What's making you smile/laugh today?

[Yudster]

People always talk about boiling an egg as the easiest thing to do in terms of cooking, but I think getting a soft boiled egg right is really tricky. Scrambled eggs are far far easier, and also the best way to eat eggs. Yummy.

[DevilsDuck]

I do soft boiled eggs the Delia way and it works everytime

Bring the water to the boil and put the egg in, keep boiling for 1 minute, then turn off the heat and put a lid on the sauce pan for 6 minutes

Then you have the perfect soft boiled egg!

I am the king of scrambled eggs!

[The Deadly]

Delia has helped me a lot.

[Bonanzoid]

People always talk about boiling an egg as the easiest thing to do in terms of cooking, but I think getting a soft boiled egg right is really tricky. Scrambled eggs are far far easier, and also the best way to eat eggs. Yummy.

Surely a fried egg is the simplest of the lot?

[Yudster]

I do soft boiled eggs the Delia way and it works everytime

Bring the water to the boil and put the egg in, keep boiling for 1 minute, then turn off the heat and put a lid on the sauce pan for 6 minutes

Then you have the perfect soft boiled egg!

I am the king of scrambled eggs!

1 minute and 6 minutes will only give you the perfect egg every time if the egg is exactly the same size every time. My difficulty with boiled eggs is in assessing the size of the egg relative to the cooking time required. Also, whilst I completely agree that you should put the egg into boiling water, even if the egg has been brought to room temperature beforehand, unless they are of far higher quality than the free-range eggs you get in the supermarkets, the shells crack and it looks - well, not nice.

Surely a fried egg is the simplest of the lot?

They are very simple I grant you, but I think the issues relating to hot spitting fat and the possibility of burning the edges, leaving uncooked white on the top, or having a yolk which is either overcooked or cold and completely uncooked in the middle, make for a lot more potential complexity than the requirements of scrambling.

[DevilsDuck]

Hmmm, we get our eggs fresh from the farm down the road. Free range and fresh within a few days and a hell of a lot cheaper than the supermarket.

[Yudster]

Better as well I bet, with nice thick shells that don't crack. None of the farms I use for other things do eggs really but when I can I get them from my friend - they are excellent, but the sizes vary enormously as she has a very mixed flock of hens! I think for most people though, and for me much of the time, eggs come from supermarkets where I am sorry to say the quality of even the best free range ones on offer is pretty poor on the whole.

[DevilsDuck]

Even get the occasional double yoker!

[Nicola_Red]

After fighting almost all day yesterday with the software that came with my new mp3 player (cheers Sony), I took to Twitter for help and a friend recommended a program called Mediamonkey. It is brilliant for someone with severe music-related OCD like I have - it flags up all the files with missing info and inconsistencies, is easily searchable, tags files in a way that actually make sense, you can even just drag and drop your own artwork in - I'm so pleased I found it. Yes, sad I know but these things make me happy.

[R94N]

Great! Winamp is a similar iTunes alternative music manager.

[The Deadly]

Sport!

[DevilsDuck]

Urghhhh!

[MadTheEddos]

Surely a fried egg is the simplest of the lot?

They are very simple I grant you, but I think the issues relating to hot spitting fat and the possibility of burning the edges, leaving uncooked white on the top, or having a yolk which is either overcooked or cold and completely uncooked in the middle, make for a lot more potential complexity than the requirements of scrambling.

Whenever I fry an egg it HAS to be thoroughly cooked right the way through. I do that by just flipping it a few times. It means loads of burned crispy edges, but I'd rather have that than an egg that's not properly cooked. The spitting fat/oil issue is generally avoided by cooking the thing on fairly low heat and not standing too close to the cooker.
That's as technical as my culinary skills get right now.

[Yudster]

See I need a fried egg to have a runny yolk, but for said runny yolk to be hot all the way through (therefore cooked). That can be tricky - nine times out of ten if someone is cooking it for me and asks how I like it and I say "runny inthe middle" it comes not just runny but cold in the middle. Which is retchy. It can be hard to judge.

[chrysostom]

1 tablespoon of butter/oil

Immediately have the flame on high, with a very hot pan - break the egg into the pan and leave it there for a five count.

Then run the spatula round the underside of the egg's edges, until the egg moves freely when the pan is wiggled.

Turn the heat right down for 1 minute, season the top of the egg (while flipping any excess oil/butter on top of the egg white)

Once the underside of the egg starts to show signs of golden brown turn the heat up for a few seconds and the egg is done.

(just how I do it)

[MK Chris]

This is the best public health warning ever (warning: it's very very sweary).

[dimtimjim]

Laterz too all you beautiful, sexy people (and Ben). I am off to Luton airport and on to Spain! See you all next monday x x

[Yudster]

This is the best public health warning ever (warning: it's very very sweary).

Such a load of bollocks (although I totally agree with what it says about homeopathy). We all got measles when we were kids - none of us died and our immune systems are better than yours as a result.

[MK Chris]

The homeopathy bit was my favourite.

Also my immune system is brilliant! But I never had MMR.

[Nicola_Red]

Yeah, I had everything - MMR, chickenpox, the lot. I even had whooping cough, cos there was some controversy about the injection causing brain damage so I didn't have it. When my granddad had TB we had the test and they found I had natural immunity - that was impressive for me. My poor brother was only three and had to have the injection - I can still remember hearing him howl in pain down the hospital corridor.

[Yudster]

MMR isn't an illness. It is three separate illnesses.

[MK Chris]

I was thinking that, has she had the jab or all the illnesses - I assumed the jab but then the rest of the post seemed to be referring to the illnesses. When I said I never had the MMR, I was referring to the injection. I did have mumps and German measles, but I don't know if that counts as a type of measles that MMR targets.

[Yudster]

German Measles is Rubella. Measles is different.

[Nicola_Red]

MMR isn't an illness. It is three separate illnesses.

I know, I mean I had all three. Just seemed quicker than typing out "measles, mumps and rubella". I've done it now though...

[a-moron]

Laterz too all you beautiful, sexy people (and Ben). I am off to Luton airport and on to Spain! See you all next monday x x

Adios Timbo, tu puta madre.
Seeing as you are away for a week I shall endeavour to insult you spuriously until you return.

Ya big used tampon sniffer.