Egg hacks have taken over some social media food ‘channels’ lately. And many are nutty or so far-out there that I read no farther than their headlines… But a few have caught my attention. And today’s constitutes another blast from my past…
Diner-Style Fried Egg: Perfect topper for Old Fashioned Diner-Style Corned Beef Hash…
Lacy, just-browned edges… Firm, puffed-up whites… and a bright-yellow-sunrise yolk… That’s your classic diner-style fried egg. And the cooks at every diner you’ve ever ordered breakfast at know how to achieve that ovular masterpiece almost without thinking about it. But, if you’re like me, you went decades before learning the classic Secret to perfect fried eggs…
‘The Good Egg’
That’s what the owner/operator of the breakfast joint across the fence from my Dad’s Fort Myers RV park called his post-retirement project. While some restaurants don’t open until 11 am., Carl opened at 6 am and closed at 11. Everything on his menu involved eggs. Even the other items – like toast, pancakes, waffles, breakfast sandwiches and hash browns – that weren’t egg-specific, we closely related.
Carl was a German expatriot. German Tourists used to flock to Southwest Florida in the winter. I never knew why. But Carl loved it so much he stayed. And his grill-side manner was a thing of beauty. A joy for any serious cook to behold…
‘The Carl Show’
Dad and I always sat at the counter – directly opposite the double flat-top grill on which Carl created his masterpieces. A mere metre and a half from ‘pan-zero’… Dad was a BBQ grill master in his own right, but still marvelled to the acrobatics Carl performed, sometimes with a spatula in each hand. His hash browns were even better than the ones I already had a soft sport for, at Waffle House. And did I mention Carl made his toast on the grill? Buttered it on one side first, then put it face down on the heat…
Like a magic wand…
Carl wielded his spatula like a magic wand, flipping items on the grill at exactly the right moment, taking them of the heat at just the right shade of golden brown. And his fried eggs were like none other I had experienced before dining at The Good Egg…
Among Carl’s ‘secrets’ – which every experienced diner ‘chef’ knows – was to leave the eggs out on the counter to come to room temperature. It was equally important, he insisted, that his eggs be fresh every day. So he went to the wholesaler after closing each day, to purchase the eggs he’d use on the next. ‘The freshest eggs’ is how you get those puffy, tender – but fully cooked – whites.
About the actual cooking…
Carl could crack two eggs – one in each hand – at the same time, and spot them perfectly on the grill. He would watch as the transparent whites became translucent and almost started to go white… Then he’d grab an unmarked squeeze bottle – like the ones diners put on your table with mustard and ketchup – and an old, battered saucepan lid. So quick that you’d almost miss it if you blinked, he’d slap the pan lid down over the egg, giving the egg a little squeeze from the bottle just before the lid landed.
Curious? I was exploding with curiosity about what was in the squeeze bottle. Carl grinned as he whispered to Dad and me: “It’s just water!”
The water exploded into steam as soon as it hit the hot grill, and the steam cooked the top of the egg just right. The only secret Carl never revealed was how he knew when to take the pan lid off, to pro-duce that perfect fried egg of his…
My take
Carl used to say, in his trace of a German accent, “They call ‘over-easy’ eggs that because the people who make them never cared enough to learn how to make a proper ‘sunny-sided’ egg.” Carl would make you an over-easy egg if you asked for it. But it was just as perfect as his sunny-side version – miraculously, I thought – with enough runny yolk to properly bless your hash browns or toast when you chose to pierce them…
I’ve come close to duplicating Carl’s steam-finished eggs. But I’ve never fully succeeded. Carl passed a couple of years after Dad did – in 2002. And I never managed to pry that last piece of the puzzle out of him…
~ Maggie J.