![]() ![]() ![]() While you'd rarely find people tinkering with the name eggs Benedict, what to call a fried-egg-in-toast remains in flux today. The 1941 film Moon Over Miami with Betty Grable uses the term "gashouse eggs," which may be a transliteration of the German word gasthaus, the word for a country house or an inn. Popular culture could have helped to popularize other names in the mid-20th century. Pop culture could have helped popularize other names for the egg-in-a-hole. (The name is more fun in Moonstruck, the 1987 movie about an Italian-American family, during which the Olympia Dukakis's character calls the dish "egg in a trashcan," or uova nel cestino.) Around the same time that Farmer's recipe appeared, many an Italian-American home cook who arrived during the migration waves between the 1860s and 1920s assembled a more rustic version, uova fritte nel pane, with peppers or tomatoes on the side. The recipe passed along like a folk tale, by word-of-mouth.Īn official recipe called "egg with a hat" first made an appearance in the Boston Cooking School Cookbook by Fannie Farmer in the 1890s, calling for a two-and-a-half-inch cookie cutter to remove the bread's center, which, served atop the cooked egg, becomes the "hat." With no recipe intro and fewer than 100 words, it's a quick instruction, but the cookbook's 13 print editions passed the recipe down through generations.īut as the hat in Farmer's recipe may suggest, the dish, in the late 19th century, would have gone beyond everyday effort, in part because of the cutout and perhaps because egg production wasn't as prolific as it is today - especially in cities, where there was little chance for raising chickens in a yard. A dish of more humble origins, a fried-egg-in-toast was cooked across cultures, brought to America by home cooks who spoke a library of languages. Eggs Benedict, featuring poached eggs, bacon, and hollandaise sauce atop an English muffin, was supposedly created at the swanky Waldorf Hotel - it was allegedly made at the request of a hungover Wall Street banker with the surname Benedict, and the name stuck. While egg in a hole (or egg in a basket, or egg in a frame, if you prefer) originated at the turn of the last century around the same time as eggs Benedict, the latter has a firmer origin story. But how did the humble dish, served across European cultures, end up with myriad names on restaurant menus everywhere? At a restaurant, the ingredients without sides cost less than $3 a serving, even if the dish features $9-per-dozen organic eggs with bright yolks, a slice of artisan bread, and new crop olive oil or cultured butter. And it's a win for restaurants, since the ingredients aren't expensive, it calls for minimal technique, and it's an easy upsell. The breakfast can serve as a reminder of childhood, a dish that's less absurd than Cap'n Crunch-encrusted French toast or an order of pancakes with Mickey Mouse ears. The cook then flips, browns, and serves with whatever accompaniments it warrants. In the meantime, a fried egg cooks in the hole, seasoned as the egg sets. Regardless of its name, the dish (and cooking process) is the same: A slice of bread toasts in a buttered skillet, minus its center, which has been cut out with a glass or a ring cutter. I probably enjoy cooking more than almost anything.which is why I adore this site so much!! Nothing makes me more happy than to create a meal for family and friends to share together and ENJOY.Whether you're calling it egg in a hole, egg with a hat, or gashouse egg, a fried egg in toast is having a moment. ![]() I'm Becky and I live in Providence, Rhode Island.
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