The Mighty Egg
The egg and the chicken, the chicken and the egg.
No one will solve the age-old riddle of which came first or reasons for crossing the road, so let’s leave the chicken for another day and focus on the mighty egg, beginning with its ancient pedigree and ending with a debated dish that is only about the egg, the soft-boiled egg.
The egg is no spring chicken as archaeological findings date its consumption back to the Neolithic age and indicate that wild fowl were domesticated as early as 3200 B.C. The egg owes much to the Egyptian’s early creation of artificial incubation that allowed egg production to flourish as hens were then free to daily lay eggs. Incredibly, the Egyptians created large-scale incubation ovens that were connected to heat regulated corridors resulting from straw and camel dung fires. The egg ultimately spread throughout the world and is believed to have first reached South America in the century prior to Columbus crossing into North America.
Notwithstanding millennia of egg accolades, the egg has been unfairly under attack as an unhealthy food product primarily due to cholesterol concerns. However, after years of study and scientific scrutiny, the unfounded concerns have been rejected. The American Heart Association even revised its dietary guidelines to allow eggs for a healthy adult, though still advising overall cholesterol limits. We now recognize the egg’s benefit of being just 75 calories with seven grams of high-quality protein, five grams of fat, and 1.6 grams of saturated fat, along with Omega-3s, iron, vitamins, minerals and carotenoids.
An egg mystery often asked is what determines the color of the eggshell? The color of the shell is determined by the breed of the hen that laid the egg, with the typical white supermarket egg laid by Leghorn hens. Other breeds lay eggs with shell colors that may be white, blue, pinkish, brown or tinted. The breeds of hens are numerous such as the Rhode Island Red, Asil, Speckled Sussex and the Dorking. If you want to impress your culinary friends, mention that egg color can often be determined by the color of the hen’s ear area—a white ear often means a white egg!
The egg’s popularity is not surprising as hens can be raised by backyard enthusiasts and is a healthy, low-cost and available food with multiple uses. Whether making Chinese egg drop soup, a Scotch egg, Roman carbonara or Japanese chawanmushi, we owe our thanks to the mighty egg.
The Perfect Soft-Boiled Egg
This recipe is designed to allow you to make the perfect egg anywhere in the world using varied equipment. It only requires an egg, a suitably sized pot, and water. We eliminated variables such as starting the egg in cold water as all pots and stoves are different and the precise and critically important cooking time is too uncertain. It will take only a few consistent efforts before your preferred cooking time is determined and then the perfect egg will follow you everywhere.
Ingredients:
1 large egg
Bring a pot of water to boil. The water should be sufficiently high to cover the egg. Reduce the heat to allow the water to lose the vigorous boil so that the egg is not damaged and then place the egg right out of the refrigerator into the water. Keep the heat at just below boil level so that the egg is not being jostled. Do not cover the pot.
At the preferred cooking time, immediately remove the egg from the water and crack on the kitchen counter and then peel under cold water. Add salt and pepper, serve with or on a slice of buttered toast, and eat immediately. Other condiments can be added depending on your mood.
The cooking time depends on how you like your egg but can range between five minutes (runny) to seven minutes (jammy) to eight minutes (nearly fully cooked). It also helps to use the same size and temperature egg (e.g., refrigerated versus room temperature) so you can create your perfect infallible personal soft-boiled egg.