IMBB? No.16: Boiling Eggs to Music

Relating a modest off-broadway event like End of Month Egg on Toast Extravaganza with it's big time inspiration Alberto's Is My Blog Burning? is a difficult thing to to do at the best of times. Is it the shadow? Is it the reflection in the puddle? Is it the opposite but equal reaction? Is it Sewamono to Kabuki? With IMBB doing eggs this month it feels like Josef Stalin giving a cheeky khryu-khryu. And speaking of Animal Farm, while on the money politically, does anyone else think the animals in the barn farm of Orwell relatively quaint? The industrialised base of the totalitarianism that we managed to dodge, but animals mostly didn't. In short it's like a searing allegory of battery farming done with a Tuesday evening wine and cheese night of the Fabian Society. Personally though, I can't imagine anybody in these foody spheres not willing to cough up an extra dollar or so on the safe bet that proper free-range eggs are significantly better for the chook and the happy moral free-ride that they're tastier. Even so, not one to let a neat segue go past, classy Viv of Seattle Bon Vivant has blown open the cage door by opening eggs to IMBB and I'm still standing there going bwoak with my boiled eggs.

Why boiled? Well I thought I'd do something simple that I couldn't do well. They are deceptively easy as I noted by the eggs in the ramen pic up above and how they were hard boiled en masse but with an accuracy that allowed the very slightest sheen of undone yolk. I can also never remember how long it's supposed to take and even a sad knick knack collector like myself, finds egg timers a complete waste of time (no pun intended). While I could probably nail a good time for myself, cooking for others ranges from nice and runny to those who see each drop of raw yolk as a festering pit of salmonella. I took the times from James Patterson's Kitchen Essentials and saw how it worked for myself. As for the times, well what is time really? I'd choose the passing of an appropriate length song as a handy guide.

Boil the water. Pierce the rounder end of the egg with a drawing pin to allow the gasses to escape. Place the eggs in. Bring back to the boil and then a high simmer. The eggs pictured are taken cold from the fridge and were they warmer, freshly taken from the nether regions of a chicken for example, the times should be shortened.

4 minute egg:

The Propellerhead's Spybreaks'(short one) bass line is one of the most compelling bass lines this side of Cannonball. And while Cannonball has a tentative lope before turning it on, Spybreak is all skinny arms and ski-rope. It is of course better know as the theme of the Matrix and should have most leaning over backwards and dodging imaginary bullets while the eggs cooks to a lovely runny conclusion. Other possible alternatives: The Whore Hustle and The Hustlers Whore, PJ Harvey; Down To Mexico, Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her; or Auto Pilot, Queens of the Stone Age. A second longer gets you Always on My Mind, the Petshop Boys - worth a thought.

6 minute egg:

Right on 6 minutes gets you a good balance of runny and composition with 電気GROOVE's ボクの姉さん. A cute piece of cod reggae that's charming enough. But a few seconds runnier and you've got Black Sabbath's medieval rock masterpiece Iron Man. A bit firmer, and it's disco in the kitchen with Groove Armada's Superstylin or run out and punch someone after your egg is done with Rage Against the Machine's Wake Up.

8 minute egg:

Nothing 8 minutes on the knocker but some interestingly similar dilemmas. Slightly runnier with Black Sabbath's masterpiece of chops and retarded drumming, War Pigs/Luke's Wall or Groove Armada's chillier relaxo tunes of Inside My Mind. Better done would be a little over for Dimitri from Paris' frankly more fun Back in the Daze or the tchicka tchicka faux spy groove of Dirty Larry. Very tempting to push further on with Ministry's Jesus Built My Hotrod (redline version) and yank it out just as the fade-out becomes nearly inaudible.

10 minute egg:

10 minutes was a little overdone with no shininess. The Stooge's We Will Fall is a little over but is also a tremendously boring song for them, if not anybody. Boris'cover of Me and the Devil Blues would make for a more interesting 10 minutes but the perfect ever so slightly under hard boiled egg is Metallica's To Live is to Die. For my liking take it out as the lute takes over at the end and walk like Sir Lancelot to the egg-cup.



Marbled Eggs

As an added bonus. These are commonly known as tea eggs and are a gently cracked hardboiled egg allowed to simmer in a mix of tea, soy sauce, and star anise amongst others for a few hours. I used red wine, rosemary, and peppercorns in the hope it would end up tasting like steak and eggs with a red wine jus. I was, of course, deluded. A little bitter but pretty enough though wouldn't you say? Yes.