Some people will try anything

Ever since I can remember, high daytime temperatures have elicited comments about its being hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Is that even possible?

Folks in Oatman, Arizona, on Route 66 think it is and to prove it, the city hosts a Solar Egg Frying contest every July 4th. Contestants get 15 minutes to fry an egg using solar power aided by home customized pans, mirrors, aluminum reflectors and magnifying glasses.

After a Death Valley National Park employee made a video of an egg frying in a pan on the sidewalk to demonstrate just how hot it was, so many visitors tried it, with and without pans, that park officials posted this on the park’s website:

“The Death Valley NP maintenance crew has been busy cleaning up eggs cracked directly on the sidewalk, including egg cartons and shells strewn across the parking lot.

“This is your national park. Please put trash in the garbage or recycle bins provided and don’t crack eggs on the sidewalks.”

World’s Fastest Omelet

Chances are you will never be called upon to produce more than 400 omelets in 30 minutes, but just in case, American Egg Board representative Howard Helmer, who prepared 427 omelets in 30 minutes to capture the Guinness World Record, has some tips for you. He also holds the record for fastest single omelet (42 seconds from whole egg to omelet); and omelet flipping (30 flips in 34 seconds).

Use a pan with a good nonstick surface and a “space-age” rubber handle for a firm grip.

Use eggs brought to room temperature.

For each omelet, start with two eggs, two tablespoons of water and a 10-inch pan. (For one egg – who eats just one egg? – use an 8-inch pan). And, says Helmer, never try to make omelets for more than one person at a time.

If you are filling the omelet, additions such as mushrooms, onions, peppers, spinach, tomatoes and bacon should be chopped and either cooked or warm because the eggs won't heat chilled ingredients. If you are using cheese it should be at room temperature; the omelet radiates enough heat to melt cheese but not to cook anything.

Heat the pan, “until it is so hot it makes you nervous” says Helmer. Then add a tablespoon of margarine or olive oil. (Helmer says do not use butter, but does not say why.) It should sizzle, bubble up and melt right away. Add the lightly beaten egg and water mixture. The eggs will cook the second they hit the pan.

With a spatula, draw the egg from the sides to the center allowing uncooked egg to run to the perimeter of the pan. After 15 seconds, add the prepared fillings.

“Helmer keeps the handle of the pan pointed right at his navel while he puts the filling on the left side, from 12 o'clock to six o'clock,” says the American Egg Board. Then he folds the omelet from right to left over the filling. If the fold tears, it doesn't matter because the omelet is upside down as it slides onto the plate.

For omelets to serve several people, Helmer makes a large batch of eggs mixed with water, brings it to room temperature and then measures out individual half-cup portions with a soup ladle. Using this method, you can make four omelets in 160 seconds, says Helmer. 

Fast Food Eggs Plus

For a May 26 article at southernliving.com, Kimberly Holland obtained ingredient lists from more than a dozen fast and casual food restaurants and found that the eggs served by many of them are more than just eggs.

The eggs in McDonald’s McMuffins breakfast sandwiches have freshly cracked eggs cooked when they are ordered. However, the folded eggs in McDonald’s other breakfast sandwiches, such as Sausage, Egg and Cheese Biscuits, begin with pasteurized whole eggs to which modified food starch, soybean oil, botanically sourced flavors, sodium acid pyrophosphate, carrageenan, flavor enhancers, spices, herbs, monosodium phosphate, citric acid and soy lecithin are added. The total of ingredients in the egg part of the sandwich is 15.

Subway’s breakfast flatbread and omelet selections have similar ingredients, also totaling 15.

Panera’s Bacon, Scrambled Egg and Cheese Ciabatta is built on pasteurized whole eggs, a freshness preservative and citric acid.

Chick-Fil-A’s Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit begins with egg to which eight ingredients have been added. But the restaurant’s Egg White Grill is pure egg white.

As part of an effort to expand its menu beyond sweets, Dunkin, (formerly Dunkin’ Donuts) has been embracing more wholesome breakfast options. In the Sausage, Egg and Cheese Sandwich and Wake-Up Wrap you will get egg yolks, egg whites, soybean oil, water, 2 percent or less of corn starch, salt, natural flavors, xanthan gum, cellulose gum and citric acid.

Taco Bell’s Breakfast Soft Taco with Bacon has cage-free whole eggs enhanced with soy bean oil, salt, citric acid, pepper flavors, xanthan gum and guar gum.

The additives in these eggs are found in most processed foods and serve to improve and stabilize texture and shelf life. Under the Egg Products Inspection Act, companies that break, dry and process shell eggs into liquid, frozen or dried egg products operate under the continuous inspection program of the USDA. An official inspector must be present at all times when eggs are being processed, according to the American Egg Board.

Why Are Eggs Traditionally Sold by the Dozen?

The number 12 (and its multiples and fractions) is has been symbolic throughout history, according to foodtimeline.org: months in a year, hours on a clock face, disciples of Christ, tribes of Israel, Days of Christmas, peers in a jury.

One egg producer (an executive, not a hen) connects the tradition of selling eggs by the dozen to the 12 pennies in a shilling.

In an interview for a March 2016 article, Stephanie Strom, food business reporter for The New York Times spoke to Jesse Laflamme, of Pete & Gerry’s Organics.

He believes the practice of selling eggs by the dozen dates back to a measurement system that evolved in England after the Romans arrived in roughly the first century.

Under a system that came to be known as English units, a combination of old Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of measurement, eggs were sold by the dozen, which made sense because one egg could be sold for a penny or 12 for a shilling, which was equal to 12 pennies.

That English units system was used in the American colonies until after the revolution and became part of the system known as U.S. customary units.

Although Britain long ago adopted a different system of weights and measurements, it still sells eggs by the dozen, half-dozen or in multiples of 12 as does the United States. Many other countries, not bound by either the British or U.S. system, sell eggs individually or in multiples of eight or 10.

Strom’s ending comment “It’s not an eggs-act science” brought a bunch of “cracks” from Times readers, including “eggs-planation” and “egg-sellent,” but this one rules the roost – so to speak:

“An ‘eggs’-act science. LOL That's a great yolk! I can hear the chicks all laughing. At least those who are able to come out of their shells after they've been cooped up and hen-pecked. Sorry. I know that did go over easy. I'm just a hard-boiled middle-aged guy.

Al Bumin”

Un oeuf already!

Email Linda Brandt at brandtlinda11@gmail.com