How do you like your eggs cooked?

Hi,

I had breakfast at Walker Brothers in Highland Park today. I ordered 'The Continental' with two eggs, hashed browns, toast or pancakes, and orange juice.

"How do you like your eggs cooked?"

"Sunny side up, please."

"The Health Department won't let us serve those. You can have basted eggs."

"That's bullshit. There are no restrictions on sunny side up eggs." (Sometimes words fly out of my mouth without control)

"That's what my bosses told me to say."

"How do you serve your hamburgers?"

"We don't offer hamburgers." Too bad, because I was certain they would play the trick of agreeing to cook them my way, then cook it their way.

"Tell the kitchen I prefer sunny side up. Yes, I realized I may still get basted, but I want it known what I did want."

The eggs arrived basted with a cloudy looking yolk that was still runny. The whites were also a bit runny.

Has anyone run into situations where they wouldn't cook the eggs as ordered?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Has anyone run into situations where they wouldn't cook the eggs as ordered?

Regards,

Not in any place that I have actually stayed at long enough to order. That's ridiculous!

Well, that's not entirely true. I have been in some places that won't serve poached eggs during their lunch rush, and I guess I can understand that, given the time and effort it takes to properly poach an egg (Patty's simply doesn't offer them at all), but as far as refusing to serve sunny side up eggs...no.

Well, the answer to the post title is "Scrambled, well done, please!" so I never have your particular problem.
The "How do you want your burger?" issue comes up far too often in chains, where they refuse to cook below "medium" and their "medium" is usually something they shoot way past. If you can't give it to me the way I want it, don't even ask.

I've offered to sign waivers, which gets me very funny looks from servers.

I've never encountered that with eggs but have run into that issue with burgers, at a few chain-type places. If places are going to be that ridiculous, perhaps they should offer customers a waiver to sign.

=R=

I've run into this one; it may have to do with local ordinance; I think in most places they can get by with just a warning. The stupid thing is, if the egg has gone off, basting it won't help at all - you need to cook the entire thing until it's 140 degrees, at which point it's unlikely to be runny.

From the Egg Safety Center:

Egg white coagulates between 144 and 149°F, egg yolk coagulates between 149 and 158°F and whole eggs between 144 and 158°F. Plain whole eggs without added ingredients are pasteurized but not cooked by bringing them to 140°F and maintaining that temperature for 3 and 1/2 minutes. According to the FDA Food Code, eggs for immediate consumption can be cooked to 145°F for 15 seconds.

Maybe you guys just need to eat at more diners where the grillman was trained in the Korean War and didn't see his buddies blown up at Inchon to take any crap from some government pinhead about the right @$%#%ing way to cook a #%$#% egg. I never have this problem, and always have lots of yolk to dip my toast in.

I'm really surprised that a breakfast place would hesitate to serve eggs over easy.

My understanding is that pasteurized eggs largely eliminate this issue. They should use these. If they are too expensive, well, the restaurant gets what they deserve.

Here's the thing - once in my life, long ago, I was served a bad egg. It smelled odd. It tasted bad. I spat it out, sent it back (while the waitress hovered over me and protested that "they never had a problem before," obviously suspecting incorrectly that I wanted something other than a new egg) They gave me new eggs, I ate them, no harm, no foul, no side effects. I suppose if you're eating something like softly scrambled eggs with mix-ins, or a highly seasoned omelet, you could maybe miss a bad egg among the several good ones and get salmonella - but from a sunny-side up egg? It was NOT something anybody with taste buds or a sense of smell would miss.

During the years I worked at Starbucks, we got a bad batch of milk TWICE - and, both times, ran through many customers before we discovered the error. Only one of those two times was the error pointed out by the customer - and we found the milk was really nasty sour (the other time, one of the baristas smelled it, after handing out her fourth or fifth latte.)

People need to pay more attention to what they put in their mouths - otherwise, I fear we're not going to be able to get foods that haven't been cooked into shoe-leather submission. Fortunately, the diners we frequent offer sunny-side-up eggs (and off-menu spinach cream-cheese omelets for that matter) without a problem.

Mhays wrote:I suppose if you're eating something like softly scrambled eggs with mix-ins, or a highly seasoned omelet, you could maybe miss a bad egg among the several good ones and get salmonella - but from a sunny-side up egg? It was NOT something anybody with taste buds or a sense of smell would miss.

You can't smell salmonella generally.

In case you need a site:

If present in food, [salmonella] does not usually affect the taste, smell, or appearance of the food.

Thanks, Binko - beyond my own experience, I was going off Alton Brown, who (I think) describes the same experience...but I defer to the USDA.

This doesn't dull my point, however - a lot of these rules are in place because people aren't taking responsibility for their own health.

any place that will not serve a sunny side up, or overeasy egg will not be a place I eat. The same goes for places that will not cook a hamburger less than medium.

jimswside wrote:any place that will not serve a sunny side up, or overeasy egg will not be a place I eat. The same goes for places that will not cook a hamburger less than medium.

My friend Helen had overeasy without any reservations from the waiter. Only my very reasonable request for sunny side up eggs was declined.

Regards,

Mhays wrote:Thanks, Binko - beyond my own experience, I was going off Alton Brown, who (I think) describes the same experience...but I defer to the USDA.

I haven't seen the episode, but I have caught Alton making some grievous errors in the past (there were at least two on the beer-making episode). As far as I understand it, salmonella may make itself known with a rotten egg smell, but it may not. Conversely, a rotten egg smell doesn't mean the egg has salmonella (it's simply rotten). As good as the nose is, the "smell test" is not the most reliable test in terms of judging food safety.

At any rate, I agree with taking responsibility for yourself. If I got salmonella from a bad sunny-side-up egg at a restaurant, well, that's the chance I take. Unless the restaurant is practicing some seriously dubious sanitation procedures, I'm not going to hold the restaurant responsible for something I attribute to bad luck.

Mhays wrote:This doesn't dull my point, however - a lot of these rules are in place because people aren't taking responsibility for their own health.

I'm not sure what you mean. Beyond smelling or tasting the food, what are you suggesting people do in a restaurant? Are you suggesting that people smell an off odor, but don't say anything about it?

Darren72 wrote:

Mhays wrote:This doesn't dull my point, however - a lot of these rules are in place because people aren't taking responsibility for their own health.

I'm not sure what you mean. Beyond smelling or tasting the food, what are you suggesting people do in a restaurant? Are you suggesting that people smell an off odor, but don't say anything about it?

Quoting myself a la Mike G: Yes.

Mhays wrote:During the years I worked at Starbucks, we got a bad batch of milk TWICE - and, both times, ran through many customers before we discovered the error. Only one of those two times was the error pointed out by the customer - and we found the milk was really nasty sour (the other time, one of the baristas smelled it, after handing out her fourth or fifth latte.)

If this story wasn't clear, keep in mind that a barista doesn't actually stick their nose (I hope) in or near the milk - but the consumer holds the cup up to his or her face. In both cases, many customers walked out the door with spoiled-milk lattes until we discovered the error. (Which, for the record, was due to a problem in the food-safety chain before it got to the store; we had a system to check dates, rotate, and get milk refrigerated immediately that we double-checked in both these instances.)

Red Robin is a chain that won't cook a burger less than medium. But the thing is, if you're in a place where chains are all there are (or you're just too tired to explore), Red Robin isn't bad. The bar has several beers on tap, and the burgers and fries are actually pretty good. So even though I like my burger rare or medium rare, I usually just bite the bullet and eat their stupid medium burger and enjoy it in spite of myself.

Cathy2 wrote:

jimswside wrote:any place that will not serve a sunny side up, or overeasy egg will not be a place I eat. The same goes for places that will not cook a hamburger less than medium.

My friend Helen had overeasy without any reservations from the waiter. Only my very reasonable request for sunny side up eggs was declined.

Well, that makes no damn sense.

Maybe the trick is, the next time you order, say "I'll have eggs over-easy, but hold on flipping the eggs."

Cathy2 wrote:"The Health Department won't let us serve those. You can have basted eggs."

C2,

Interestingly, I was recently at Patty's Diner with my father where he requested basted eggs with his ham off the bone and pancake. Patty has a neat method, that really appealed to my health conscious dad, of preparing basted. At about the half-way point of sunny side up completion she covers the eggs with a pan lid and tosses in a bit of ice. The ice melts, steams and, quick as a flash, basted eggs.

I had a rare burger with my over easy and old potatoes, Patty's char crusty dead rare burgers is certainly in contention for my favorite Chicagoland burger, no matter Patty Melt style or on a house made bun topped by an egg, grilled onions and El Yucateco or sidled up to a couple of over easy eggs.

Rare Burger, Over Easy Eggs, 'Old' Potatoes



I should note my father was completely charmed by Patty, loved the food and said, in reference to our terrific meal the previous night at David Burke's Primehouse, if only he had one meal in Chicago, and had to choose between Patty's and Primehouse, Patty's Diner wins hands down.

Enjoy,
Gary

Patty's Diner
3558 Main Street
Skokie, IL
847-675-4274

It's been a couple of years since I was at a Walker Bros., and I always used to order sunny side up without any problem- is it a recent rule or just certain locations that won't cook them that way anymore? I mostly went to the Lake Zurich, Glenview and Arlington Heights locations.

Maybe I oughta post this in the "Never Eaten That! Whaa...?" because I feel a little embarrassed to admit this, but other than sunny side up, scrambled and an omelet, I don't really know what the other ways to cook eggs mean. I'm sure I've had them before but unknowingly. From the picture and description of "over easy" I guess that's what I do when I make grilled cheese & egg sandwiches.

Is there a website out there that shows all these different methods?

Ask and ye shall receive.

Usually, googling "fill in your food item here" Board, as in this case, will have that kind of stuff and more.

Cathy2 wrote:Has anyone run into situations where they wouldn't cook the eggs as ordered?

Steak 'n Shake wouldn't serve me eggs sunny-side up, citing corporate policy. I coaxed and got lightly cooked eggs over easy. The rest of the breakfast was mediocre, too, so I'm unlikely to repeat the experiment.

The most common refusal I've had is poached eggs. Many restaurants that serve breakfast all day will serve poached eggs only in the early morning.

I also never bother to order shirred eggs unless I see them explicitly listed on a menu, because most places won't do those at all.

abe_froeman wrote:I feel a little embarrassed to admit this, but other than sunny side up, scrambled and an omelet, I don't really know what the other ways to cook eggs mean. I'm sure I've had them before but unknowingly.

Mhays wrote:Ask and ye shall receive.

American Egg Board wrote:Basic Preparation

Scrambled Eggs
Fried Eggs
Hard-Cooked Eggs
Poached Eggs
Baked (Shirred) Eggs
French Omelet
Savory Soufflé
Soft (Stirred) Custard Sauce
Baked Custard
Soft (Pie) Meringue and Hard (Swiss) Meringue

I'm surprised to see the Egg Board's list doesn't include coddled eggs, soft-boiled eggs or oeufs mollet. These are all variations of the same thing, boiled eggs, just cooked different lengths of time. Coddled eggs are barely cooked and usually used in things like caesar salad dressing; the term is also sometimes also used to describe soft-boiled eggs, which have a runny yolk and a tender white; oeufs mollet, cooked a little longer, have a soft yolk and a firm white, so they can be removed from the shell.

"Boiled" is a bit of a misnomer, because, like hard-cooked eggs, the best way to make these is to immerse the eggs in water, bring it to a boil, and then immediately remove the pan from the heat and let it stand. Sometimes coddled eggs are cooked in a coddler, which is a cup with a screw-top lid that you immerse into boiling water. This allows you to add liquids, such as cream, or seasonings to the egg before cooking it.


I enjoy eggs in almost all preparations, although I'm partial to runny-yolk styles. In restaurants, I usually order sunny-side up, as being the dish of that nature they're least likely to screw up.

However, my favorite egg dish is the sunrise sandwich, which is the name by which I was introduced to a preparation that's also called Gas House eggs, one-eyed jack, egg-in-a-nest and egg-in-a-hole. That's fried bread with an egg cooked in the center.

Sunrise sandwich

The eggs for these have to be pretty fresh, or the white will be too runny. A nonstick pan is helpful.

1 slice bread (firm white bread or whole wheat bread works best)
About 1 tablespoon butter
1 large egg

Cut a hole in the center of the bread with a round cookie cutter or a small glass. Melt the butter till sizzling in a skillet. Add the bread and the cut-out bread round separately to the pan and cook till they start to brown on one side. Turn over.

Break an egg into a small bowl or glass and carefully decant into the center of the bread. Cook until the white sets. Add more butter if necessary. Carefully flip over, trying not to break the yolk. Cook till your desired degree of doneness and remove to a plate, topping with the fried-bread round.

Variation: Before cooking the sandwich, fry bacon, set aside, and cook the sandwich in the rendered bacon fat.

Hi,

My Opa could have used an egg cooking terminology lesson. I certainly would have preferred him asking for eggs coddled instead of his seat-of-pants-invention, "Eggs cooked like snot." His youngest children were a few years younger than I, they would tell of their embarassment when he did this in restaurants. He would easily return his eggs several times until, "They got it right."

If he were far younger, had less money and didn't look so damn charmingly eccentric, he never could have gotten away with his demands. Now with health and liability consideratons, he probably would not get so far.

Regards,

LAZ wrote:However, my favorite egg dish is the sunrise sandwich, which is the name by which I was introduced to a preparation that's also called Gas House eggs, one-eyed jack, egg-in-a-nest and egg-in-a-hole. That's fried bread with an egg cooked in the center.

I know it as "egg in the basket" or "toad in the hole" (which is not the same dish as the British toad-in-the-hole.)

Apparently, it's got a whole mess of names.

Egg in the basket or Egg in a window (egg in the hole in Commonwealth countries and toad in a hole or bird's nest in many parts of the United States) refers to a chicken's egg fried in a hole of a slice of bread. It is a common comfort food, and is known by many names in various countries. For example, this dish is sometimes referred to as one eyed jack when the cut out section of bread is fried and then placed back on the yolk, like an eye patch. Another name common in the United States is "Rocky Mountain toast". In the Northeastern United States it may be referred to as a "Bulls-eye." Other names include "Egg-Hole Bread", "Hole-E-Bread", "Top Hats", "Hole-in-a-Bucket", "Eggies in a Nest", "Hole in the Wall", "One-Eyed Susie", "Bird's Nest", "Toad on a Lilly", "Magic Egg", "Wesleys on Horseback", "Egyptian Toast" and "Indian Eye". A variation called "Indian Winking Eye" is done by putting the circle of bread back on the egg while cooking it.

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

My Opa could have used an egg cooking terminology lesson. I certainly would have preferred him asking for eggs coddled instead of his seat-of-pants-invention, "Eggs cooked like snot." His youngest children were a few years younger than I, they would tell of their embarassment when he did this in restaurants. He would easily return his eggs several times until, "They got it right."

If he were far younger, had less money and didn't look so damn charmingly eccentric, he never could have gotten away with his demands. Now with health and liability consideratons, he probably would not get so far.

Regards,

Your Opa and my Grandad seem to be cut from the same cloth. He would always order the same thing (a breakfast we were taught to make him correctly by the time we were 6), 2 soft boiled eggs, 4 pieces of bacon, burned, and two pieces of toast, burned. When prepared correctly, his breakfast always brought concerned managers to our table to seize his plate and apologize for the undercooked eggs and the overcooked everything else. If it was sent out incorrectly, we invariably had multiple visits from unbelieving waiters and kitchen staff before he got what he wanted. Much like your Opa, Grandad got by on charm and relentlessness ~ breakfast out with Grandad was always an adventure.

I count myself lucky if I can get poached eggs and crisp hashbrowns these days - times sure have changed.

Binko wrote:

LAZ wrote:However, my favorite egg dish is the sunrise sandwich, which is the name by which I was introduced to a preparation that's also called Gas House eggs, one-eyed jack, egg-in-a-nest and egg-in-a-hole. That's fried bread with an egg cooked in the center.

I know it as "egg in the basket" or "toad in the hole" (which is not the same dish as the British toad-in-the-hole.)

Apparently, it's got a whole mess of names.

Egg in the basket or Egg in a window (egg in the hole in Commonwealth countries and toad in a hole or bird's nest in many parts of the United States) refers to a chicken's egg fried in a hole of a slice of bread. It is a common comfort food, and is known by many names in various countries. For example, this dish is sometimes referred to as one eyed jack when the cut out section of bread is fried and then placed back on the yolk, like an eye patch. Another name common in the United States is "Rocky Mountain toast". In the Northeastern United States it may be referred to as a "Bulls-eye." Other names include "Egg-Hole Bread", "Hole-E-Bread", "Top Hats", "Hole-in-a-Bucket", "Eggies in a Nest", "Hole in the Wall", "One-Eyed Susie", "Bird's Nest", "Toad on a Lilly", "Magic Egg", "Wesleys on Horseback", "Egyptian Toast" and "Indian Eye". A variation called "Indian Winking Eye" is done by putting the circle of bread back on the egg while cooking it.

I grew up calling it a hobo egg. So add that to the list.

Ursiform,

My Opa had another breakfast eccentricity: oatmeal. He cooked it thick and hot, often too hot to eat. He would spread it on a plate, then eat the edges as they cooled.

Once while visiting my family, he noticed the white plate under his oatmeal had a stain under the glaze, which he uncovered more with each cycle. He inquired about this stain. I glanced over and reported, "Oh that's the plate I burned my bra on." In one motion, the plate with the remaining oatmeal was tossed into the garbage. He complained I nearly poisoned and killed him. This was a big deal because he was years short of his person ambition to live to 100 years old.

He soldiered on to just one month shy of this 98th birthday.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:I glanced over and reported, "Oh that's the plate I burned my bra on."

Okay, now I know that this is not egg-related but I just GOTTA ask. Huh?

Gypsy Boy wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:I glanced over and reported, "Oh that's the plate I burned my bra on."

Okay, now I know that this is not egg-related but I just GOTTA ask. Huh?

This was the 1970's when women were burning their bras. I was a teenager and wondered what really happened when you burned your bra. Since it was made of petroleum based materials, it burned really fast and hard leaving a twisted, gooey mess. I being terribly practical, I scrapped it off the plate and threw it in the dishwasher. Back in circulation everyone in the family knew what it was and didn't especially care. Until my Opa caught wind of it and threw the plate away.

I wasn't really caught up in the social whirlwind, I just wanted to see a bra on fire.

Regards,

In the great food culture wars of the 21st century, the egg-spoon skirmishes may one day be remembered as pivotal. Recent conflicts over this long-handled cooking tool have fostered a new social-media meme, a fresh front in the #MeToo movement and a handcrafted version that costs $250, not to mention new volleys lobbed by Alice Waters and Anthony Bourdain.

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I feel your frustration, Cathy. I guess I put Walker Bros. in the category of "places that have always ever done things their way" and forgive it as being the "charm" of the place. (I.e., that's what you're signing on for if you go there.) Similarly, the "charm" (if you want to call it that) of DMK Burger is that burgers are cooked just one way, well done. I'm not fond of that, but I know when I've willingly gone in there for a meal that that's the "contract" I've entered into.