking emoticon)," also never been. from what i understand it's perkins/denny's/ihop caliber crappy chain sysco breakfast-diner crapola. someone will correct me if bob evans is actually a sublime gastronomic experience.

at any rate i think a steam-cooked egg is a very different thing than a basted egg, so i'm agreeing with the others on the semantics. if i were to order basted eggs and i got steam cooked eggs i wouldn't be too happy. but. . . i also would not order basted eggs in a $3.99 earlybird combo breakfast type joint. at the nicer places where i *would* possibly order basted eggs, i would expect the cook to be able to rustle up an actual pan (not a flat top) and some clarified butter and do the thing properly. a steam-cooked egg just doesn't taste the same, imo.

[John E.]

I've never gone back into the kitchen to see exactly what technique is used to cook my eggs. I 'm not really that picky, I only have two reqirements for my fried eggs: that the yolks are runny and and the whites are not.

[Fydeaux]

I used to eat pretty regularly at Bob Evans when I lived in Cincinnati 30-odd years ago. Hardly a sublime experience; more of a guilty pleasure type of thing. The kind of thing that you miss when you move away to an area without them (say, Milwaukee, for random example) because you cant find a place that has biscuits & gravy that taste like Bob's.

[grampart]

I never thought "any style" included poached or even soft-boiled. Maybe i should check it out at my local Waffle House.

[michelley]

They will. We were touring in the south, (no waffle house here). and our English drummer ordered poached eggs every day. Once he had to explain what a poached egg was - but they did it.