Know Your Egg
Cooking Skills: Eggs 1
Chapter 1 · Know Your Egg
Skill goal
Choose, store, test, crack and separate an egg confidently, and cook a safe first egg in the microwave.
Shopping list for this chapter
The basics
An egg is the most useful ingredient in the kitchen and the easiest to spoil by being careless with it. Spend this chapter getting to know it, because every later chapter depends on four small habits: choosing a good egg, storing it properly, cracking it cleanly and knowing when it is safe.
Buying and storing
- Look for the Lion mark on the shell and the box. Lion eggs come from hens vaccinated against salmonella, and UK food safety advice says Lion eggs are safe to eat runny or raw, even for pregnant women, babies and older people. Eggs without the Lion mark: cook them until the white and yolk are firm for anyone vulnerable.
- Check the best-before date on the shell or box, and use the egg by then. A fresh egg is good for about four weeks from laying.
- Keep eggs in the fridge at home, in the box, pointed end down (this keeps the yolk centred). Keep them away from strong smells, because shells are porous and eggs pick up odours. Don't wash them: the shell's natural coating is a barrier.
- Size matters for timings. This course uses medium eggs straight from the fridge. Large eggs need about a minute longer when boiled, and a few seconds longer for most other methods.
- Free range, barn or caged? It is a welfare and taste choice, not a safety one. Try a more expensive carton once and see whether you can tell the difference in a soft-boiled egg or a fried one: that is a good tasting-notes experiment.
Kit you need
- A small saucepan with a lid, and a non-stick frying pan about 20 cm across (good for fried, scrambled and omelettes).
- A heatproof silicone spatula and a wooden spoon (metal scratches non-stick).
- A slotted spoon, a small bowl, a fork, and a timer. Your phone is fine. A timer matters more than any other gadget in this course.
- A small sieve or tea strainer (for poaching), and a baking dish or ramekin (for baked eggs). Don't buy these yet.
Quick shopping rule
Buy a box of 6 or 10 eggs to start, not a tray of 30. You will cook a lot of eggs, but a fresh box gives a more reliable result than the eggs you forgot about.
Try it
These drills take two minutes each and need only eggs and a bowl. Do them before you cook anything.
Drill 1 · Start here
The float test and the crack
You can tell how fresh an egg is without breaking it, and you can break it without getting shell in the bowl. Practise both.
Ingredients (1 portion)
- 2 medium eggs, different ages if you have them (fridge eggs)
- Tall glass of cold water
- Small bowl and a saucer
The float test
- Fill the glass with cold water, deep enough to cover an egg.
- Lower an egg in gently with a spoon.
- Lies flat on the bottom: very fresh. Tilts or stands on its point: older, still fine to eat but better hard boiled (older eggs peel more easily). Floats: throw it away, because the air cell inside has grown large.
The clean crack
- Tap the egg firmly on a flat surface, such as the worktop, not the edge of the bowl. A flat surface cracks the shell in one place without pushing pieces inwards.
- Put your thumbs into the crack and pull the shell apart gently over the bowl. Let the egg slide out.
- If shell falls in, scoop it out with a bigger piece of shell. The edge acts like a magnet. A finger in cold water works too. Chasing it with a spoon pushes it round and round.
- Always crack eggs into a small bowl first, never straight into the pan. One bad egg is then a bowl problem, not a pan problem.
Drill 2 · Get comfortable
Separating an egg
Many recipes later in this course use whites or yolks on their own. Learn this now with two bowls and no pressure.
Ingredients (1 portion)
- 2 medium eggs (practise with two, then use them in the next recipe)
Method 1: with your hand (best for beginners)
- Hold a clean hand over a bowl and crack the egg into your palm.
- Open your fingers slightly and let the white run through into the bowl. The yolk stays in your palm.
- Put the yolk in a second bowl.
Method 2: with the shell
- Crack the egg and hold it upright over a bowl, so that it opens into two halves.
- Pass the yolk from one half to the other, letting the white drip into the bowl each time.
- This is quicker once you've practised, but a sharp shell edge can break the yolk. Use the hand method until you feel confident.
Why a broken yolk matters
Even a tiny bit of yolk (fat) in whites stops them whisking up. If you ever make meringues, use a bowl that is spotlessly clean and separate each egg over a small bowl, then add it to the big one. One bad egg then ruins one egg, not six.
Storing what you don't use
- Whites: a covered container in the fridge for up to 4 days, or freeze them.
- Yolks: a covered container in the fridge for up to 2 days. A little cold water on top stops a skin forming (drain it off before using).
- Use them soon: a spare white goes into an omelette or the mug recipes below, and a spare yolk goes into a scramble, mash or a carbonara.
Level 1 · First cook
Cheese and chive mug omelette
A safe, almost foolproof first cooked egg, using the cracking you've just practised. It cooks in the microwave in two short bursts, so you can see the egg set.
Ingredients (1 portion)
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 tbsp milk
- 20 g mature Cheddar, grated
- 1 tsp snipped chives (or 1 chopped spring onion)
- Pinch of salt and black pepper
- Butter for greasing the mug
- Rub the inside of a large mug (about 350 ml) with butter.
- Crack the eggs into the mug using the flat-surface crack. Add the milk, salt and pepper and beat with a fork for 20 seconds, until no streaks of white remain.
- Stir in the chives and half the cheese.
- Microwave on high for 40 seconds. Take it out and stir with the fork, pulling the cooked edges into the middle.
- Microwave for another 30 to 40 seconds, until just set on top and no longer wet. Sprinkle on the rest of the cheese and let it stand for 30 seconds. It will keep cooking.
Microwave note: cooking times vary with power (these are for 800 W). Cook in short bursts and look each time, because an overdone microwave egg turns rubbery.
Serve with
A slice of wholemeal toast, or a handful of cherry tomatoes. That is a complete 4-minute breakfast.
Level 1 · Use it up
Egg-white mug omelette (and what to do with the yolk)
Put your separating skills to work. Whites cook up light and fluffy, and are lower in fat and calories than whole eggs. Keep the yolks to use in the next recipe.
Ingredients (1 portion)
- 3 medium egg whites (about 100 g), saved from separating 3 eggs
- 1 handful baby spinach, chopped
- 2 cherry tomatoes, quartered
- Pinch of salt and black pepper
- Spray or tiny amount of oil for greasing the mug
- Lightly oil a large mug. Add the whites, salt and pepper and beat with a fork for 20 seconds.
- Stir in the spinach and tomatoes.
- Microwave for 45 seconds, stir, then microwave for another 30 to 45 seconds until set.
Using up the yolks
- Stir one into a hot bowl of porridge or mashed potato for richness.
- Add one to a scramble or an omelette in the next chapters, as an extra-rich egg.
- Mix with a little cheese and spread on toast for a quick grilled topping. Cook it all the way through.
Experiments
Do one or both, on a different day from the cooking. They only need an egg or two.
Experiment
Fresh vs old
Does the age of an egg change how it looks in a bowl? You need a very fresh egg (use-by at least two weeks away) and one that is close to its date.
- Do the float test on both eggs and note which sinks and which tilts.
- Crack each onto a separate saucer, side by side.
- Compare how high the yolk stands and how much the white spreads.
Look for: A fresh egg has a tall yolk and a thick, jelly-like white that stays close to the yolk. An old egg is flatter, with a watery white that runs outwards. Fresh eggs look better fried and poached; older ones are better boiled.
Experiment
Flat surface vs bowl edge
Which crack leaves the fewest shell pieces?
- Crack three eggs on the edge of a bowl and note how many shell pieces fall in.
- Crack three more on the flat worktop.
- Count again.
Look for: Shell pieces in the bowl, and how easily the egg slides out. The flat surface should win.
Tasting notes
Use this to keep your own record. The aim is to find out which methods you like best, so write a few words for each.
| What I tried | Date | What I saw | What I thought | Will I do it again? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh egg (float test) | ||||
| Older egg (float test) | ||||
| Crack on the worktop | ||||
| Crack on the bowl edge | ||||
| Whole-egg mug omelette | ||||
| Egg-white mug omelette |
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Shell in the bowl | Cracked on a corner, or pressed too hard | Use a flat surface, and scoop the bit out with a bigger shell piece |
| Yolk broke when separating | Pulled too fast, or a sharp shell edge | Use the hand method, and use that egg for scrambling instead |
| Rubbery microwave egg | Cooked too long at once | Cook in short bursts and stir between each |
| Egg floats in water | The air cell has grown: the egg is old | Throw it away |
| Whites won't whisk later | A trace of yolk or grease in the bowl | Wash the bowl, and separate over a spare bowl in future |
Food safety: eggs
Wash your hands after touching raw egg and before touching other food. Wash the bowl, fork and worktop in hot soapy water. Don't use cracked eggs or eggs past their date. Keep cooked egg dishes in the fridge and eat them within 2 days. Cook eggs until firm for anyone who is pregnant, elderly or ill unless the eggs have the Lion mark.
Checkpoint: can you do this now?
- I can tell whether an egg is fresh using the float test.
- I can crack an egg cleanly on a flat surface.
- I can separate an egg by hand without breaking the yolk.
- I know how long whites and yolks keep in the fridge.
- I have written my first tasting notes.
Next chapter
Cooking Skills: Eggs 1, chapter 2 is Boiled Eggs: timing, peeling and a ladder from a soft egg with soldiers to a hard-boiled egg mayo sandwich.