I’ve been flipping hungrily through Sohla El-Waylly’s new book, Start Here, and while there is SO much I love about this book, I gravitated toward the egg chapter in particular.
This chapter is really (cleverly) about managing heat because few foods are so obviously responsive to heat as eggs are. When beaten eggs hit a hot pan they set instantly. Eggs heated too quickly or carelessly curdle. This is obvious, but it doesn’t translate perfectly into life (or cooking) advice.
The predominant school of thought among mid-century American food writers was that, because of the clear relationship between heat and eggs (and the French-centric foods that were fashionable at the time), they needed to be cooked gently. James Beard said that “you only have to look at an egg to realize it is a delicate thing and must be treated with care.”
The Westinghouse Cook Book less poetically says to “always use low-temperature cooking for eggs. Too much heat toughens the whites and they are not as digestible.” (Digestion comes up quite a bit in mid-century cookbooks, perhaps as part of broader concerns about nutrition stemming from the lean Depression and wartime years.)
Joy was no exception to this line of thinking, with the charming statement that eggs cooked over low heat “like the consideration and will respond by being tender.” Other books that didn’t come right out and advocate for gentle cooking still mainly included egg dishes whose cooking methods beg to be whispered in the softest of voices: poached, shirred, soft-boiled.
But as with many rules of cooking, the things that seem obviously true are often just the very first words of a long and meandering conversation after which no sweeping statements can be made. Just a lot of head nodding with a few shrugs thrown in for good measure.
This gets at why, rather than learning by heart a few canonical egg dishes, you should learn to cook eggs by thinking about heat. And once you’ve spent some time doing that, you’ve learned one of the pillars of how to cook anything, not just eggs. You can carry that knowledge with you like a worry stone in a dark pocket.
Hard-fried eggs are perhaps the biggest rebuke to those mid-century ideas about egg cookery. They look nothing like emoji eggs, with their smooth white edges and perfectly round yolk perkily stranded in the middle. These fried eggs, cracked into a generous glug of oil in a hot skillet, brown and crisp around the edge and bubble up exuberantly in the middle.
This school-of-hard-knocks method (for the egg more than the cook) is the line of thinking behind the frizzled chili crisp eggs I’ve been making for breakfast lately, but instead of olive oil I spoon my favorite chili crisp into the skillet and fry the eggs in the red, crunchy oil. The sesame seeds and bits of fried garlic get even crunchier and toastier in the pan and become embedded in the eggs as they cook. (Note: I learned about chili crisp eggs from the book Chili Crisp, by James Park.)
I’ve been serving the eggs on savory oatmeal or over sautéed greens, but they are also very nice with congee or polenta or grits (anything in the porridge family). I look forward to tomato season, when I’ll slide them on top of ricotta toast with big, juicy tomato slices. These eggs are unlike their gently-cooked brethren in that they provide texture to a dish along with the enriching self-saucing yolk.
I think I like these eggs so much because they’re not demure and tidy and yet they retain some of their softness. When you make them you feel like you’re breaking the egg, and yourself, out of the jail of those old school rules. It’s a power move to start your day.
Other Things We Ate This Week:
Fried halloumi and chickpeas (generally following this Hetty McKinnon recipe but going a little rogue with the spices) with flatbreads
Crispy coconut tempeh (by one of my favorite recipe people, Ali Slagle), sauteed bok choy, rice
Cincinnati chili from the freezer (with all the fixings sans raw onion and kidney beans) and a chicory salad for vitamins and acidity
Spam and kimchi fried rice, yamitsuki cabbage (a new favorite cabbage side dish)
Untidy eggs are definitely a power move! Love this 😀 Thanks Meg
Love this. The simple egg. Who knew? ❤️