Every now and then I get a hankering to bake something, which nine of ten times means chocolate-chip cookies. That tenth time I’ll venture into breads or cakes but they’re usually too time-consuming for my “taste”. Thus I’ll buy a perfectly prepared croissant before I ever labor to make one on my own. Maybe the same should be said for so-called perfectly prepared eggs.
We’re all talking about eggs these days, the same way we talked about gas during the “Energy Crisis” of the late 1970s. Eggs are scarce and evermore expensive, which translates to being more choosy about how we use them at home. I like eggs for breakfast every other day and I’m not likely to change that habit on account of rising prices. My dog may have to forego the occasional scrambled egg on top of his kibble, but until I pay as much for a dozen eggs as I do to fill my gas tank, I’ll still be buying them.
What I won’t be doing is cooking my eggs any differently than I did last week or last month, even if scientists now claim the “perfect method” (their words) to do so. I prefer my eggs soft-boiled, which means a pot, some water, a $2.99 submersible egg timer from Wal*Mart, and less than ten minutes of prep after the water is boiled. It’s a quick, mindless process I can pull off even before my morning coffee.
Would you prefer a more time-consuming method instead, with only slightly better results? Okay. Take two pots of water and heat one to boiling (212 F for us Americans, 100 C for most of the rest of you) and the other pot to “lukewarm” (86 F, 30 C). Drop your eggs into the boiling water for two minutes, then transfer them to the lukewarm water for two minutes. Repeat seven more times. That’s right, seven more times. On your calculator as well as mine, that’s 32 minutes until breakfast is ready, and you’re too busy to do other stuff while you’re waiting.
If I dedicate 32 minutes to egg-making, I’m expecting something much more grand and decadent. An omelette at the least. A scramble with a load of cut-up veggies. “Benedict”, including the hollandaise sauce. Heck, I’d even don my French chef’s hat and try sous vide eggs, which are…. oh, never mind – those take an hour or more.
The thought of “perfect” eggs in 32 minutes instead of soft-boiled in less than 10 is exasperating. If I wanted to go all science on you, I’d explain why 32-minute eggs allow the albumen and yolk to cook perfectly together, even though each has a different composition. I’d also explain why this method retains the maximum nutritional benefit of eating eggs (protein and so on). But c’mon, do you really care about those details when you’re just looking for grub to get your day started? Heck, the prep of my 10-minute eggs even allows me to feed the dog and clean up last night’s dishes while I wait.
The “perfect eggs” news article is interesting enough but I had to laugh when the writer inserted the standard “… be forewarned that consuming raw or undercooked eggs may increase your risk of foodborn illness”…” Wait, I thought these eggs were perfectly cooked. Now you’re hinting the process may cause food poisoning? Sorry Mr. Scientist, I’ll stick to my $2.99 Wal*Mart egg timer method instead.
LEGO Notre-Dame de Paris – Update #7
(Read about the start of this “church service” in Highest Chair)
Maybe LEGO’s engineers got impatient with the construction of the east-end chancel of Notre-Dame de Paris, because Bags 10 and 11… of 34 bags of pieces, laid out the rest of the foundation of the entire cathedral. Indeed, when we finished today’s rather brisk build (24 minutes!) we put down enough marble to allow the capacity 1,500 parishioners to “take a pew”.
24 minutes was barely a French coffee break back in the day when Notre-Dame was actually built. In fact, we’re now twenty years into the construction: AD 1182. With the chancel complete enough to host church services, we’ll spend the next twenty years (or rather, the builders did) rising the transcept (the “cross” bar, remember?) and first bays of the nave (the cross “long” bar).
Speaking of “bars”, note that I added LEGO’s signature “title bar” to the near edge of the model today (photo below). LEGO wants you to know what cathedral you’re looking at, even though I’m teaching you enough detail so you won’t need a title bar. But don’t be fooled; you won’t find a title bar in the foundation of the real Notre-Dame de Paris.
Today’s build was quick but not without the usual antics. Once again I installed a piece incorrectly – a tiny bit of marble. Once again I reached for the LEGO lever but it couldn’t lever out this kind of piece. So I resorted to my paper clip “crowbar” instead and ZING!!! – the piece went flying across the room and ricocheted (another word with French roots – nice, no?) off the wall. Good thing I managed to find it or several of Notre-Dame’s parishioners would trip on their way out.
Running build time: 5 hrs. 56 min.
Total leftover pieces: 24
Some content sourced from the CNN Science article, “Scientists developed a new method for the perfect boiled egg…”.
Life In A Word 
Hi. I bought eggs this week at Trader Joe’s for $3.49 per dozen. These days, that’s a bargain.
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$3.49/doz, wow! I might have to make the hour-and-change drive to Columbia just for eggs (our nearest TJ’s).
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Even when they were cheap, I tended to get the more expensive eggs, but this week at the store avocados were $3.00 each and I decided I didn’t want avocados that much.
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I think produce is getting overlooked for all of the attention given to eggs right now. We used to go for the more expensive strawberries and blueberries (organic) but I just can’t justify $7 for a box with less than 7 berries 😦
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An omelette at the least. I agree the more time it takes me to fuss around with eggs, the bigger and fancier the result of those eggs must be.
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Time permitting I’ll have an omelette over soft-boiled any day. Frankly it’s the only way I’ll eat veggies for breakfast.
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I am a fried over easy egg person – served on toast with a thick layer of peanut butter. Cooking time is four and a half minutes, and that is how long it takes me to empty the dishwasher. Multi-tasking.
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Thumbs-up to the multi-tasking. Thumbs ? to the thick layer of peanut butter w/ fried eggs. That’s a new one on me. May have to try…
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I don’t even have time for a perfect egg. So I never had a shot at a perfect life!
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At least we can agree, in this instance, “perfect” is a matter of opinion.
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Dave, I’m not really a fan of soft-boiled eggs; we had them a lot when my mom was still here as she loved what she called “dippin’ eggs” and crispy toast. I had to leave mine in so they were closer to a hard-boiled egg.
I used to make hard-boiled eggs in the microwave in a gizmo that looked like a huge plastic egg which you filled with water and laid up to four eggs on a metal insert. It was well used and one day I was in a hurry and didn’t put the lid to the egg cooker on properly and opened the microwave to find the lid on the turntable and egg pieces all over the inside of the microwave. How did four little eggs make that much mess I ask? I never used the gizmo again.
Good progress on your Lego Cathedral project. Have you ever noticed that when you have the smallest part and must poke it somehow to open or move something that it does indeed ricochet at the speed of sound? I tried to remove the battery cover of my wireless keyboard and it went flying and I looked everywhere for it, only to find it under the stove. (Did it have legs to go so far underneath?)
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I learned to like soft-boiled eggs because they’re healthy relative to the other options for preparing eggs. You just boil them in water and (for my preference) add a little pepper. And they’re a quick prep. Yes, the LEGO pieces snap together so well that it’s no wonder they “zing” away when you try to remove them. Next time I’ll know to hold my hand just above, so the piece won’t try to escape 🙂
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Like you, I eat healthy, so I only eat hard-boiled eggs. I guess I would not turn down a nice omelet, but it’s a lot of work for one person, so I’ll pass. As to flying LEGO pieces, with your luck, the errant piece would go down the register vent. Yikes – what to do then?
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Really enjoying the Notre Dame build. The floor looks fabulous. FUNNY about the piece flying, so glad you found it. I opened a small glass jar yesterday, the cap FLEW away, I still can’t find it. Isn’t that weird? I’ve searched the entire kitchen. It reminds me of having little kids, when we THINK we’ve baby proofed everything and they find a penny or something strange. LOL. So glad I’m not an egg lover, I’d be worried about egg right now. Think about the breakfast places using eggs for everything. This must be tough on them.
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Maybe I should be building my model inside of a tent or a plastic bubble! These pieces seem to fly everywhere.
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Your own Lego barn. LOL
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Now I’m hungry for eggs! I’m usually an over-easy guy, but your method sounds like a lot less work! And I never knew there was such a thing as a submersible egg timer. What a great idea.
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Our egg timer is like 10-15 years old, and so faded you can hardly read it to know when your eggs are ready. A well-spent $2.99 🙂
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That’s rather interesting. The higher nutritional value is somewhat a draw, but still. I’d have to snack on Cheezits or something while I waited for breakfast to be ready. Then I’d probs be too full to enjoy it. I’ll just stick to throwing an egg into a hot buttered pan and scrambling the heck out of it. That’s like, five minutes. 😛
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I’m with you here, 100%. Not to mention, I can make my coffee and set my place in those same five minutes! Who isn’t all about saving time first thing in the morning?
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Absolutely!
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And why do we have scientists studying how to cook the perfect egg? Don’t we have enough trained chefs that can school us on the matter? Seems like they could put their time and brains to work on more pressing matters! / Glad the cathedral is coming along so well. I’m curious though. Where do you display your finished builds? You must have quite a collection by now!
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You make a great point about the better use of our scientists’ time, Nancy. I hope the perfect-egg experiment wasn’t funded by a federal grant! As for the LEGO builds, only a few have caught my eye enough to purchase them (U.S. Capitol, Grand Piano, Fallingwater, Notre-Dame de Paris). They fit comfortably on the shelves of my home office. LEGO is bound to come up with a few more to tempt me but for now, it’s just these four.
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