I just had a sunny side up egg.

[Rich Engelhardt]

First one in so many years I can't recall how long it's been.

It was perfect!

So - what's the big deal?
Now - usually frying an egg means they all have to be easy over since the tops never seem to get done.

I've been breaking in a cast iron skillet for the last few months & it's finally seasond to the point it's almost as non-stick as any Teflon pan.
I decided to give it the ultimate slick test this morning by making an egg in it.
I heated up a big gob of butter, just short of the point where it starts to burn, then cracked open the egg and poured it in.

Nice!

The white spread out to a nice uniform big thin oblong. Nothing at all like the distorted mess you get w/a Teflon pan - since - the big heavy cast iron skillet stays flat on the burner & is the same temperature everywhere on the surface.

Three min later, I had a perfect sunny side up egg w/just a hint of "crackle" around the edges.

Try that w/any of the Teflon or Aluminum pans!

Yummm!!!!
It's been a long, long, long time.

Next Sunday I believe I'll try another one - but - I'm thinking of maybe using bacon drippings instead of butter.

I love cast iron! You just simply can't beat it!

[Joe Pelonio]

Butter, and bacon drippings? My doctor has a lecture for you!

Actually, we do that once a week, usually Saturday, eggs (over easy though) with bacon or sausage and hash browns. The iron skillet is fantastic for making homeade tortillas, too.

[Phil Thien]

U R right, nothing cooks like cast iron. We have one of those glass cook tops, though, so we have to use the special pans.

[Jeremy Brant]

U R right, nothing cooks like cast iron. We have one of those glass cook tops, though, so we have to use the special pans.

I like my eggs scrambled or in an omelet (just can't get used to runny yolks), but I'm a huge fan of cast iron as well. I use a non-stick for omelets, and a stainless steel saucepan, but everything else is cast iron, including bread pans, drop biscuit pan, skillets, griddles, and dutch ovens. If you follow the manufacturers advice you're not supposed to use cast iron on a glass top. I already had most of my cast iron when I bought my house, and it came with a glass top, so I figured I'd give it a shot since the stove wasn't in pristine condition anyway. I can honestly say it works just fine, and the glass top is no worse than when I moved in 4 years ago.

[Phil Thien]

I like my eggs scrambled or in an omelet (just can't get used to runny yolks), but I'm a huge fan of cast iron as well. I use a non-stick for omelets, and a stainless steel saucepan, but everything else is cast iron, including bread pans, drop biscuit pan, skillets, griddles, and dutch ovens. If you follow the manufacturers advice you're not supposed to use cast iron on a glass top. I already had most of my cast iron when I bought my house, and it came with a glass top, so I figured I'd give it a shot since the stove wasn't in pristine condition anyway. I can honestly say it works just fine, and the glass top is no worse than when I moved in 4 years ago.

I'm too chicken.

[Kent A Bathurst]

That does not qualify as "breakfast".....unless I missed the grits that were on the menu.

And - I don't mean that mushy junk that they pass off in the stores as "instant grits". I mean the stuff that takes an hour to cook.

Beyond that - runny eggs are heavenly. Couple big slabs of spicy sausage. Big glop of grits. NOW yer talkin'.

[Jim Koepke]

Sunny side up is one of the three ways I eat my eggs at home if they aren't baked into something.

I use a pan that I think is called spun steel when it was bought a few decades ago.

It is about an 1/8" thick with a flat bottom and sides that slope up.

I like to cook my eggs in sesame oil. It is a low temperature oil and has a very pleasant taste. You will find it less expensive in Chinese and Japanese markets. Some natural foods and specialty markets carry it. My wife and my favorite variety is toasted sesame oil.

Rich, I must cook mine on a lower heat since I do not like the crackling edges all that much. That is just a personal difference. I do cover the eggs with a glass lid while they cook.

My timer is usually the toaster. When the toast is proper and buttered, the eggs are ready to slide out on to the plate.

I like to dip my toast in the egg yolk.

I have found very few restaurants that can cook a proper sunny side up egg, let alone a decent over easy without the whites being runny.

jtk

[Belinda Barfield]

Another vote for cast iron. I usually cook breakfast (once a week) in my great grandmother's cast iron skillet that I inherited when she passed away. It was so perfectly seasoned, and then one day my SO decided to "clean" it. It hasn't been right since.

Some of you might find this contraption interesting. Sort of on topic as you could cook eggs as easily as burgers.

http://savannahnow.com/news/2011-06-26/beach-burgers-cooked-son

[David Helm]

Been cooking with cast iron for decades. I do like the heavy bottom stainless too. As for eggs, for me, soft poached is the only way to go. And yes, runny yolks are the best. I usually poach 4 eggs at a time in a stainless saute pan and only simmering water. Works very well.

[Joe Angrisani]

Cast iron is great for a lot of things (unmatched, really), but a QUALITY nonstick pan is the way to go with eggs. Even an old, properly seasoned cast iron pan needs a bunch of oil/fat to keep an egg from sticking, or worse, burning. A quality nonstick pan needs nothing but a spritz of Pam or oil or butter (1/4tsp at most), and your eggs will cook up completely without that nasty burnt edge. They taste like eggs, not oil or bacon grease or whatever, and they aren't rubbery. Eggs should never have a browned surface or edge - ask any chef. Nothing ruins egg protein's taste and texture faster than browning it.

[David Weaver]

If someone likes their eggs browned (I do, lightly browned when scrambled, not black or burnt), I don't know why they would go ask a chef how they're supposed to like them.

[Joe Angrisani]

If someone likes their eggs browned (I do, lightly browned when scrambled, not black or burnt), I don't know why they would go ask a chef how they're supposed to like them.

Same reason you would ask a woodworker woodworking questions. If you like the look of torn-out grain, then so be it. But a woodworker would tell you to use a scraper or higher-angle plane. I don't want to open a divining-rod-type debate, but fact is, egg protein is radically changed if overheated or browned. Try it "medium rare" and you may become a believer. :)

[Bob Riefer]

My grandma used to cut a hole into the center of a slice of bread, butter a hot pan, throw the bread in, and then crack an egg into the hole. I don't know what that's called, and I haven't had it for at least 25 years, but this thread made me think of it, and now I'm hungry. And that must be a run-on sentence.

[Belinda Barfield]

If someone likes their eggs browned (I do, lightly browned when scrambled, not black or burnt), I don't know why they would go ask a chef how they're supposed to like them.

You beat me to it David. The egg debate could very well get uglier than the grits debate.:D

[Belinda Barfield]

Same reason you would ask a woodworker woodworking questions. If you like the look of torn-out grain, then so be it. But a woodworker would tell you to use a scraper or higher-angle plane. I don't want to open a diving-rod-type debate, but fact is, egg protein is radically changed if overheated or browned. Try it "medium rare" and you may become a believer. :)

I suspect the same could be said of how one likes a steak prepared and lord knows you'll never convince a well done guy to go medium rare.

Perhaps if I was going to open a restaurant and cook for other people I might ask a chef how to prepare an egg, but for me at home one with torn out grain cooked in either butter, bacon grease, or sausage grease works just fine for me. To each his own . . .

[David Weaver]

Same reason you would ask a woodworker woodworking questions. If you like the look of torn-out grain, then so be it. But a woodworker would tell you to use a scraper or higher-angle plane. I don't want to open a diving-rod-type debate, but fact is, egg protein is radically changed if overheated or browned. Try it "medium rare" and you may become a believer. :)

I despise eggs that have any wetness at all. I've had them every way but black. An egg with a lightly browned surface bears little in common with tearout.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I despise eggs that have any wetness at all.

That's it. I've gotta go find that "ignore user" thing now, David. You clearly cannot be trusted. :D :D

[Joe Angrisani]

....To each his own . . .

Yepper! :)

[Rich Engelhardt]

My grandma used to cut a hole into the center of a slice of bread, butter a hot pan, throw the bread in, and then crack an egg into the hole. I don't know what that's called, and I haven't had it for at least 25 years, but this thread made me think of it, and now I'm hungry
It's called "eggs ala Morey Ballard"!

My best friend when I was growing up's dad (Morey Ballard) used to make them that way for us kids sometimes whenever we had a sleep over on a Friday night.
He'd alternate between eggs made that way and pancakes w/his secret recipie syrup. LOL! The secret ingrediant was orange juice. A little OJ and butter in some real maple syrup, heat it up in a sauce pan until the gob of butter added to it melted...heaven!!!!

The proper way to prepare the eggs BTW is to use a Welches grape jelly jar that's been convereted into a juice glass to punch the holes in the Brawn's Town Talk bread.
Lightly toast the bread after punching out the hole.
I used to make them that way for my kids when they were little.
I was happy to hear my grandson comment that "Papa makes eggs that way" a couple months ago.

Re: burnt or not - my mom used to make eggs w/crispy edges...


and then one day my SO decided to "clean" it. It hasn't been right since
Ouch!!!
That almost calls for a horse whip! ;)

[Brian Ashton]

earlier today I had a sunny side up down under egg - 2 actually...

[Chris Struttman]

My grandma used to cut a hole into the center of a slice of bread, butter a hot pan, throw the bread in, and then crack an egg into the hole. I don't know what that's called, and I haven't had it for at least 25 years, but this thread made me think of it, and now I'm hungry. And that must be a run-on sentence.

We call those "Toad in a hole" and I make them practically every weekend for my wife and kids.

[Trevor Howard]

We call those "Toad in a hole" and I make them practically every weekend for my wife and kids.

Being from England "Toad in the hole" to me is a Yorkshire Pudding with sausages in the bottom. I did a Google search an it showed both images, learn something new each day.

[Zach England]

I prefer to only eat runny or raw eggs if they are from my own chickens or from chicken farmers I trust.

[Belinda Barfield]

I prefer to only eat runny or raw eggs if they are from my own chickens or from chicken farmers I trust.

Which raises the question, which came first the chicken or the chicken farmer?

[Rod Sheridan]

I have both well seasoned cast iron pans, and heavy stainless pans with a copper core.

Both are best at what they do best.

I find the cast iron pans great for meat, the stainless pans great for other items.

As for eggs, I like soft poached eggs the best, swirl the water with the spoon, drop the egg into it...........Perfect for Benedict or on toast.

Never did like the taste of fried eggs..................Rod.

[Zach England]

Which raises the question, which came first the chicken or the chicken farmer?
That's really an evolutionary question. Since I would define a chicken as a domesticated fowl I would say there was no chicken until someone domesticated fowl, hence the chicken farmer came first. Ever seen a wild chicken? I didn't think so. As I recall from the reading I did when I was first getting into raising chickens, the genetic ancestors of what we now know as modern chickens are jungle fowl from the Indian subcontinent. Really, they're just highly evolved and selected dinosaurs.

[Jim Koepke]

My grandma used to cut a hole into the center of a slice of bread, butter a hot pan, throw the bread in, and then crack an egg into the hole. I don't know what that's called, and I haven't had it for at least 25 years, but this thread made me think of it, and now I'm hungry. And that must be a run-on sentence.

My mom called those "one eyed sailors."

When I cook eggs sunny side up, the goal is to have all the white solid and all the yolk runny. Perfection is difficult, but sometimes it all works out. If the yolks do get cooked, I just put jelly on any toast that didn't get dipped.

When I cook an omelet, I attempt to not brown it, but if it gets browned it gets eaten anyway.

jtk

[Bob Riefer]

Been away for a few days, and see that this thread was treated with the same attention to detail as tool talk! I'd expect no less from this bunch (and I mean that in the best possible way :-) )

Of the names above, I'm picking "toad in the hole" as the name for for grandma's delicious breakfast meal that I'll be resurrecting next week while I'm "down the shore". The name may be funny enough that my kids will try something new.

[Joe Angrisani]

Yep... "Toad In The Hole" sure beats the "Peek-A-Boo Egg" I grew up with. :)

[Caspar Hauser]

Being from England "Toad in the hole" to me is a Yorkshire Pudding with sausages in the bottom. I did a Google search an it showed both images, learn something new each day.

Toad in the hole is Yorkshire pudding with proper sausages baked in it.

Egg in bread is apparently French toad in the hole or as google translate would have it, Crapaud dans le trou. :)

Fluffy mashed potatoes with a sausage on top is 'Zeppelin in a cloud'.

By the way Trevor, I'm a big fan, The Third Man, Cockleshell Heroes, Brief Encounter, Gandhi, outstanding! :)

[Matt Evans]

I think I might have eggs for dinner. . .fried, maybe over rice and spinach, topped with diced onion, garlic, Paprika basil and sausage.

And, cooked in a 13" cast iron skillet.

I personally like my eggs browned. The melding of the bacon, sausage or butter with the eggs is one of the best tastes in the world. . .I like my bacon crispy too, My steaks charred, burgers "puckified" as my wife calls it, and my veggies raw. Call me a cretin, neanderthal, philistine, what have you, but thats what I like, and I'm sticking to it. (unlike everything in my skillet.)

[Kent A Bathurst]

..... Call me a cretin, neanderthal, philistine..........

I'd say you pretty much have all the bases covered, Matt :p

[Matt Evans]

...The egg debate could very well get uglier than the grits debate.:D

I missed a Grits Debate! ?

shoot, I'm slipping.

[ray hampton]

my supper tonight will be eggs [well done ] if I do not forget

[Jim Becker]

I personally love cooking with cast iron and have several pieces in my "arsenal". The most recent acquisition was a grill pan so I could get the benefits of my outside grill inside during inclement weather and the dead of winter without either standing outside in said bad weather or dirtying up the built in grill on our range for something small. I also love cast iron for searing on the burners and then finishing in the oven. One pan does it all.

Another recent piece is an additional dutch oven that is enamel coated. A nice alternative to the all cast iron one for some dishes.