Fried Eggs
Fried eggs are cooked as Buttered Eggs, without being turned. In this case the fat is taken by spoonfuls and poured over the eggs. Lard, crisco, pork, ham, or bacon fat are usually employed, - a considerable amount being used.
This is the basted egg, cooked entirely by spooning hot fat over the top rather than flipping. The whole technique rests on the depth of the fat and the moderation of the heat.
- The hinge: baste, don't flipThe point of the method is that the yolk stays intact and the white sets from above as well as below. Tip the pan slightly so the fat pools, and spoon it over the whites continuously; the film over the yolk turns opaque in about a minute.
- "Cooked as Buttered Eggs"The cross-reference means eggs broken into a hot pan and cooked gently, not scrambled. Break each egg into a cup first and slide it in, so a broken yolk never reaches the pan.
- "A considerable amount" of fatEnough to pool when the pan is tipped, so there is something to spoon. Less than that and there is nothing to baste with.
- CriscoProbably listed because it was then a new product. It is hydrogenated vegetable shortening, still sold, though it has been reformulated over the years to cut trans fats; it contributes no flavour, unlike the pork, ham or bacon fat listed alongside it.
- HeatMedium-low. Fat hot enough to frill and brown the edges of the white will set the outside before the basting has done anything, which is the opposite of the intended result.
- DonenessBasted eggs leave the yolk liquid or barely thickened. If you are cooking for someone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, use pasteurised eggs or cook until the yolk is firm.
- PanA small heavy skillet, one or two eggs at a time. In a wide pan the fat spreads too thin to spoon and the whites run.
- YieldThe original gives none. Two eggs per person at breakfast; the fat is drained off, not served.
Fannie Farmer's book treats eggs as a small technical syllabus buttered, fried, poached, coddled, shirred — with each entry defined by how it differs from the one before, which is why this recipe is three sentences and points backward to another. The list of fats is the more revealing part. Lard and rendered pork, ham and bacon drippings are often said to have been the ordinary frying media of an American kitchen that butchered or bought whole cuts and, by tradition, kept a grease pot on the back of the stove; Crisco, first sold in 1911, sits in that list as the new commercial arrival, and its presence dates this text to a later edition rather than the 1896 original. The basting method itself is older than any of them.