egg basics, one method per page
Twenty-four lessons on the shell, the white and the yolk, the air cell and the float test, grades and storage and salmonella, boiling and timing soft against hard, peeling and the green ring, poaching at 62 degrees, steamed eggs in buttered cups, scrambled curds, omelets, fried eggs and basted ones, baked eggs in ramekins, custard windows, the custard family, emulsions and lecithin, and mayonnaise whisked drop by drop.
One method, one diagram, and one honest egg. That's a page.
egg basics, one method per page
Twenty-four lessons on the shell, the white and the yolk, the air cell and the float test, grades and storage and salmonella, boiling and timing soft against hard, peeling and the green ring, poaching at 62 degrees, steamed eggs in buttered cups, scrambled curds, omelets, fried eggs and basted ones, baked eggs in ramekins, custard windows, the custard family, emulsions and lecithin, and mayonnaise whisked drop by drop.
Set in Space Grotesk, Inter and JetBrains Mono (SIL Open Font License).
Every fact in this book is as the primary source states it, fetched and read during this build: the Wikipedia articles Egg as food, Boiled egg, Poached egg, Scrambled eggs, Omelette, Fried egg, Yolk, Egg white, Eggshell, Custard, Mayonnaise and Emulsion, all cached at build time and cited in each lesson's source line. Two honest folds: the requested article List of egg dishes is a list-only page with no extract, so egg-family facts are folded into the Egg as food article and cited as Egg as food; and the Yolk#Nutrition request resolved to the article Yolk, whose nutrition lines are cited as Yolk. The book's text uses the US spelling omelet though its source article is titled Omelette. Where two sources state different numbers, each is stated as its source states it. Practical rituals this book states as its own plan (the order of the methods, the practice asks) are labeled as this book's plan and rest on mechanics from those sources. This is a book of beginner egg literacy, not a buying guide: no brand recommendations, the shell, the white, the yolk and the pan only. An independent guide; not affiliated with or endorsed by Wikipedia. No facts are sourced from Reddit, YouTube, forums or search engines.
Your purchase is for personal use only. You do not have redistribution rights: please do not share, resell, or republish this book or its pages.
© 2026 Steve Hodgkiss. All rights reserved. Personal use only; no redistribution rights.
Edition 1.0 · stevehodgkiss.net
Contents
Per the Wikipedia articles Egg as food, Eggshell, Egg white and Yolk, bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen (egg white), and vitellus (egg yolk), contained within various thin membranes; the yolk is suspended in the egg white by one or two spiral bands of tissue called the chalazae; the eggshell membrane is a clear film lining the eggshell, visible when one peels a boiled egg; the larger end of the egg contains an air cell that forms when the contents of the egg cool down and contract after it is laid; and per the list-only page List of egg dishes, folded here into Egg as food (which states the most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especially chickens), popular choices for egg consumption are chicken, duck, quail, roe, caviar and emu, and the chicken egg is the egg most often consumed by humans; per Egg as food, people in Southeast Asia began harvesting chicken eggs for food around 1500 BCE.
What an egg is
An egg is a shell, a white and a yolk, wrapped in thin membranes. The yolk rides in the middle, hung by one or two spiral bands called chalazae.
The clear film lining the shell is the membrane, visible when you peel a boiled egg. At the wide end an air cell forms as the contents cool and contract after laying.
The chicken egg is the one most eaten, duck and quail behind it. Southeast Asia has harvested chicken eggs since about 1500 BCE.
Crack one egg into a clear glass this week and name every part you see before you cook it.
Per the Wikipedia articles Egg as food and Boiled egg, the larger end of the egg contains an air cell that forms when the contents of the egg cool down and contract after it is laid; chicken eggs are graded according to the size of this air cell, measured during candling; a very fresh egg has a small air cell and receives a grade of AA; as the size of the air cell increases and the quality of the egg decreases, the grade moves from AA to A to B; this provides a way of testing the age of an egg: as the air cell increases in size due to air being drawn through pores in the shell as water is lost, the egg becomes less dense and the larger end of the egg will rise to increasingly shallower depths when the egg is placed in a bowl of water; a very old egg will float in the water and should not be eaten, especially if a foul odor can be detected if the egg is cracked open; per Boiled egg, a peeled boiled egg may appear concave or flat on one end due to the presence of an air pocket, and this occurs more often in older eggs with larger air cells due to a decrease in moisture.
Fresh or old?
Every egg has an air cell at the wide end that grows as the egg ages: air seeps through the pores and water leaves.
That is the float test, straight from physics: a fresh egg lies flat on the bottom; an older one lifts at the wide end; a very old egg floats and should not be eaten.
Candling measures the same air cell for grading: small cell, grade AA, then A, then B as it grows. An old boiled egg may even sit flat-ended from its air pocket.
Float two eggs this week, one from a fresh carton and one that has waited, and watch the wide ends.
Per the Wikipedia article Boiled egg, soft-boiled eggs have a partially liquid yolk, which renders the texture less dry, and soft-boiled yolks tend to have more of an umami and sweet taste than hard-boiled yolks; while the traditional egg timer counts to 3 minutes for cooking a soft-boiled egg, some how-to guides recommend longer cooking times ranging from five to six minutes; chef Heston Blumenthal, after relentless trials, published a recipe for the perfect boiled egg, suggesting cooking the egg in water that starts cold and covers the egg by no more than a millimeter, removing the pan from the heat as soon as the water starts to bubble, and after six minutes the egg will be ready; soft-boiled eggs are commonly served in egg cups, with the top of the egg cut off, and eaten with toast cut into strips, known in the United Kingdom and Australia as soldiers; in Southeast Asia a variation known as half-boiled eggs is commonly eaten for breakfast, cracked into a bowl with dark or light soy sauce and pepper, cooked for 7 minutes, resulting in a runnier egg, and commonly eaten with kaya toast and kopi; and in Japan, marinated soft-boiled eggs, ajitsuke tamago, are typically steeped in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin and water after being boiled and peeled, and are commonly served alongside ramen.
Soft-boiled
The old egg timer says 3 minutes; modern guides say five to six. Blumenthal's trials start cold, one millimeter of water, off the heat at the first bubble, ready at six.
Soft yolks taste more umami and sweet than hard ones. Serve in an egg cup with toast soldiers to dip.
Southeast Asia's half-boiled runs 7 minutes into a bowl of soy and pepper; Japan's ajitsuke tamago marinates in soy, mirin and water for ramen.
Boil three eggs this week at three, five and seven minutes and find your number on the dial.
Per the Wikipedia article Poached egg, a poached egg is an egg that has been cooked outside the shell by poaching or sometimes steaming, and this method of preparation can yield more delicately cooked eggs than higher temperature methods such as boiling; the egg is cracked into a cup or bowl of any size, and then gently slid into a pan of water at approximately 62 degrees C (144 F) and cooked until the egg white has mostly solidified, but the yolk remains soft; the ideal poached egg has a runny yolk, with a hardening crust and no raw white remaining; a chicken egg contains some egg white that may disperse into the poaching liquid and cook into an undesirable foam; to prevent this, the egg can be strained before cooking to remove the thinner component of the egg white; a small amount of vinegar may also be added to the water, as its acidic qualities accelerate poaching; stirring the water vigorously to create a vortex may also reduce dispersion; and in countries that mandate universal salmonella vaccination for hens, eating eggs with a runny yolk is considered safe.
Poaching
Poaching is cooking out of the shell, gentler than boiling: slide the egg into water at about 62 C until the white mostly sets and the yolk stays soft.
Three helpers against wispy foam: strain the thin white first, a splash of vinegar to speed setting, and a stirred vortex to wrap the white around the yolk.
The goal: runny yolk, hardening crust, no raw white. Where hens are vaccinated, runny yolks are considered safe.
Strain one egg through a sieve this week, swirl the water, and slide it in: your first clean poach.
Per the Wikipedia article Scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs is a dish where the whites and yolks have been stirred, whipped or beaten together, then heated so that the proteins denature and coagulate and form into curds; the earliest documented recipe was in the 14th-century Italian cookbook Libro della cucina; only eggs are necessary, though salt, pepper, butter, milk, water or cream may join; Dorothy Hartley noted two main schools, one breaking the eggs direct into the pan so that particles of clear white and clear yellow remain in the creamy mass, the other beating the eggs together first for a smoother texture, and Elizabeth David held that the eggs should be very well beaten; the mixture is poured into a hot pan with melted butter or oil, the heat is turned down and the eggs are stirred as they cook, creating small, soft curds; a thin pan is preferable to prevent browning; Julia Child described French scrambled eggs as creamy soft curds that just hold their shape from fork to mouth, entirely a matter of stirring the eggs over gentle heat until they slowly thicken as a mass into a custard; Escoffier's double boiler version prevents browning and gives aerated and creamy eggs, but takes up to 40 minutes; the eggs are usually slightly undercooked when removed from heat since they continue to set; in British style the eggs are stirred thoroughly for a soft, fine texture, while in American style they are scooped in towards the middle of the pan as they set, giving larger curds.
Scrambled eggs
Scrambling is beaten eggs coagulating into curds, written down as early as a 14th-century Italian cookbook.
Two schools: beat first for a smoother texture, or break straight into the pan so white and yellow flecks survive. Then low heat, stirring, small soft curds; a thin pan keeps them from browning.
Child's French style is creamy curds that just hold their shape. Pull them slightly underdone; they keep setting.
Split one batch this week: half beaten first, half cracked straight into the butter, and pick your school.
Per the Wikipedia articles Mayonnaise and Emulsion, mayonnaise is an emulsion of oil, egg yolk, and an acid, either vinegar or lemon juice; the French cuisine appellation seems to have appeared for the first time in 1806, with most hypotheses agreeing on the geographic origin of the sauce at Mahon in Menorca, Spain during the occupation by French troops in the Seven Years' War; modern mayonnaise is made by slowly adding oil to an egg yolk, while whisking vigorously to disperse the oil; the oil and the water in the yolk form a base of the emulsion, while lecithin and protein from the yolk is the emulsifier that stabilizes it; addition of mustard contributes to the taste and further stabilizes the emulsion, as mustard contains small amounts of lecithin; if vinegar is added directly to the yolk, it can emulsify more oil, thus making more mayonnaise; guidelines issued in September 1991 by Europe's Federation of the Condiment Sauce Industries recommend that mayonnaise should contain at least 70 percent oil and 5 percent liquid egg yolk; on average it contains around 700 kilocalories per 100 grams, or 94 kilocalories per tablespoon; and in the U.S., egg-free versions cannot be labelled as mayonnaise because the FDA definition of mayonnaise requires egg.
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise is three things: oil, egg yolk, and an acid, vinegar or lemon. The name appeared in 1806, most likely from Mahon on Menorca.
The method is the secret: whisk a trickle of oil into the yolk, and its lecithin locks every droplet into a cream. Mustard adds its own lecithin and helps.
Europe's 1991 guideline asks at least 70 percent oil; the result runs about 700 kcal per 100 g.
Whisk one yolk with a teaspoon of mustard this week and add its oil drop by drop until it turns.