If you review my Monday, March 12, 2012 post about “Soft
Boiled Eggs,” you already know how obsessed I am about making and serving the
perfect soft boiled egg. Recently our friend Julie and I were talking about egg
toppers. I told her about my purchase of the “Rösle Egg Topper.” I told her that
while I have got all the proper tools for serving and eating soft-boiled eggs,
I have not perfected making the “perfect soft-boiled egg.” Julie had the
solution!
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| Rösle Egg Topper |
I have looked and tried many methods of cooking perfect
soft boiled eggs. Do you start the eggs in cold water, or do you drop them in
when the water begins to boil? How long do you cook them? Do you poke a hole in
the top of the egg first? Then how do you cut the top off and how do you peel
them?
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| Chef’s Choice® International Gourmet Egg Cooker |
Julie purchased an electric Chef’s Choice®
International Gourmet Egg Cooker at Chef’s Catalog. Her enthusiasm when
describing how it cooks perfect cook soft, medium, and hard boiled eggs every
time peaked my interest. In addition, it will also cook 3 poached eggs just by
changing the plastic insert.
Now I am not one of those people that collect useless
electric gadgets, when the end result can be achieve by normal cooking methods,
without all of the clutter, storage and unnecessary electric usage. Since it is
apparently impossible for me to cook perfect soft boiled eggs using traditional
timing methods, I thought this might be a viable solution.
I immediately went online to learn more about this
marvelous egg cooker. Could it be true? I went to the Chef’s Catalog website http://www.chefscatalog.com/product/23568-chefschoice-egg-cooker.aspx
If I needed a reason not to buy it, It came only in white
and stainless steel. I needed black to match my kitchen. I went to the Sur La
Table site http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-546432/ChefsChoice-Egg-Cooker next and found it there as well. They had it
in black and stainless steel. I also a $10.00 gift coupon, so
I was finding it difficult to say no to this purchase.
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| Egg holders, egg topper, egg spoons |
A couple of days later I went to the store and purchased
it. The next morning I opened the box and took it out. . It comes with a 3
compartment egg poaching tray, and a 7 compartment soft, medium, and
hard-boiled tray. Both trays are plastic. This 7 compartment tray was warped
and did not sit securely on the electric base. The base has a water reservoir
that is supposed to have a fill line on it so you don’t overfill the base. I
couldn’t find the fill line. I put on my glasses and there it was. I filled the
reservoir with 3/4 cup of water and set the egg tray on top.
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| Soft boiled eggs |
The instructions
say to wash the egg shell before placing them into the tray. I washed the eggs
and placed them into the slots. I put the top on and found that it would not
seat properly because it was warped. I press the top down and let it sit
loosely on the top. I set the timer to the #8 position under the “SOFT” marking
on the slider control arm, because I was using large eggs. This timing I am
sure will need some fine tuning. I turned the lighted “On/Off” rocker
switch to the on position.
Within
minutes steam began rising out of the top dome vent hole. At this time I held
down the top figuring the steam would correct the warped egg tray. I was right.
The top finally closed securely. After about 8 minutes The beeper sounded
telling me that they eggs were done. I could hardly wait. Following the
instructions I carefully lifted the lid to allow the very hot steam to escape
safely away from me. I didn’t read the
directions to the end and didn’t realize that I would need to cool the eggs
immediately to stop the cooking process. Instead of running them under cold
water, I filled a pot with cold water and lowered the tray of eggs into
it.
During
the time that it took me to fill water in a pot the eggs continued
cooking slightly longer than they should have. They were almost perfect.
I will have to try the hard boiled next, followed by the poached eggs.
Would I recommend this kitchen tool? If you have the storage space and
perfect soft boiled eggs are important to you, then yes. I have decided
to call my egg cooker R2-D2 because it reminds me of Star Wars.
Thanks Julie... I can finally get some sleep.
© TMelle 2012
Thanks Julie... I can finally get some sleep.
I'm
not really into acquiring a lot of kitchen tools or gadgets unless they
are useful. There are certain things that you just must have in your
kitchen. A really good instant read thermometer is just one example. How
many of you have a drawer full of thermometers that just don't work?
Before you throw them out have you ever calibrated them? To learn how to
calibrate your thermometer check out the following link:
Wasn't
that easy? A good thermometer is a critical kitchen tool. You need one
for checking food for proper cooked temperature, a special one for
deep-frying and candy making, etc.
Every now and
then I come across a tool that really has a purpose in my kitchen. My
wife being the practical one will ultimately ask "why do we need that?"
or "where are you going to keep it?" Since space is limited in our condo
everything we buy must have a place to store it after we use it.
In my opinion every kitchen needs an immersion blender with attachments. We have a food processor. Why do we need an immersion blender? I really enjoy my food processor for many big jobs but not for smaller ones. If you buy the right blender it can be a serious time saver.
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| It just takes the guess work out |
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| Immersion blender makes short work of pea soup |
In my opinion every kitchen needs an immersion blender with attachments. We have a food processor. Why do we need an immersion blender? I really enjoy my food processor for many big jobs but not for smaller ones. If you buy the right blender it can be a serious time saver.