Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Tip: you can roast beets in the microwave. Pierce and top them, put them in a loosely covered container (like a Corningware baking dish), and nuke for 5 to 9 minutes, depending on the power of your oven. Let sit for 5 minutes, then peel.

Bump.

Tip: In the winter when fresh basil is scare, substitute a mix of minced fresh parsley and dried basil for fresh basil in many recipes.

Tip: Eggs crack more neatly on a flat, hard surface than on the edge of a bowl.

Tip: Your fingers are probably the best egg seperator there is. Gets really cold after 3 or 4 refrigerated eggs, though.

c'mon, others can play this game too ...

I consider myself to be a reasonably dexterous, competent cook yet I remain unable to crack eggs well. Either I don't hit hard enough, and struggle to open the shell, or hit too hard and get white leakage. I break way too many yolks (probably 1 in 6) when dumping the eggs out of the shell.

Additionally, I can't fry an egg for shit. Well, I can if I do it super old fashion with a ton of fat, but not any other way. I can't flip an egg. I do poach and scramble them well.

What on earth is my block with eggs? Damn things. I like em too.

Paul,

I am wonderful with eggs and I attribute that to being a dinosaur; we dino's were hatched in an egg.

You are just too human to relate to the egg. Nevertheless, I'd bet you can cross any road and cook a wonderful chicken.

cc

In another life, I worked in the kitchen on a military base as a civilian. The head cook could crack four eggs, almost simultaneously, 2 in each hand, quicker than I could do one! I can now do 1 in each hand almost simulataneously but could not begin to describe how to do it. Possibly Youtube can help. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Doing what I do for a living, I'm quite facile at cracking two eggs simultaneously. But four? I don't think my hands are big enough for that. I've got small hands, but long fingers.

Amy

I am a one egg cracker and do it the same way Josh does. I also like my sunny side up eggs, I do it my mom's way (her mom's way,probably goes back to some Sicilian village). I cook them on a medium heat (I hate my egg whites crispy, tastes like tin foil on my teeth) and when the bottoms are pretty set I crank up the heat add a bit of water, cover and let them steam for a bit. It makes the top look pink and you don't have to worry about breaking the yolk (I REALLY hate that).

Mary

The tip that introduced me to CI was the one to pour your milk in the coffee carafe to heat it while the coffee is brewing, love that tip.

Eggs- I do the counter too but sometimes don't tap hard enough or too hard and mangle the egg, those are the days in which we change plands and have scrambled instead. It's tough to gauge how thick the shell is going to be!

I think a large part of the egg cracking problem is today's eggs. The eggs we had when I was growing up came from my grandmother's farm, and the shells were sturdy so they split cleanly in two when cracked - today's eggs often crumble when you rap them against a surface. Also, the yolks held together better, it seemed.

Yeah, when I was at the bakery the cookie chef would do that. Two in each hand, cracking them against each other over the Hobart, somehow without getting any eggshell in the cookie dough. And these were Grade B and C eggs too, so the shells ranged from paper to rock. No idea how he mastered it; many years of experience, I suppose.

For my part, I buy free-range eggs, so the shells are thicker than caged eggs. Makes them easier to crack, athough there's some variation in shell thickness.