How to master cooking with eggs

Is there any dish so particular in its seeming simplicity as a perfectly done, soft-boiled egg at the breakfast table, with a great heap of just-buttered fresh toast, still hot?



Boiled eggs

A rare treat is an egg laid only that morning from a chicken that has cheerily pecked away with grass underfoot and skies above.

For a hot, soft-boiled egg, lay a medium- to large-sized egg carefully into a pan of boiling water, and it will cook beautifully in 5 minutes, the white having set and the yolk remaining runny. This, swiftly settled into a cup and taken to table just as slices of very good bread are toasted well, remains a peerless dish. Only the addition of a little sea salt and freshly milled pepper is needed. I enjoy those breakfast scenes in 1930s films where the toaster was on the table, ensuring the toast was always top-notch.

Scrambled eggs

Scrambled eggs comfort and delight equally. Two eggs per person, a spoonful of cream and a thoroughly enthusiastic whisking of the eggs makes for a fine repast.

Melt 1 tsp of butter in a heavy-based pot or a nonstick pan over a gentle heat. Add the eggs and stir with a spoon in a slow figure of eight manoeuvre, allowing large curds to form. Put slices of bread in a toaster as the eggs cook. Add another 1 tsp of butter to the eggs as they finish cooking, then remove the pan from the heat. Tip this on to a plate as the toaster pops out hot slices with which to eat your now scrambled eggs.

Fried eggs

Scenes in films set in American diners invariably feature a cook, pulled from Central Casting, (and how) cracking eggs into scone cutters on a great flat top seething with bacon, sausages and pancakes. This always seemed rather natty for feeding the many. At home, however, we use a modest little frying pan, individual if you must. There are lots in Quo Vadis and I have bought a few over the years for home.