Egg Cups and Other Family Treasures

One of those grandmotherly kitchen "tools" I've always secretly hankered for, but would not be caught dead buying is an egg cup. Made out of china, it's used to boil eggs without their shell. When two egg cups from my grandmother's tzachkis weren't sold at my mother's yard sale, they came home with me. I used them today to softboil eggs and there wasn't a leak. Lovely soft-boiled eggs without the mess of trying to grapple with the shell.

So, here I am, working with a tool I've never used before. I checked my Joy, my Betty Crocker, my Martha Stewart's Cooking school. I couldn't find a recipe for how to cook eggs with an egg cup. They're that out of fashion. Food is fashionable now that we can have whatever we want when we want it being who we are. It's not seasonable, it's not organic, it's not right or wrong. There are a lot of foods for which we've lost the means, or the knowledge of how to make because it is fashionable. I think egg cups might be going the way of my grandmothers.

Re-reading my first stab at writing my own recipe, I see a lot of gaps in explanation. I'm making leaps because of direct experience. The short hand is not a proper guide for someone who might never have made an egg boiled in an egg cup.



It should actually read something more closely along the lines of:

Remove eggs from the refrigerator to begin to take off the chill. Let them warm to room temperature - this will reduce cooking time.

Add water to a pot to the height to cover an egg top, but not the egg top handle. Set pot to boil. When the water is boiling reduce to a simmer.

Crack an egg into an egg cup. Add salt and pepper. Screw the lid tightly. Add filled egg cup(s) to simmering water. Cook 4-6 minutes.

When egg cooked to desired set, remove from cup by scraping out with a spoon into a bowl or eating directly from the egg cup with a slice of buttered toast & a very small spoon.