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Fried Egg Sandwich
Fry eggs well done, add a dash of salt and pepper, and place between thin slices of white bread, with a crisp lettuce leaf between. Garnish with a radish.
A four-line recipe that assumes a cook who already knows what a fried egg looks like. The only decisions left are doneness and assembly.
- "Well done" is the instruction that mattersA runny yolk will flood the bread and collapse the sandwich, which may be why the original specifies it. Fry until the white is set and the yolk firm through, about 3-4 minutes covered over medium heat, or flip and give it another minute.
- Trim the egg to the breadFry the eggs in a ring or a small pan so they come out compact, or trim the ragged white with a knife or biscuit cutter once cooked. A free-form fried egg overhangs a sandwich slice badly.
- Thin slices1909 white bread was cut by hand from a whole loaf, so "thin" was the cook's judgement; something in the region of 1/4 inch, thinner than standard modern sandwich bread, suits it. Buttering both slices to the edge keeps the bread from going damp.
- Cool the egg slightlyAn egg straight from the pan wilts the lettuce it sits on. Let it stand a minute before assembling so the leaf stays crisp, which is the whole point of including it.
- FatThe recipe names none. Butter, bacon fat and lard were all common frying media of the period and any of them still work; butter browns the edges most attractively but wants a moderate heat to avoid burning.
- The radishA garnish, not an ingredient. It belongs on the plate as a bit of sharpness to cut the richness; cut radishes were a common garnish in cookery books of this era.
- YieldOne egg per sandwich, so scale directly. A fried egg sandwich is at its best eaten soon after assembly.
Eva Greene Fuller's Up-to-Date Sandwich Book (1909) is one of a number of American books of the period built around the sandwich as a dish in its own right. Its egg sandwiches run through several treatments -- hard-boiled and chopped, and here simply fried. The radish garnish and the crisp lettuce leaf are characteristic of the period, when plate presentation was often written into the recipe itself.