Monday 27 October 2014

Egg-in-a-Hole



My kitchen reno is now entering its fifty-third week. I’m starting to forget how an oven works. (Oh, who am I kidding? They were always mysterious boxes to me.)

While I was trying to figure out what to make this week using the utensils I have at my disposal (mainly a coffee maker and an iron), I remembered there was a family-sized electric griddle in the garage. I bought it for all those large family gatherings. Which, you know, I never have.

I blew the dust off and fired it up to make Egg-in-a-Hole. Once again, I have to wonder how many cakers failed English class. It’s not that we can’t spull. It’s just that we’re so bad with words. We seem to be a people hellbent on giving our food the most uninspiring names possible. Consider Make Do Squares. White Stuff. Bun Spread.

We can now add Egg-in-a-Hole to the Unfortunately Named Caker Recipe Hall of Fame. While it’s tasty and convenient (cakers love anything involving clever assembly tricks), would you want to try Egg-in-a-Hole if you saw it on a menu?

“Whose hole is it?” I’d want to ask the waiter. “And was the hole warshed before the egg went up there?”

1 slice bread, buttered (for each serving)
1 egg

Cut a round hole in slice of bread. Butter one side and brown in frying pan. Turn over and drop raw egg into the hole. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook soft or firm, as desired.


Source: Madoc Centennial Cookbook, 1978

12 comments:

  1. Wow, the old "Egg in a Hole" classic. Can't believe someone actually wrote the instructions out to include in a cookbook. Rather like the now infamous Paula Deen's English Peas recipe:
    http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/english-peas-recipe.html
    Thank goodness for the instructions to help guide me along!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No wonder Paula Deen is making so much money! And she deserves every cent. Any woman who shows us how to make peas by opening a can and adding butter is a genius.

      Delete
  2. This is very creative! mostly it a sandwich like and now its in a hole of the bread.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's pretty much it. Simplicity is key for cakers.

      Delete
  3. My mom called this "toad in a hole" when she served it to us as kids. Not sure that's better!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That reminds me of what my mom used to say: A toad in your hole is worth two in your bush.

      Delete
  4. My hubby introduced me to this, but his family called it by the fancy name of "Egg on Toast". Said hubby, being on a low carb kick, recently tried to make this with a sausage patty. I recommend sticking with the bread.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That sounds a little too complicated for me. And I'd probably eat the sausage patty before I got around to cutting a hole in it.

      Delete
  5. The version my mum made for me, and her aunt made for her, involved cutting the round bit that you punch (using a shot glass) out of the bread in half and toasting those too, and then arranging them on the bread to form a beak and a comb (the comb half having small v-shaped bits cut out prior to toasting to make it actually look like a comb). The egg part was supposed to have an intact yolk that was the eye of the 'bread chicken'. Delightful, yes, but also weird because it mocks the egg--"This is the closest you'll ever come to being a chicken".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shot glass. Beak and comb. Eye of the bread chicken. I'm sorry, Olive, but that all sounds too complicated for me. My brain started to hurt just trying to follow along. Then again, instructions of any kind make my brain hurt. You don't want to see me trying to assemble anything from IKEA.There's usually sobbing.

      Delete
  6. This delicious breakfast dish was called "Egg-on-a-Raft" where I grew up (Victoria, BC). Probably due to the ocean being nearby. The caloric and fat quotient was upped significantly, as we always buttered both sides of the bread, and put a big dollop in the hole before adding the egg. And yes, we always buttered and fried up the bread from the hole too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As soon as I read this, my first question was: Did the Egg-on-a-Raft float?

      Delete