The Best Way to Eat a Soft Boiled Egg

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Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher. I love compound words, and the German language is unmatched when it comes to creating some whoppers. I came across this one when I ordered a product I saw while watching Bobby Flay make brunch on The Food Network.  He was making a soft boiled egg, and then pulled out a little gizmo to crack it and remove the top. I watched him do it and thought, Bobby! Where have you been keeping this thing?  And what’s more, why don’t I already have this in my kitchen arsenal? I’m one of those people who loves kitchen gadgets that do specific tasks and have never been one of those women who feel marginalized by receiving a KitchenAid Stand Mixer for Christmas.  The more, the better.

So anyway, while he was cracking the egg, I did a search for a soft boiled egg cracker. I came across this thing called the Clack Egg Opener.

Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher is what popped up. When I put this massive German word for this product into Google Translate, the result was “breaking of eggs.” So instead of saying, “Please pass me the thing for the breaking of eggs”, Germans decided it would be way more fun to say,  “Pass me the Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher, bitte.”  My dad is a retired German teacher, so I passed this one on to him to see if he knew what it meant. He correctly guessed something for cracking eggs. So once The Clack arrived I got right to experimenting with it. It is so much fun and I want to share with you how to use it.

Soft boiled eggs are eggs that have been boiled but only long enough to barely set the yolk so that it is still runny, while the egg white is firm. In order to have the full experience, you really do need a few egg accoutrements to round out your collection. An  Egg Cups and Spoons Set is necessary to hold each egg in order to eat it, and the opening of the eggs are small, so a small spoon is helpful. Regular sized spoons may not fit in the opening. Once you have everything ready to go, it’s time to start cooking.

Start by boiling a pan of water deep enough to cover the eggs.

Once the water is boiling, gently place the eggs into the water. I use a small strainer to gently lower the eggs into the water.

Reduce the heat just a bit, and set the timer. Recipes I found said 5 1/2 minutes for a soft boil, but that was too long for me. I experimented and found that 4 1/2 minutes is the perfect amount of time for the consistency I like. My brother came to visit for Christmas and asked me to make a soft boiled egg for him for breakfast, but he has a slightly different method. While I keep the water boiling for the full 4 1/2 minutes, he turns the heat off once it begins to boil, and lets the egg sit in the water until it is the consistency he likes. We tried both methods. His way makes the entire egg really soft with a runny middle. The way I do it results in a firm egg white with a runny yolk. Different, but both good. It just depends on what you like. Try out a few different ways until you get it just the way you like it.

When time is up, remove the eggs from the water, and place one in an egg cup.

Place The Clack on top of the egg, holding it by the ball on the top. There is a slidable steel ball that will be resting at the top of the piece placed on top of your egg. Slide the steel ball to the top, and firmly release it, whereupon it will fall back down to the top of the egg, perforating and cracking it. Depending on the force with which you hold The Clack on the egg and drop the steel ball, you may have to drop it once more to properly crack the top of the egg. Once you have done so, just tilt The Clack  to one side or the other, and it will cut off the top of the egg and its shell, leaving you an opening through which to put your spoon.

Let the oozage begin! Soft, runny deliciousness awaits as you put your spoon inside the egg to scoop it out. You can also make toast cut into narrow strips, and dip them into the egg to get every last drop. So. Good.

Since I first wrote this post, I came across another way to make a wonderfully soft boiled egg. If you have read my blog at all, you may have picked up on how much of a sucker I am for late night infomercials. 🙂 So one night I saw a commercial for the Egglettes Egg Cooker that allows you to cook eggs to a hard boil without the shell! This commercial had all the attributes of a good infomercial–the black and white segments of a frustrated person trying to peel an egg with lots of trouble, then the solution to all your problems in color! 🙂

These little Egglettes are silicone containers with screw tops that allow you to break an egg into them, then put the lid back on and boil the whole thing. When time is up, you pull them out of the water and take the lid off to find your perfectly boiled egg. You can go all the way from soft boil to a hard-boiled egg. You can even add stuff like spinach and cheese and mushrooms to make little mini egg shaped omelets.

I had to try this out because one of the issues you may encounter when eating a soft boiled egg the traditional way is the occasional errant eggshell. No one likes a bit of crunch with their soft boiled egg. To use the Egglettes, you spray the inside of the egg mold with nonstick spray, then break the egg into the mold. Screw the lid on tightly, add to boiling water, and start your timer. If you are boiling all the way to a hard-boiled egg, you then take the lid off, and “pop” the egg out by squeezing the silicone mold.

We made soft boiled eggs using the Egglettes, and just ate them right out of the mold. No shells! They were wonderful. They take a little longer than boiling in the shell–I found 8 minutes to be the right amount of time for a soft boiled egg. Not as much fun as using the egg cracker to open the shell, but the tradeoff is no shells in your egg. So you decide what your priority is–no shells or using a fun gizmo to crack an eggshell.

And there you have it. Some perfect ways to eat a soft boiled egg. And this little contraption makes it so easy. Sure, you could saw the top off of the egg with a knife, but this is a much more civilized way to go. 🙂

Or try out the Egglette. Any way you decide to go, you really need to try a soft boiled egg if you haven’t.

Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher. Breaking of eggs. Egglette. No matter what you call it, as Martha Stewart would say, it’s a very good thing.

If you have a favorite way of making soft boiled eggs, let me know in the comment section. And I’d love to have you follow me on Pinterest!