Egg in bread, eh?

This past weekend, M and I were watching an episode of our beloved Midsomer Murders - “Market for Murder,” specifically - and at one point a character asked her husband if he wanted her to make him an “egg in bread.”

“Eh?” I sat up, intrigued. Brit cuisine! And an appealing homely-sounding dish at that. “Egg in bread.” I had a pretty good idea what it entailed, and soon found verification on the intertubes.

Having found one recipe, I didn’t bother to search for others, but tried it the very next morning. Wheat bread instead of white, and I neglected to cut away the crusts (which I always resist, as it seems extravagantly wasteful to me). Used a glass to cut away the hole in the bread (ate the excised portion). Fried it up using, as the recipe says, “a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter.” I should have followed the recommendation of a commenter on the recipe page and allowed the egg to warm to room temperature before pouring it into the circle, but I was able to get the top of the egg to just set by spooning hot oil/butter from the pan over it.

No, it ain’t health food. Yes, it was delicious. Lots of rich yolk to be sopped up and just enough texture to the bread. By the time I finished, I wished that I had made more.

I tried to raise the recipe’s health quotient this morning, but with mixed results. I replaced the glug of olive oil with a shot of Pam, and applied the barest smear of butter directly on the bread in the style of a grilled cheese sandwich. Because of the lack of hot spoonable oil or butter in the pan, I had to flip the bread/egg complex in order to get the top set, and it cooked a little longer than I would have liked. Worse than that, however, was the marked flavor deficit in the “healthier” version. The lack of oil and (more) butter was keenly felt, or rather, tasted.

Some dishes are best left unreconstructed. Next time out, it’s the traditional egg in bread approach for me…but I’m keeping the whole wheat bread, which I think stands up better to the egg than white bread might. No promises about the crust.

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