Recipe #6: Egg-In-The-Hole

Recipe: Egg-In-The-Hole
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 5 minutes
Ease: 3
Taste: 10
Leftover Value: Never, ever, any leftovers
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

I have been eating eggs-in-the-hole since I was eight or nine-years-old.  Gram would make them for me for breakfast, lunch, or an afternoon snack--they are so good, honestly, it doesn't matter what time of day you have them.

Only Gram didn't call them egg-in-the-hole.  At first, she called them 'Moonstruck Eggs' because in the movie Moonstruck someone is making them and that inspired Gram to want to make them.  But I guess that name didn't make too much sense to a child, so we began calling them 'Funny Eggs'.

Apparently we aren't the only ones to give this item whatever name we thought suited it.  Pioneer Woman lists off over ten different names given to this delicious way to cook an egg including: frog-in-a-hole and private eyes.  Interesting.

I'll stick with calling them funny eggs, though moonstruck egg does have a classy sound to it.

Being that I've been making funny eggs for as long as I have been cooking, I thought it was rather silly to actually follow a recipe.  But since it was in the book, it was part of the challenge, and I had to do it.

And I'm so glad I did.

I realized, in my recent times of making funny eggs, that I have grown rather impatient with this less than ten-minute meal.  I've wanted to rush through getting my bread perfectly crisp and my eggs still runny, and tried to speed up the process by doing everything from raising the heat to frying the bread first.

But the answer my friends is this: butter.

I know, you didn't want to hear it, but it's the truth.  Butter simply makes everything better.  See, in my impatience, I had also grown a little health conscious and was trying to use a tablespoon or less of butter in making my funny eggs.

Pioneer Woman ruined that by using 3-4 tablespoons per egg and wowing my taste buds at the same time.

We never used fancy biscuit cutters to make our hole.  A knife works just fine.

Of second importance is timing.  We start by heating 2-3 tablespoons* of butter in a skillet, then placing the bread into the skillet to soak up some of the butter.

After a minute--a whole entire minute---the egg is then cracked in the center.  She doesn't warn of this, but I've had enough experience with messing up my eggs to know that you need to make sure you crack lightly and carefully break away the shell as to not break the yoke.

*I opted for two.

Season with salt and pepper!  Yet another thing that I would ordinarily hurry past.  

Why do we insist on living flavorless lives when just a little salt and pepper can change everything?  That is what I asked myself again and again after making this recipe.

Flipping the egg/bread over is as tricky as making sure to crack the egg properly.  If you wait a full minute, the egg should be set enough that this can be done without breaking it.

Oh, and before you do this, Pioneer Woman suggests throwing another tablespoon of butter in, 'just for kicks'.

Here are the three elements you want to remember when making funny eggs.  They are what I've learned from following Pioneer Woman's recipe: butter, timing, and a large pan.

I always tried getting by using a small skillet and while it works, a larger one does the job better.

Concerning the butter, when I made my second funny egg I could use far less without compromising the flavor.*

*There was still plenty (butter) left in the pan.

Hello, gorgeous.

If you don't like your eggs runny, I seriously don't know what is wrong with you.

I'm just kidding.  If you don't like your eggs runny, just let the egg cook longer in the pan on both sides.

But runny is where it's at.

Finally, that little square or circle of bread that you kept in the pan and fried in the butter, it is sacred.  Use it to sop up the egg yoke, or just stuff it in your mouth and enjoy the buttery goodness.