Boiled Egg and Toast

Recipe courtesy Nigella Lawson

Show: Nigella FeastsEpisode: Breakfast All Hours

Rated: 4 stars out of 5Rate itRead users' reviews (9)

RECIPE
COMMENTS & REVIEWS(9)

Cook Time:
4 min
Level:
Easy
Yield:
1 serving

Times:

Prep: --
Inactive Prep: --
Cook: 4 min
Total:: 4 min

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Ingredients

1 egg
Toast
Salt
Special equipment: 1 matchstick

Directions

And no, I'm not going to give a recipe for a boiled egg, but I do feel it's worth reminding you that if the egg is fridge-cold it should go into the pan along with the cold water when you put it on the stove, but if it's at room temperature - which is better - you should lower it into the water once it's started boiling. How long you want to cook it for is obviously up to you, but a beautiful, oozingly golden yolked egg had 4 minutes, as indeed mine does every morning. I also throw in a matchstick - rather than the teaspoon of vinegar or salt that some people swear by - but just because my great aunt always did and told me that it stopped the white cloudy substance flowing out should the egg crack while cooking. I think it does work, but I do it because I've always done it, not because I have scientific proof that it's effective.

And that's the thing about breakfast: there is a strong ritualistic element; that, too, brings it in line with feasting in general. I have the same breakfast every day. Early mornings are bad enough without having the spectre of choice to haunt you too. First thing in the morning, I'd rather make breakfast than a decision and so I only ever swerve from this out of whim or, occasionally, dietary restraint.

And like everyone with a weak need to be bound by habitual behaviour, I am irritatingly fussy. I want my egg to be Italian (free-range, organic and imported from Bologna, if you please: but seeing it, you understand why Italians refer to the yolks as 'I rossi' - 'the reds' of the egg). I want my salt to be Maldon and I want my sourdough bread to come from the Poilane bakery down the road. As ever, the butter has to be pale and unsalted and not fridge-cold, but not all sloppy-soft and oily either. I don't mind having a different breakfast, but I don't want a lesser version of the same one. Maybe it's my age.

I know it is the convention to offer various savoury delights for the breakfast table but in all honesty I can't oblige. My feeling is simply this: apart from the iconic ideal of the boiled egg and soldiers, what could be better than fried eggs and bacon, poached eggs on toast, scrambled egg with sausages? Yes, as Lord Lambton memorably said when found with 2 hookers, 1 black, 1 white, we all want variety, but I don't see fiddling about with the basic components of a traditional breakfast to make strange and wonderful cheesey-bacony-eggy-bready concoctions ultimately that satisfying.

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Comments & Reviews

recipe Boiled Egg and Toast
Patricia Cranford, NJ 09-05-2009
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Fond Memories
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

I woke this morning to see Nigella making this recipe. In our house we call them 5 minute eggs, (obviously because we cook... them for 5 minutes, not 4) and my children adored them when they were young. Her tips about how to boil the egg are perfect, because if you don't follow the directions, your egg will crack and you won't get the gooey center to dip your toast in. It is exactly these "everyday" things that novice cooks need to know. So it may not be a "recipe" but it is a technique. So those with the nasty comments, please go elsewhere and stop rating the recipes. And guess what I'm having for breakfast? Yum! Pat/New JerseyRead more
recipe Boiled Egg and Toast
Linda Jefferson, LA 03-28-2009
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Only Nigella . . . . .
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, no matter when it is served, you have just made it even better. Many of the other... wonderful cooks on FoodTV describe what they are making, taste it and tell you how good it is. Only you, Nigella, can describe food so well that you can taste it in your mind even before it is cooked. Your description is so basic and wonderful, I love just hearing you talk about what you are making. No one can describe food the way you can. And thank you for the hint about using room temp eggs, lowering them into boiling water, and then start timing them. I love your show and tape every one to watch over.Read more
recipe Boiled Egg and Toast
Mike Des Plaines, IL 03-28-2009
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Felt like a kid again
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

This just brought back my childhood. Great feeling and a great egg. Like the match stick. M it won't hurt a fly let alone... you. Match stick ore from the old school. I use them in my garden with my pepper plants. Nigelia you know how to warm my heart. Thank you! Read more
recipe Boiled Egg and Toast
M Allentown, PA 03-28-2009
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1 star is much too HIGH a rating for this
Rated: 1 stars out of 5

Cooking shows are supposed to show how to cook. GIRL matchsticks contain poison. Undercooked eggs can be unhealthy; unless... you get your PERFECT eggs imported, of course. Three dim-witted paragraphs are ridiculous. Get a life, get some cooking skills, and get some writing skills. Read more
recipe Boiled Egg and Toast
Anonymous 09-16-2007
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Leave the observations to the shows
Rated: 1 stars out of 5

Title says it all. Don't need 3 freaking paragraphs on how to boil a effing egg.
recipe Boiled Egg and Toast
Anonymous 09-02-2007
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Sometimes simple is best
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

I agree with Nigella. Egg and toast has been a comfort food in my family for a long time.