Dippy Eggs
One of the things that I learned to please my wife was to make succesfully “dippy eggs” (a dippy egg is a softboiled egg). This was all new to me as I never really liked any egg that was not cooked thoroughly and I mean til dry! So after a few tries I figured it all out.
The key is to set the egg out for a period of time so that it can adjust to room temperature (I allow to stand outside the fridge overnight).
Next you need a timer set for 3 minutes.
Bring water to a medium boil, the best way to describe this is to state that when you clean all the bubbles off the bottom of your pot with a spoon they immediately come back and rise to the surface yet there is no real water surface turbulence (aka no waves).
Insert the egg very gently into the boiling water and try to maintain that kind of boil for exactly 3 minutes. If the water reaches a hard boil it may crack the egg and cause the contents to leak out thus ruining the egg.
After three minutes remove the egg and place in a very tiny terra-cotta flower pot (which I use as an eggcup).
I always serve my wife dippy eggs with two pieces of whole wheat toast, a cup of hot cocoa or chai and a bit of butter on the side.
Dippy eggs…cute. I love soft-boiled eggs, though I don’t often have them anymore for some reason. I usually do poached instead, which are also wonderful.
Adding a bit of vinegar to the water and making sure the eggs are at room temp before putting them in the water helps keep them from cracking.
January 25th, 2005 at 1:02 pmI never knew that but I am going to keep that in mind.
I also know that a teaspoon of salt in the boiling water will cause the shell of hard boiled eggs to just slip off much easier, but unfortunately can discolour the exterior of the egg yolk.
January 25th, 2005 at 1:06 pmVinegar also softens bones if you soak them in it. 🙂
January 25th, 2005 at 1:15 pmYeps it reacts with the minerals in the bone leaving only the collagen fibers behind.
We did a demonstration in hs involving chicken bone in a bottle of vinegar which by the end of the year was like a thick rubber band.
January 25th, 2005 at 1:26 pm