I love eggs, it’s one of my favourite food products and goes well with another of my favourite food products, Bacon and you can check out my Pork vs Turkey bacon review here. For the purposes of giving a thorough review, I decided to make both fried eggs and boiled eggs using the chicken and duck eggs. I decided to do it this way because the cooking preparations will no doubt change the flavour and consistency. Additionally, but not related to the review, I have chosen for reasons relating to the more ethical treatment of the farm animals to use free range chicken and duck eggs. That being said, this process would work regardless of the eggs used, and I have no affiliation to either the farms or distributors of the eggs used.
How to Fry an Egg (According to me)
I should note that just cooking an egg is pretty simple, cooking an egg well requires a little practice but it is equally straightforward. The complications arise because everyone likes to do it a different way. I for instance prefer my eggs Sunny-side up, I feel it tastes the best and in my head is the most iconic way to present a fried egg. But whatever way you prefer your eggs, following the steps below will result in something tasty.
First off, make sure that the pan is greased, you can pick whatever you want to do that, I prefer using either butter or the fat from the bacon I’d have cooked to go along with it, but pick your own oil or fat and move on to the next step. Next you want to turn the pack up to a high heat, and heat up the butter until it melts but make sure not to let it burn over. After that, crack the egg into the pan, being careful not to get any shell in with it. It should very quickly start turning white, I would recommend at this point turning the heat down low, and cooking for 1-2 minutes, watching it to ensure its cooking evenly. At this point it should be finished, if you like your eggs cooked over easy, then you should turn the egg over to the other side and cook it for between 30 seconds to a minute and you’ll end up with a very delicious egg.
How to boil an Egg (According to me)
As I mentioned with the fried egg, there is more than one way to boil an egg. It’s all a matter of preference, you can either have them soft boiled or hard boiled. I’ll quickly detail how to do both, although, I prefer hard boiled.
For soft boiled eggs, you’ll want to grab yourself an appropriate sized saucepan, and fill it with enough water to cover the eggs. Once you have your pan filled with water, you’ll want to bring it to the boil, once you have bubbles breaking the surface, you should then lower the eggs into the water, carefully, I prefer using a tablespoon, as it makes it easier. Next, leave the eggs to simmer at full heat for 1 minute, and then take it off the heat, place a lid on the pan and set the timer for either 6 minute if you want a soft boiled eggs you can dip toast into (known in the UK at least as eggs and soldiers) or 7 minutes for a firmer but still soft yolk.
For a hard boiled egg, the steps aren’t too dissimilar, you’ll want to fill the sauce pan with water and bring to the boil, but whereas before once you’ve added the eggs you take it off the heat and add a lid, this time you’ll just want to bring the heat down to a simmer, and then leave it to cook if for 7-8 minutes.
After that it’s just a matter of removing the shell, the best way to do this is to give the egg a few hard taps to create some cracks, and then while running it under water, slowly remove the shell.
Chicken Eggs
Fried Egg: So we have the creamy whites, and a nice solid yolk. As I said above, I like mines prepared Sunny-side up, it leaves you with a thick yolk, full of that subtle creamy richness.
Boiled Egg: I’m pretty used to boiling an egg, white on the outside, a solid (or semi-solid) inner yolk core. I love eggs, and a boiled egg is very satisfying and can easily be jazzed up with just the application of salt and butter.
Duck eggs
Fried Egg: The yolk seems a little bigger than a chicken egg. The whites taste roughly the same as with chicken but perhaps a touch blander. However contrastingly the yolk is much richer, and tastes a lot better. Visually though, both look fairly similar, but I feel that I could probably tell the difference in a blind taste test.
Boiled Egg: It might be because the yolk is thicker but when boiled it tastes a little more cloying than a chicken egg, that being said it’s still very pleasant.
Conclusion
For the Fried eggs, there’s not a huge difference, the biggest consideration is price, with the duck eggs being a little more expensive on average. I’ve found that the yolk of the duck is richer and flavourful, and I’d probably prefer a fried duck egg over a chicken egg, although I wouldn’t turn a fried chicken egg.
For Boiled eggs, I think the richness of the duck egg actually works against it, it ends up being a little too much. So the chicken egg, works far better, being a more balanced product. Regardless though, both have their merits and I strongly suggest you try both and decide for yourself.
First Published on: https://offtherecordblog.org/
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