16. THE EGG BASKET
In a large saucepan boil about 2 litres (3½ pints) of unsalted water and 7 tbsp vinegar. Using a wooden spoon, swirl the water and let it settle to become a gentle vortex. Drop in the pre-cracked egg, and allow the egg to poach for 3 minutes.
NB: Always use the freshest eggs possible. The freshness of an egg can be identified thus: the more liquid the egg white, the older the egg.
In his autobiography, The Devil in the Kitchen, Marco Pierre White manages to teach readers how to fry an egg while simultaneously explaining his cooking philosophy.
Let’s just think for a moment about a fried egg. It’s not the most inspired dish, but then again, if you can’t cook an egg, what can you cook? And actually, a perfectly cooked fried egg is quite beautiful.
Apply the cook’s brain and visualise that fried egg on the plate. Do you want it to be burned around the edges? Do you want to see craters on the egg white? Should the yolk look as if you’d need a hammer to break into it? The answer to all three questions should be No. Yet the majority of people still crack an egg and drop it into searing hot oil or fat and continue to cook it on high heat. You need to insert earplugs to reduce the horrific volume of the sizzle. And the result, once served up in a pool of oil, is an inedible destruction of that great ingredient – the egg. Maybe that’s how you like it, in which case carry on serving your disgusting food. Meanwhile, the rest of us can think about what we really want to see on the plate. We want that egg to look beautiful and appetising because then when we eat it, we shall all be happy. We want the white to be crater-free and unblackened around its edges. The yolk should be glistening, just a thin film that can be easily pierced by a fork to let the yellowness run out. That’s the picture.
How do we create it? Slowly heat a heavy-based pan on very low heat, perhaps for five minutes and once it is hot enough put in some butter, letting it gently melt. Then take your egg from a basket and crack it into a pan (I don’t keep eggs in the fridge as it only lengthens the cooking process because you are dealing with a chilled ingredient.)
If the heat seems too high, remove the pan from the heat for a few seconds and let it cool down. Basically, if you can hear that egg cooking then the heat is too high. Carefully spoon the butter over the top of the egg. After about five minutes you have your magnificent fried egg – more of an egg poached in butter – just the way you had pictured it on the plate.
The Scotch egg, which is a boiled egg wrapped in forcemeat and then fried, was created in the 18th century by a cook at Fortnum and Mason, the grand store which to this day remains an institution in London’s West End, and given to travellers as they set off by horse and carriage.
It was probably a ‘scotched egg’ before it was the Scotch egg: ‘scotched’ means ‘crushed’, which is what you do with the meat case that surrounds the egg. However, the Scottish did a good trade in eggs and transported zillions of them to London. These were preserved by being boiled, and therefore perhaps this is the origin of the name. Isabella (Mrs) Beeton’s Scotch eggs are the best I’ve tasted. Scotch eggs are great fun to make at home with children: quite a messy yet highly rewarding culinary experience. Here is Mrs Beeton’s recipe, slightly adapted.
Makes 4 Scotch Eggs
Ingredients:
4 eggs (you guessed it)
For the sausage coating:
500g (1lb 2oz) sausagemeat
2 tbsp suet
3 tbsp breadcrumbs
rind of half lemon
½ tsp mace (or to your taste)
1 egg, beaten
cayenne pepper, to your taste
salt, to your taste
Method:
Note: The meat-covered eggs are not rolled in breadcrumbs before frying.
We can stay with Scotland, for a moment. It has frequently been said that an army (that is, a successful one) marches on its stomach. That was certainly not the case when the English fought the Scots at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513.
Francis Martin Norman observes in The Battle of Flodden (published 1908):
In this fierce and sanguinary battle both sides fought with the utmost bravery and determination. There was one material disadvantage, however, on the side of the English which ought not to be overlooked. For two or three days previous September 9th their provisions had been scanty, and on that day they had absolutely nothing whatsoever to eat and drink, except the muddy waters of the Till and pools. Starting breakfastless, they performed those long marches – five miles in the case of the rear guard, twelve in that of the Van Guard – and, ‘blackfasting as they were born’, fought a stubborn and terrible battle at the end of the day against foes who had been well housed and well fed… That was an amazing and magnificent achievement which could not fail to command the wonder and admiration of all who reflected upon it, and spoke volumes for the grit of the hardy race who performed it.
Do you like perfectly soft boiled eggs?
In which case, place your eggs into boiling water for these times:
Hen: 4 minutes
Bantam: 2 minutes, 50 seconds
Gull: 2 minutes, 10 seconds
Quail: 1 minute, 22 seconds
Ostrich: 45 minutes
Shark: 3 minutes
Turtle (where legal): raw, or 2 minutes
In Thailand red ant eggs are a versatile and nutritious food whether eaten on their own or as an ingredient in recipes like Yam Kai Mot Daeng (a salad), Kaeng Kai Mot Daeng (a soup) or Kai Jiow Kai Mot (an omelette). Let’s not forget Kai Mot Daeng Op, in which lightly salted ant eggs are wrapped in banana leaves and then roasted. Yummy.
In Mexico you can order escamoles. These are the larvae of ants of the genus Liometopum, harvested from the roots of the agave or maguey plants in Mexico (from which tequila and mezcal are made, respectively). In some forms of Mexican cuisine, escamoles are considered a delicacy and are sometimes referred to as ‘insect caviar’. They have a cottage cheese-like consistency and taste buttery, yet slightly nutty. Sometimes eggs are thrown in for extra crunch.
In the winter of 2012 drought was declared in south-east England at the earliest time of year on record. This prompted water companies to send out waterproof ‘egg timers’ to residents so they didn’t linger in the shower and reduce the dwindling water stocks. The ‘shower timers’ gave people four minutes to wash themselves.
‘I find a greatest sense of love for food that I have caught, foraged or grown. All fairly obvious, but I remember taking down a brace of pigeon, plucking them whilst warm, coating them in butter and taking such care in the gentle roasting of them, as if they were the first birds I had ever cooked, almost nervous. I felt a duty to honour the birds with only a few simple, bitter leaves and a dressing made from the roasting juices, impelled to use every last scrap of them and compelled to share them.
‘As I remember it, they were delicious and the whole event romantic, intimate and personal. The pigeons were loved and in return were absolutely lovely.’
—Adam Byatt, Trinity, London