Gordon Myers
Articles on Life, Truth, Love, Computers, and Music
The Ten-Egg Challenge: Part 4
Day 4: Over Easy
Tonight I tried another style that I had never tried before. I learned a few things tonight. I learned that over easy is basically the same as sunny side up, except with one extra flip (which leads some people to refer to this style as "sunny side down"). And I also learned another lesson tonight: I am bad at flipping eggs. At least, for now. Right now I'm trying to type up this post super fast before I have band practice. More on that later.
To cook an egg "over easy," here's what you'll need:
- A frying pan,
- A spatula,
- Some butter, and
- An egg
Grease the pan with copious amounts of butter and make sure it spreads around well. Heat the burner to a medium heat. Then just crack an egg in and wait! The waiting takes about two minutes or so - just until the egg whites have solidified. As you can see I have a diagram pictured above, showcasing an egg that is not ready for a flip, then almost ready, and finally ready. Once it reaches the point where the whole of the whites are opaque (but the yolk is still bright yellow), you want to give it a flip. I've seen that the master chefs do this without a spatula - they actually just flip the egg up into the air using the pan and then catch it flawlessly. Since I'd never cooked this way before, and since I was in a rush, I didn't even attempt that. I just used a spatula. And I used a spatula poorly, as you can see below.
Once the egg has been flipped, don't touch it. Even if you did a miserable flip job like I did, resist the temptation to fix it, otherwise you might break the yolk. Just wait another 45 seconds for the bottom to cook over, and then using your spatula, remove it from the pan, flipping it back to its original orientation, and onto your serving plate. When cut open, the yolk should still be nice and runny. You can probably already guess two additional styles I'll be trying later on in this challenge: over medium and over hard. The fact that the whole yolk is still runny distinguishes this style from those.
The results? Well, even though my egg may not have been the most aesthetically pleasing due to my presently poor egg-flipping abilities, it was extremely pleasing to my taste buds! In fact, I really wanted to make another one right after I finished this one! But, alas, I had to hold off, as I promised myself to use exactly 12 eggs for this challenge - no more, no less. I'll give this an 8 out of 10. Plus, I'm in a bit of a rush tonight because it's Tuesday, and on Tuesday nights I have band rehearsal. I play French horn in the Verona Area Concert Band, which is really a fantastic little group, run by conductor and Verona Area High School band teacher Eric Anderson. Our next free concert will be on Thursday, February 7th at the Verona High School, so if you're in the area, come check us out! I'm off to practice now; check back tomorrow to see which style I cook next!