Imagine sitting down to breakfast and being confronted with a perfectly intact soft-boiled egg sitting in an egg cup. Would you know what to do next? If you're from the Continent, or indeed much of the world, this would not a problem but most Americans would be a little puzzled about their next move. Turns out that there are several ways to approach a soft boiled egg and, not surprisingly, each has their staunch supporters. Read on for an overview of choices.
Once that's decided (ha!) we now have to break the shell and get to the yummy, runny yolk. Here are your choices:
Tap. Using an egg spoon (a regular teaspoon will also do) give the top of the egg several sharp taps to crack the shell, then use the tip of the spoon to wiggle through the cracked shell and slice through the egg, lifting the top off as you go. This is the safer approach, although you may encounter bits of egg shell if you're not careful.
Whack. With a butter knife, hit the side of your egg with a quick, decisive whack. This should cut through the shell and most of the egg. Then simply lift the knife, thus lifting the top of the egg, and remove. This approach is a little more daring as too much force could lead to a rather unpleasant mess, while too little will leave you with a version of the tap method.
Combo. Alluded to above, this is simply using the side of a knife to tap around the sides of the egg in order to crack the shell.
Implements. There are several versions of scissor-like implements (pictured above) that cut though the shell and the egg, as well as a popular mini-plunger (pictured below) that will cut through the shell, allowing for a nice clean break. These implements are for posh folk who frequently eat soft boiled eggs, or those who like to acquire unitasker kitchen tools.
As with most techniques, much depends on what you were raised with and therefore feels most familiar. One thing we can all agree on: soft boiled eggs must be served with soldiers (buttered toast cut into strips) for dipping into the runny yolk.
How do you open a soft boiled egg? Big-Endian or Little-Endian? Whack or tap?
Related: How to Soft Boil an Egg
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I never saw an egg cup until I was well into adult-hood. I ate a lot of soft-boiled eggs growing up, but my family has always served them completely peeled at once and in a bowl. Not as cute as the egg cup method, though! :)
Also, if you are already committed to soft-boiled eggs enough to buy an egg cup (also a unitasker), why wouldn't you have the fancy cutters?
I'm a whacker. But having said that, I haven't had a soft-boiled egg since I was a child...many, many moons ago. And I like the pointy side up, thank you very much. I think I'll make this for the kiddies tomorrow morning...thanks for reminding me.
@irenie- I have egg cups but not weird cutters because an egg cup is the kind of unitasker that it's hard to find a multitasker to replace it with, while egg scissors can be replaced with a spoon or knife, as outlined above.
I use egg cups to measure an approximate "shot" for my G&Ts. Not a uni-tasker at all ;)
And this makes me want a soft-boiled tomorrow as well! Bring on the toast soldiers.
I have a soft-boiled egg almost every day and yet I don't really like eating from a cup. I simply peel the entire egg and place on top of toast. Over the years, I've tried all sorts of methods and I keep going back to my "naked" egg :)
Every now and then I revive a childhood favorite that my mom called "egg in a cup." Put a pat of butter in a mug and break up two peeled soft-boiled eggs in it. Salt and pepper. Yum. Buttery eggy goodness. Mom used to crack the eggs open at the top and carefully scoop out the insides into the mug, but I've been opting for peeling the whole thing, which is slightly tricky with a soft boiled egg, but it's easier to avoid shells that way.
If people don't want to invest in an egg cup - there's another way: Use a bottle cap off the top of a water or soda bottle, before it goes to the recycling. It holds either the fat or pointy end of the egg quite nicely! And the bottle cap gets an extra use, no unitaskers necessary!
Pointed end up. Never tried the fatter end up, although it might make it easier to scoop out...hmm, that does make a lot more sense. No tap, no whack. I have the scissor-like implement but only used it a couple of times, Received the mini-plunger as a gift from Germany...never a hint of a broken shell with this one. It slices the shell perfectly in just one drop of the ball and a slight twist of the cone. You can eat it from an egg cup or just scoop it out over toast.
For me, an eggcup is no good, because I like to mix the soft boiled egg with torn bits of toast.
Pointy end here, with the knife method of cutting. Also, I would disagree that the egg cup is a unitasker. I have some simple ones from Ikea that I also use as maple syrup vessels when we eat pancakes, making our breakfast that bit more posh.
I had been using my egg cup for years as the perfect holder for my ball tea strainers before my mom pointed out what it was actually for. Now the feet make sense...
@playminxie. I'm not clear on your comment about the egg cup being a uniitesker. The unitasker is actually the tool that is used for slicing through the egg shell...not for holding the egg.
This whole post confuses me. I have never seen nor heard of a soft boiled egg.
I am another non-of-the-above person. My mother would lay a piece of toast on a plate and quickly slice a whole (unpeeled) egg in half above it so the yolk would run onto the toast. This sounds like it would be messy but it works very well. Then she would use a spoon to neatly scoop the rest out of the shell halves onto the toast and sort of mash/spread it around. Some salt and pepper and you have an open faced egg sandwich.
A seven-minute egg from the farmer's market, pointy end up, in a white egg cup, a confident whack with a butter knife. With white bread buttered soldiers. Sprinkle some malden salt and a crack of black pepper into the egg. Perfick.
The argument for opening the egg at the wide end - all the better for getting your spoon and/or soldiers in - seems pretty sound to me. Also, if use the whack method and scoop out the little bit of white, you have the ideal container for salt and pepper. This from a person who loathes soft-cooked eggs in all their evil manifestations!
Fat side up and a whack with a knife - lots of practice. Egg cups used to be in daily use when I was a child but nowadays everyone seems to eat on the run.
Dipping in soldiers is for lazy days and Sundays!
Fat or narrow side up depends on the size of the egg and the size of the egg cup. Jumbo eggs in small cups require eating from the fat end.
It's funny, I'd never heard of eating a soft boiled egg "naked" but we have always had egg cups around for our (almost daily) egg and toast soldiers. I tried them last night and while they were good, I felt like I had to wait way too long to be able to peel them and then they had cooked a bit more than I like from sitting around. Do you just develop fingers of steal to peel or cook for a shorter time and then let them cool before you undress them? I'm curious.
And I agree that egg cups are NOT unitaskers. I use mine for all sorts of things.
I haven't had many soft boiled eggs since I left home in 1979. My Mom was my go to gal for cracking open my egg. Brings back memories of a good kind.
I first saw the mini-plunger while visiting my sister in Australia. She had gotten it while living in Germany. I am a gadget lover and we ate many soft boiled eggs while I was visiting. We tried in vain to find one in local shops. Her husband is German and his work and family allow hin frequent return trips where he picked up a mini-plunger for me. I was very happy to receive one (now available on line as the klacker) as a birthday gift.