Softboiled Egg

Boiling the eggs

A softboiled egg should have a runny yolk surrounded by a cooked white (albumen). I start off with two eggs in a small sauce pan and then add enough cool tap water to cover the eggs. I put the sauce pan on the heat and wait for the water to boil. The first image below shows the small bubbles that start developing on the bottom of the pan as the water approaches the boiling temperature.

The boiling goes through several stages from a slow boil to the roiling boil shown in the image below. With a roiling boil, the water is full of bubbles and the eggs are moving about. When the roiling boil starts going well, turn off the heat. If you are using an electric range rather than a gas range, you have my sympathy. Just remove the pan from the hot element and move it to a cool element.

Now you need to wait about three minutes. The eggs will continue to cook in the hot water even though the water is no longer at a roiling boil. While waiting on the eggs to finish cooking, prepare the bowl from which you are going to eat.

At this point I also shove a couple pieces of sliced bread into the toaster and start my toast cooking. Nothing like buttered toast with a softboiled egg.

Preparing the cup

The image below shows one of our Campbell's Soup Souper Stars On Ice cups. I like to put a small pat of margarine or butter into the cup. This makes the softboiled eggs more yummy.

Elaine saw these Capmbell's Soup Souper Stars On Ice cups advertised when Campbell's was a ice skating sponser. Elaine adores Michelle Kwan, one of the Souper Stars On Ice who autographed these cups, so she wanted a cup or two (the others are Tara Lipinski and Nicole Bobeck in case you are wondering). The catch was that you had to send in eight (8) Campbell Soup can wrappers along with your money. And they couldn't be any Campbell's soup either, there was the choice of either tomato soup or chicken noodle soup. Since Elaine doesn't like either kind, it was up to me to eat the soup. I told her that I preferred the tomato.

Elaine removed the labels and sent off the package to Campbell's the minute she got back into the house from the grocery store. A few days later, whilst looking through the cupboard, I came across the unlabeled cans of Campbell's soup. I asked what the unlabeled cans were and Elaine said it was the soup she had bought for her mugs. I opened a can expecting tomato. It was chicken noodle.

"Why did you get chicken noodle," I asked, "I prefer tomato." "That's all they had", Elaine said, "and I didn't want to wait. Eat it, its good for you." I guess the other husbands got there first and bought out the tomato. It took me about a year before I finally opened up and ate the last can.

Completing the dish

The best tool I've found for opening a softboiled egg is a butter knife. The image below shows an egg that has been opened. The yolk is semi-cooked which makes it richer tasting. The white of the egg is cooked. The butter knife does a nice job of opening the egg making it ready to be scoopped out with a small spoon. A small spoon fits inside of the eggshell. This allows you to scoop the egg out of the shell and plop into the cup.

When you scoop the egg into the cup onto the margarine or butter, the egg will be warm enough to melt the butter. Chop up and mix up the softboiled egg. Add a touch of salt and pepper. The image below shows me using our pepper mill to put freshly ground pepper on my softboiled egg.

I prefer to eat my softboiled eggs with buttered toast. I usually dip my toast into the softboiled egg. I always save a piece of toast to wipe the mug clean so that I get every bite.