Try This! Omelet in a Bag

A friend of ours recently shared with us how she used to cook eggs back in her Girl Scout camping days. It involved a half dozen eggs, a resealable plastic bag, and a pot of water simmering over their campfire...

All you do is beat together the eggs and omelet fixings (pre-cooked), seal them in the plastic bag, and submerge the bag in the simmering water. The water gently cooks the eggs at a much slower and more consistent rate than when cooked on the stove top. When the eggs are firm, you gently slide them out of the bag onto a plate and dig in.

The result (or friend swore) was a creamy, soft, and fool-proof breakfast scramble unlike anything else.

Of course, you don't need a campfire - you can try this method right in your kitchen. Use bags made of thicker, heavy-duty plastic and be sure to keep the water at a gentle simmer to avoid cooking the eggs too quickly.

Have you ever tried this method?!

• We spotted a complete recipe for this method over at the Bitten Word. (Maybe the Bitten Word fellows were sitting next to our friend on the plane?!)

(Image: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)

Comments (10)

I've done this camping. The heavier bags are really important. The thin ones melt easily. It makes a wonderful scramble though. We like to dump the cook eggs in tortillas and have breakfast burritos. YUM.

posted by twylag on August 29th 2008 at 5:34am
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i heard about this too for campers. i thought it was a brilliant idea for anyone, though. and to avoid butter or oil? for sure!

posted by kdkaboom on August 29th 2008 at 7:02am
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didn't this make the rounds a year or two ago and set everyone off about cooking in plastic...? i think even ziploc may have said "please don't do this with our bags"

posted by akostalas on August 29th 2008 at 8:13am
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Yes, akostalas, You're right. I found this recently, and at the bottom is a personal letter from the Ziploc people responding to an inquiry the blogger sent. It is NOT recommended.

Before I learned that, I tried it, and it was pretty good, but I'd rather do the slow scramble any day over this.

Best,
Emily

posted by Emily Sneds on August 29th 2008 at 8:45am
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I have a rough recollection of doing something similar in a large canning jar, of course the boiling water pot was huge---and hand pumped out of a well. Still better getting cooking duty than latrines.

posted by sally599 on August 29th 2008 at 11:38am
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That sounds so unhealthy given what we know about plastics leaching especially when in heat. I wonder where you can get boilable bags, actually? There must be a source somewhere. Of course we don't know for sure that boilable bags leach nothing, but they gotta be better than regular plastic.

posted by sphinxie on August 30th 2008 at 4:55pm
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I know you can boil those vaccu bags that suck out all the air. You could just seal and not vacuum. That is supposed to be one of their strong points, I know they show it in the infomercial. yes, I have one but no I have never boiled it.

love 2 cook

posted by luv2cook on August 31st 2008 at 10:04am
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Things like his make me wish my digestive system could process egg yolks! Ugh. Seriously, I. want. now.

posted by Tara blogs about everything on September 4th 2008 at 5:58pm
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*this

posted by Tara blogs about everything on September 4th 2008 at 5:58pm
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ok, i still probably wouldn't because - well, boiling water and dropping in a ziploc seems like almost as much trouble as just making an omelet and i rarely go camping - but i did recently notice a commercial for "zip & steam" bags from ziploc that might be OK for this. i haven't done any research but it reminded me of this post and i wanted to put it out there and maybe save this idea for those that might find it handier than i would.

posted by akostalas on September 8th 2008 at 12:16pm
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