Jacques Pepin everyday egg breakfast

May 15, 2015 6:56 AM

I'm trying to recall a cooking method. I saw it mentioned on, I believe, Top Chef within the past few seasons. I'm pretty sure it was Jacques Pepin, and he mentioned that his daily breakfast was a soft-boiled egg he prepared in a mug, possibly in a microwave. It basically seemed like a hack of his eggs en cocotte recipe.

This came up during a discussion at the office about the practicality of cooking a soft-boiled egg here, so my questions are these:

- What is the technique I'm half-recalling?
- Does it, in fact, use a microwave?
- Does it work reliably enough, without exploding, to try in the office microwave? Or is the margin for messy, messy error too small?

posted by mkultra to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

What I'd do is get a large mug of water from the hot water dispenser (assuming your office has one), put that in the microwave for a minute or so to get the water even hotter. Then, remove from the microwave, add the egg, cover, and steep for 5-10 minutes (you'll probably have to experiment with times depending on how hot the water gets, the size and material of your mug, and the size of the egg).
posted by melissasaurus at 7:14 AM on May 15, 2015

I think Jacques Pepin is the bees knees, but my Google-Fu could only find methods that used the following Microwave Egg Boiler.

I think that the secret is low heat for a relatively long time.
As far as putting the metal tray into your microwave and not having it go KABLOOEY, I suspect witchcraft.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 8:01 AM on May 15, 2015

If it reminded you of eggs en cocotte, it sounds like there should be more to it than exploiting the hot-water tap on the coffee maker (although that is 100% going in my repertoire); was it something like these microwave eggs en cocotte instructions? I frequently make eggs for knock-off mcmuffins by just cracking an egg into a ramekin and making sure to take it out and poke it frequently so it doesn't explode, but only because I don't care that it comes out dry and weird; it looks like the recipe I linked is supposed to be a little more genuinely foodlike (I have not actually tried it).
posted by dorque at 8:03 AM on May 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

You did not dream this up...I know I saw it too (I'm an avid Top Chef watcher). For the life of me I can't remember the details though. Have you looked in the Top Chef show site? They may have video clips or a discussion board talking about it.
posted by MultiFaceted at 9:19 AM on May 15, 2015

I don't know the show, but I make soft boiled eggs in a mug all the time. You need a small mug, or at least pretty narrow. Crack the egg into it, prick the yolk with a knife or fork just slightly, and cover the thing with cling film. Microwave for about 45 seconds, checking every 15 seconds or so. It goes from not cooked to rubber very quickly, so you'll have to do it a few times to learn exactly how long your microwave needs.

Stop it while the white is still a little runny, and leave the cling film on for it to finish cooking on its own.

I have never had this explode, but the mugs are a pain in the ass to wash, especially if you don't do it right away.

Also the white is a bit more overcooked compared to the yolk than you get with a normal sift boiled egg. But the convenience is worth it to me, especially when I'm at work.
posted by lollusc at 6:30 PM on May 15, 2015

Ask reddit.com/r/kitchenconfidential/ - they'll know.
posted by Mistress at 2:19 AM on May 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

A pat of butter smeared in the mug before the egg eases the cleanup and adds flavor.
posted by werkzeuger at 11:49 AM on May 16, 2015