Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes

| Breakfast

Fried eggs, a popular breakfast dish in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, take about 5 minutes to prepare. They are often served with toast or with other fried dishes.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons of butter (or olive oil)
• 2 or 3 large eggs, depending on appetite
• Salt and pepper to taste (optional)

Equipment

• A small (10") frying pan
• A spatula
• Gas ring, at medium heat

Procedure

Sunny Side Up fried egg

1. Melt the butter in the pan over low to medium heat.
2. Crack open the eggs into the pan and let fry until the yolks begin to harden at the edges (indicated by a lightening in the yolk color).
3. Using the spatula, flip the eggs over and allow to cook ten seconds for over-easy, thirty seconds for over-medium, or up to one minute for over-hard.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Notes, tips, and variations

• It often considered a cardinal sin to allow the yolk of an egg to break (although some prefer fried eggs with broken yolks). If the cook ensures that the eggs are fresh the yolks will be more 'pert', and less liable to break.
• For Sunnyside Up, do not flip the eggs. Use a slightly lower heat, and cover the pan with a lid for some of the cooking period. An ideal sunnyside up has a runny yolk, but the white should be cooked.
• Uncooked egg white (often called jelly) is normally unwanted and less-preferred than a partially cooked yolk, so err on the side of overcooking rather than undercooking the eggs.
• For a richer taste, try sprinkling with grated Parmesan or freshly chopped basil and chives.
• When frying eggs for sandwiches, rolls or wraps, it is often a good idea to break the yolks. This increases the coverage of yolk so that every bite gets some yolk, and prevents uncooked yolk dripping out.

Olive Oil Fried Eggs

1. Heat 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil over a low-medium heat (you will break the olive oil if you heat it too much).
2. Crack open one egg into the pan and let fry while splashing some hot oil on the yolk so as to cook the top. If the egg begins to bubble, lower the heat.
3. DO NOT FLIP THE EGG. It will cook with the hot oil you are splashing on it.
4. Serve, add salt and pepper to taste.

Ideally you will place a chunk of feta cheese next to the eggs and pour the remaining hot oil on the cheese. This softens the cheese while basting and cooking at the same time. The smell is incredible and the taste is old world. Heat some bread and use it to soak up the oil... AMAZING!

Dirty Desert Fried Eggs

1. Use butter to oil the pan and put heat to a medium
2. Crack two eggs into the pan and immediately garnish the whites with onion or garlic powder, whichever you have available. Feel free to use a lot because it only helps the taste -- just don't dump it on. Reduce the heat to low.
3. Sprinkle salt mainly on the yolks, and spread a little over the whites
4. Add black pepper to your taste
5. Put a lid on the pan and check occasionally
6. When the whites are no longer runny on top they are ready and delicious

These eggs go especially well with a piece of toast or two because the yolk is still pretty runny and very flavorsome!

Fried Bacon and Egg Sandwich (Homemade Egg McMuffin)

This recipe makes two sandwiches. The eggs are better over hard with the yolks broken so you don't get yolk dribbling down your arm while eating.

1. Put on a pot of coffee.
2. Get your English muffins ready to toast. If you have a toaster oven or broiler, you can put some cheese on to get bubbly. Don't set it going yet...
3. Over medium heat, fry 4 strips of bacon in one layer turning often until browned and crispy to your taste. Lower the heat if the bacon fat starts to spatter.
4. Remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels. Pat the bacon with another sheet of paper towel to remove some of the fat
5. Pour most of the fat into a teacup, leaving most of the brown bits in the pan.
6. Wash and dry the pan and put it back on the heat.
7. Pour about a tablespoon of the bacon fat back into the pan.
8. Take your used paper towels, ball them up, put them in the teacup with the bacon fat. (When you are done eating the fat will have soaked into the towels, so you don't have to pour the fat down the drain, or scoop out congealed fat from the cup.)
9. Crack open two eggs into the pan, add salt and pepper and fry for about 2 minutes. Put the toast going and they will be done at about the same time.
10. Break the yolks, spreading them over the whites, and flip the eggs. Fry for another minute.
11. Assemble your sandwiches and eat. Now isn't that better than going to a fast food joint?

Warnings

• Many people prefer their eggs only partially cooked. Please see Egg for possible health concerns of eating raw eggs.