This revision of an earlier blog post appeared in a July issue of my hometown paper – The Prospect-News.
A satisfying boiled egg eluded me for a while. I wasn’t boiling eggs in a drastically different way, but the results seemed to be drastically different.
So much so that I sensed the disappearance of one of this household’s traditional summer fare, the deviled egg. It has been one of my personal favorites to prepare and share because its simplicity is underplayed by the complicated palate of flavors, colors and textures.
A boiled egg is even more delectably delicious because it doesn’t delete dollars in a grocery budget. A lot of bang for the buck in nutrition, taste and culinary delight is waiting inside each in its own biodegradable packaging that doubles as fine food for flowerbeds.
I was almost tempted to buy Eggies, plastic containers that one empties raw eggs into before dropping into water to boil. Or was it before plopping into the microwave to heat? I didn’t really read much beyond the price tag, so I’m not positive on the correct use of the contraptions.
The fact that I am retired surfaced as the primary argument against the purchase. With all this ‘free’ time, why should I care that I have to spend several minutes peeling one silly boiled egg? Reality… Lately I was pulling off edible chunks of egg with the fraudulently fragile shell, so at the end of several minutes, I had much less of a tasty egg to slice onto a tuna sandwich or crumble over a salad.
Before I gave in to substituting mashed scrambled eggs in those dishes, I thought I would make one last calculated effort to get it right. I surfed the web for all sorts of how- to suggestions on boiling a cooperative egg, but the value of those hints is measured by consecutive successes, which I had not experienced.
Until lately! For the third time in a row, with varying numbers of eggs in boiling water containing no added ingredients, I perfectly peeled a boiled egg in seconds! No mess, no fuss.
So, I will not be grimacing at the thought of using scrambled eggs where boiled ones are preferred, nor will I be wasting my precious ‘free’ time fashioning my own experimental eggies with plastic colored eggs left over from last Easter, to the relief of my taste buds and my health for sure.
