Quick & Easy Eggs, Bacon & Breakfast Sausage
by
Bruce Tretter
Copyright 2011 Bruce Tretter,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0103-4
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
The Incredibly Edible & Popular Egg
I recently asked the following question at a few sites online: “What’s the first thing you’d teach someone new to the kitchen to cook?” Incredibly, that question got lots of responses with more than 90% answering “eggs!” enthusiastically.
I’ve researched cookbooks for over 30 years and haven’t found one that actually shows new cooks how to get started in the kitchen as practically as possible. This book is designed to do just that and is different from any other cookbook, most importantly, because it never assumes you have any cooking experience. You won’t find directions written in traditional abbreviated cookbook jargon, long lists of ingredients, or pictures of finished recipes that look pretty on the page but can’t possibly be recreated in your own kitchen. Instead, every direction is written in plain English and is accompanied by pictures to show exactly how every step works so that you can prepare any of the recipes quickly and easily in a standard kitchen even if you’ve never boiled water.
It’s funny how things come around. My first cooking experience was trying to make a fried egg on my own when I was about 11 years old. I cracked the egg, dropped the egg yolk and white on the floor and threw the shell in a hot pan. That cured me from cooking for the next 20 years.
This book is intended to help you avoid that result by providing the quickest, easiest and safest egg and breakfast meat cooking techniques I’ve learned over time, including some I’ve adapted to only recently. For example, I’ve recently abandoned the frying pan to make bacon because I’ve found that using microwave oven is so much easier, cleaner and healthier (less fat). And, sure, I’ll admit I still mostly use the frying pan to make scrambled eggs just out of habit. But I love microwave oven cooked scrambled eggs for how easy and kid-friendly they are both to make and clean up. I’ll certainly use that recipe more often in the future.
I hope this book helps you and wish you growing success in the kitchen,
Bruce Tretter
Safe & Easy Soft or Hard Boiled Eggs
TIPS:
1. If possible (but please don’t make yourself crazy trying to figure this out), use eggs that are at least 3-5 days old to make peeling the egg easier as the whites of fresh eggs tend to stick to the shell.
2. Eggs cooked from start to finish in continuously boiling water will turn out tough and rubbery. This recipe is designed to be the surest and safest way to make the eggs turn out soft and tender.
Cooking Time: 8-20 minutes depending on soft or hard boiled desired doneness, including time to bring water to a boil.
Ingredients
•1-2 Eggs per person (no cooking or flavor difference between brown and white eggs)
•Salt & Pepper (optional)
Equipment
•Smallest Sized Cooking Pot with Top that can hold the number of eggs you want to cook without crowding
•Cooking Timer (egg timer or stove clock shown here or any time piece)
1. Put the raw eggs straight from the refrigerator into a small pot (1), and add enough cold tap water to cover the eggs with about 1/2 inch of water (2).
2. Put the pot on the stove (1), and turn the burner heat to HIGH (2).
3. Let the water come to a full, rapid, big bubble boil, which is much more vigorous than a small bubble “soda fizz” boil shown in the insert. Not waiting for the water to come to a full, rapid boil will result in undercooked eggs.
4. As soon as the water comes to a full boil, turn off the burner heat (1), transfer the hot pot to a cool burner, cover the pot with the top and…
…set a timer according to the desired egg doneness and consistency shown in the table below.
5. Use the pot top as a dam as shown to keep the cooked eggs in the pot as you drain the hot water into the sink.
6. Cover the cooked eggs with ice (1) and cold tap water (2), and let them rest for a minute or two until the eggs are cool enough to touch comfortably. (See the TIP following photos (1) & (2) if you’re making hard boiled eggs.)
TIP: For hard boiled eggs in particular, cooling the eggs properly stops the cooking process and ensures that the yolk will be yellow inside as shown in (a) instead of grey/green as shown in (b).
7. To remove the shell form a boiled egg, tap, roll and crack the shell against a firm surface (1). Then...
