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EGGS (FRESH egg sinks when immersed)
A FRESH egg sinks when immersed in water. A stale egg, owing to evaporation which has taken place through the pores of the shell, floats.
Soft-cooked Eggs No. I Place eggs in saucepan, cover with boiling water, and let them stand in saucepan on the back of the range three minutes; in this way the white and the yolk are slightly coagulated.
Soft-cooked Eggs No. 2 Fill saucepan one half full of boiling water; when boiling violently, place eggs in gently with a tablespoon; when water bubbles, remove saucepan from fire and let the eggs remain in water five minutes. Eggs cooked in this way have the albumen delicately hardened throughout.
Soft-cooked Eggs No. 3 Place eggs in saucepan, cover with cold water, bring to the boiling point, when they will be soft-cooked.
Three routes to the same soft egg, each relying on residual heat rather than a timer over a flame. The variable the book never mentions is the starting temperature of the egg: these methods were written for eggs kept in a cool larder, not at 40F in a refrigerator door.
- The float test, honestlyThe principle is sound — an aging egg loses moisture and gains air through the shell, so it becomes buoyant — but it measures age, not safety. An egg that stands on end or floats is old and best discarded; an egg that sinks may still be off. Crack questionable eggs into a separate bowl and smell them.
- "The back of the range"On a coal or wood range, the back was the coolest zone, holding water well below a simmer. Modern equivalent: pull the covered pan off the burner entirely and let it stand on a trivet. Leaving it on even the lowest gas or electric setting will overcook the eggs.
- Method No. 1 is a coddled eggThree minutes in water that is no longer boiling gives a barely set white and a liquid yolk. It works best with a lid on, a heavy pan, and no more than two or three eggs, or the water drops too fast. Refrigerated eggs will need longer.
- Method No. 2 is the reliable oneFull rolling boil, eggs lowered in on a spoon, pan off the heat the moment bubbling resumes, five minutes covered. This gives the evenly tender white the book describes. Use enough water to cover the eggs by an inch so the temperature does not crash.
- Method No. 3 depends on your panBringing eggs up from cold water gives a result that varies with pot size, burner output and quantity of water — anywhere from runny white to firm yolk. Treat it as a fallback, and expect to test one egg.
- CrackingCold eggs dropped into boiling water split. Let them sit out fifteen minutes first, or pierce the wide end once with a pin to vent the air cell.
- Raw-yolk caveatNone of these methods brings the yolk to 160F. That is the point of a soft egg, but it means anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised should use pasteurized shell eggs or choose a fully cooked preparation.
- ServingSoft-cooked eggs go cold and rubbery fast. Have the egg cups, salt, pepper and buttered toast on the table before the pan comes off the heat.
The three methods reflect a kitchen without thermostats — the cook managed temperature by moving the pan around a range whose heat varied by the foot, and the "back of the range" was a genuine cooking position understood by everyone. The float test long predates the book and appears in household manuals through the nineteenth century, when eggs came from a neighbor's hens or a barrel at the grocer with no date on anything; candling against a lamp and floating in water were the usual checks available. Lowney's, published by the Walter M. Lowney Company of Boston to promote its cocoa and chocolate, filled out the rest of its pages with exactly this sort of unbranded domestic basics.