I can't cook an egg!

[plain jane]

Heh heh heh. I can cook lots of things but I can not make the perfect sunny-side egg. It is very hit and miss for me and i would like to be able to nail them every time. What's the secret??

[Guest submarines]

Describe your "miss"?

[plain jane]

Describe your "miss"?

 

They end up more cooked than I like. Not light yellow like a hard boiled egg but that in-between stage. If I cut down my cooking time I get that yucky white stuff on top that is undercooked and tastes like and has the texture of snot. LOL

 

I can do over easy but sunny-side eludes me.

 

I must have them on the wrong temperature or am doing something wrong.

[Lara in Colo]

This is a suggestion based on the fact that I have WATCHED, but never cooked a good SSU egg.

 

There is the bacon grease method.

 

place the egg in a pool of bacon grease and gently splash the top of the egg with the grease, effectively cooking the top and bottom at the same time.

 

 

There is the timer method--which DH does:

he put the egg in a butter/water mixture, cover the egg for 2-3 minutes (this will take experimenting with your stove temperature).

[Musicmom]

I don't know if this will help or not, but here's how I do it:

 

I use a non-stick skillet with a heavy base that heats evenly. I preheat the skillet somewhere between medium and medium-high (usually a little closer to medium-high, esp if I'm doing more than 2 eggs.) I then melt a little butter in the skillet and crack the eggs into it. Certain quadrants of my pan are hotter/cooler than the others and so I put the first egg in the slowest cooking quadrant and the last egg in the hottest quadrant so that they hopefully come out even. I then let the eggs sizzle a bit while I wash my hands quickly, and then I take the skillet lid and put a small amount of hot water (somewhere around 3 T) from the tap in the rim. Then I carefully pour the water down the side of the skillet into the bottom of the pan as I put the lid on. I let the eggs continue to cook, lid on, for 1-2 minutes. The idea is the water steams the top of the eggs. The trick is figuring out how long to cook them, because it varies with the temperature, number of eggs, amount of water, etc, and as soon as you lift the lid, you lose the steam... Ideally, the eggs should look slightly opaqued over, without the slimy stuff--and then you need to remove them quickly before they overcook. It's taken me a lot of practice--because I've never been very good at cooking eggs, but I'm finally turning out decent sunnyside eggs fairly consistently.

 

On the other hand, I can't do overeasy! Ha! I'm afraid to turn them!!

[dbmamaz]

I do it this way:

 

get the pan very hot

oil/grease/whatever and make sure that is hot.

Break the egg on the pan, then cover, and turn off the pan.

check on it after . . .idk, a minute?

[ZeeMommy]

Took me forever to cook a decent "dippy" egg, as we call them here. Not really a sunny side up, but here's how I try (but don't always suceed!)

• cast iron skillet on medium to medium high, melt butter in it
  
• when butter is hot and melted, gently crack egg into it
  
• put lid over pan
  
• after 1-2 minutes, turn off burner; let egg sit in hot pan until white is set/congealed
  
• very carefully flip egg to cook top side, another 1-2 minutes
  

Or try this way, which I think my husband does when he cooks his own egg:

[Mergath]

I've found that the best method for dippy eggs is to poach them. The yolk stays soft, the white is soft but not boogery, and it's pretty hard to screw up. Even with a well-cooked sunny-side-up egg, the whites get so rubbery.

[Guest submarines]

Hm, I guess I love rubbery whites with nice crispy edges!

[oldskool]

Before putting any heat on, I grease a cast iron pan liberally with butter and crack an egg into the pan. Then I let it slowly cook over a very low heat keeping it covered with a lid. After a few minutes you can check the temperature of the yolk with your finger (being careful not to poke hard enough to make the yolk run). If the yolk is heated through, it is done and can be taken out of the skillet. For me the result is to die for. I won't eat a fried egg any other way

[Desert Rat]

My sunny side method:

 

A bit of butter in a medium hot pan.

Crack the eggs (I use a small egg pan)

Cover with a plate.

Cook to taste.

 

The plate allows steam to cook the whites quicker.

 

BTW, the is *the* only good thing I gained from my first boyfriend. :)

[tammyw]

I do this - Medium heat, some butter that gets nice and melted and bubbly, crack an egg or two into the middle, grind salt and pepper on top, let it cook for a couple minutes until the white is no longer runny, then I put the lid on for as long as I'd like (depending on who is eating it).

 

Yesterday I made something amazing though. My daughter had just finished making hash browns in the pan and had some leftover. I put some hashbrowns around the outside of the pan, eggs in the middle, all the same otherwise. When it was all done, I put it all on my plate, put a bit of olive oil in the pan, sauteed some more hash browns, then when they were nice and crispy, put them over top of the eggs on the plate. put some Sriraccha (sp?) hot sauce on the side. Oh my. Soooooo good!