As long as you have some eggs in the house you’ll never go hungry. Eggs are mildly flavored and take to endless seasoning combinations and other ingredients. Like sausages. There are sausage quiches, variations on the Italian frittata, and stratas, a fancy name for a savory bread pudding.
Eggs have gotten a bad nutritional reputation because of the fat and cholesterol in the yolk, not for the white. The white is what gives eggs their ability to bind, and it is made up primarily of protein and water.
If you want to be judicious about cutting cholesterol you can use any of the egg substitute products on the market; the best-known brand is Egg Beaters. Egg substitutes are egg whites tinted yellow. But you can also make your own by using two egg whites for each whole egg, or if a recipe calls for several eggs use two egg whites and one whole egg for every two whole eggs listed. There are few recipes in this chapter that require whole eggs, so feel free to experiment.
There are times that you might want an egg and sausage sandwich, or serve a patty of sausage under poached eggs. Here are a few tricks I’ve developed:
Poaching eggs in plastic: Making poached eggs for a crowd is easy using this method, and you can have them ready to poach up to a day in advance of cooking them. Press a 12-inch-square sheet of plastic wrap into the bottom of a ramekin, place a few thin pats of butter on top of the plastic wrap, and sprinkle the butter with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Break an egg onto the plastic in the cup, twist the plastic wrap around the egg, and then tie the packet closed with a piece of kitchen twine. Repeat until you’ve created plastic pouches for all the eggs you intend to cook. To poach the eggs, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the egg pouches, reduce the heat to medium-low, and maintain the water at a bare simmer of 180°F; attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan or take the temperature of the water frequently with an instant-read thermometer. Cook the eggs for 3 minutes for runny, up to 5 minutes for almost hard cooked. Remove the egg packets from the pan, and cut off the twine and top of the plastic wrap. You can then coax the egg out of the plastic and onto a plate, sausage patty, or slice of toast.
Eggs for English muffin sandwiches: A tuna can is just about the same diameter as an English muffin. Save a few cans and remove any paper wrappers. Use a can opener to remove the other side of the cans and wash them well. Grease the inside of the rings with vegetable oil spray. Place the rings in a skillet, and put a pat of butter inside each one. Heat the skillet over medium heat, then break an egg into each ring, and sprinkle it with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover the skillet, reduce the heat to low, and cook the egg for 3 to 5 minutes, or until done to your liking. Run a spatula under the egg, and remove it with the ring. Place the egg on the English muffin, and then gently pull off the ring.