One-Eyed Egyptian Sandwich

Oh, sure, there are lotsa recipes at J&BB for people who know how to cook. But what about the people who don't know how to cook? When will they get to cook something the Belle way? Now's you're time to shine, people. Marvel, at the wholesome food that is...The One-Eyed Egyptian Sandwich. My grandmother taught me to make this. The grandmother who couldn't cook worth a damn. Oddly enough, she's the only person in the family ever to have written a cookbook, but that's another story.

One-Eyed Egyptian Sandwich:
1 slice bread (whole-wheat is better)
1 egg
1 1/2 T butter
salt and pepper

1. Tear a circular hole in the middle of the bread, about twice as big as a quarter. Eat it.
2. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. When it stops bubbling, put in the bread and fry it on one side for about 30 seconds.
3. Flip the bread over, fried side up. Now, crack the egg over the bread so the yolk falls in the hole. Fry for 30 or so seconds more.
4. Flip the bread over carefully. Fry till done as desired.
5. Put salt and pepper on it.
And, voilà! A taste of old Egypt, or something. Actualy, my great-great grandmother did live in Egypt for a while, and went to the King Tut dig, and also shacked up with some low-rent Egyptian prince. So maybe she made it up.

Comments

[Standpipe Bridgeplate]

Where I come from, this goes by the rather more pedestrian name of "egg in a hole".

Whence "Egyptian"? Must we exoticize the Breakfast?

[Standpipe Bridgeplate]

I will read the whole post before commenting.
I will read the whole post befor…

[Kip Manley]

"Eggs one-eye," we called 'em. The Spouse called 'em "toad-in-the-hole" when she was growing up. —And whole wheat my Aunt Fanny! Oat-nut's pretty good, but the best is a potato white. Soaks up the butter nicely. And to eat the plug when you cut it like that is blasphemy! (Says the boy who learned this from a long line of Alabama cooks.) —You toss that four-bit round of bread into the pan and fry it up along with everything else, then use it to sop up what's left of the yolk when you're done eating.

(For some reason I'm terribly amused at the image of someone conscientiously measuring off a 1.5 tablespoon pat of butter while making this.)

On preview, and an utterly personal note—I know I've been neglecting the public face of the pier while I've been trying to rejigger the back end, but is there any particular reason why TypePad is rejecting my URL?

[Richard Campbell]

We called these "bullseyes" growing up.

[marksteen]

Momma called it an 'egg with a hat', and didn't eat the circular piece, she put it on top afterwards. Are you sayin' my Momma got it wrong!?

[Mitch Mills]

I've heard it called "bird's nest" or something like that. Yum!

[belle]

I think the reason I suggested you eat it is that I'm always making it for a starving Zoe who pounces on it before I get a chance to fry it.

[dsquared]

Kip; I suspect that you have too many hyphens in the URL; hyphens have become big with the fake penis pill crowd of late.

It has been a source of amusement on some of my other favourite blogs that you can't say "socialism" without naming a popular brand of anti-impotence drug, making discussion rather difficult.

[Kip Manley]

Let's jump tracks! No dashes in my URL at all. And I assume it's some sort of centralized TypePad comment-monitoring spam-blocking thing? I wonder who I talk to to clear my URL's good name? —I feel like I've gotten on the TSA's terrorist-hassling list or something. I need some comfort food; maybe I'll go whip up a toad-in-the-hole...

[Ralph Hitchens]

"Toad in the hole" is what my cousin called it last week, as she made one for her husband. And she also fried up the round piece, to use as a "pusher."

[The Medium Lobster]

The Large Lobster used to tell me this was called a "dunkin' egg," although it could have been mistaken. I find the Egyptian label strongly appealing; from now on I shall exotify all my breakfast goods with a touch of the east.

"Toad in a hole" perturbs me; I have no desire to eat a toad or to associate my food with one.

[Clancy]

I didn't know it by any name before, so it'll always be "one-eyed Egyptian sandwich" to me, my future children, and their children.

"Bird's nest" to me is a heap of mashed potatoes with a concave in the middle filled with early June peas.

[cafl]

Sailor on a raft at our house.

[Jeremy Osner]

"Bird's nest" and "Egyptian" intersect in that "bird's nest" is the name (in English; I don't know what its Egyptian name is) of an Egyptian cookie.

[des von bladet]

Are there really persons - to say nothing of omniscient Lobsters - unaware that toad-in-the-hole is sossages cooked in yorkshire pudding batter?

[The Medium Lobster]

Are there really persons - to say nothing of omniscient Lobsters - unaware that toad-in-the-hole is sossages cooked in yorkshire pudding batter?

Here in the Lobster household - which exists, I'll remind you, in a higher plane of reality where all knowledge as you know it is laid out before us like ants at a summer picnic - we refer to these as "conqueror worms."

[Jeremy Osner]

Mmmm... Conqueror worms... Takes me back it does.

[Kevin Hayden]

Yes, toad-in-the-hole is what dear Mama called 'em. When I hear 'One-Eye', I instantly think of M Python's 'one-eyed trouser trout'.

As for toads, I recall Mason Williams ...

[Mitch Mills]

Actually, come to think of it, I think I heard it called "egg in a nest", not "bird in a nest".

[djw]

Des von bladet, I'd estimate no more than 2% of us Yanks know that, including me until a minute ago. Indeed, most of us don't really have any idea what yorkshire pudding is, and what relation is may or may not have to pudding (unmodified).

[belle]

I'd like to think that this comments thread marks the first information on the internet about the Medium Lobster's parent, the Large Lobster. also, I knew that about Yorkshire pudding.

[LizardBreath]

I was simply awed by the prospect of the Medium Lobster's more remote ancestors. The Colossal Lobster? The Mindbogglingly Huge Lobster? The Lobster That Spanned the Universe And Whose Roe Formed the Milky Way?

[Standpipe Bridgeplate]

The Maximum Lobster?

[Jeremy Osner]

Aw c'mon, now you guys are just getting silly...

[Martin]

My mother used to make these, and by coincidence, I made two of them myself for breakfast today, before reading your blog. Except -- she called them "Egyptian one-eyed sandwiches" rather than "one-eyed Egyptian sandwiches". And -- much more important -- after making a hole in the bread, you must wink through it. Otherwise the curse of the Pharaoh or something will strike you. For good measure, I wink four times -- holding the hole over each eye in turn and then winking with each eye. Where did the whole thing start? I think possibly she saw it in a movie.

[belle]

woah, dude. I'll start winking through the holes right away. I can't imagine how I've evaded the curse of the pharaoh thus far. though, maybe that's the reason any bad shit has ever happened to me?

[annbb]

This is the very first time I've found ANYone that also knew these as One-eyed Egyptians.

[Tim]

I was fishing around the net and smacked into this page looking for the origin of this preparation of eggs. My girlfriend and I were watching "V for Vendeta" and saw it done this way. I haven't cooked an egg differently since. She thinks we should call it an 'eye opener'.

[heidi]

My father called these "Egyptian One-Eyes". I'm glad to know he wasn't alone. I wonder if it might be WWII-era soldier jargon. I saw this recipe in a cookbook once and it was called "Egg in a Frame"

[jason]

finally someone else knows what an egyptian sandwich is

[Jan]

My mom has also always called them "One-Eyed Egyptian Sandwiches". Glad to know our's is not the only family that appreciates this colorful name for a much loved, quick fix, comfort food.

[gideong]

its just a one eyed sandwich in my household, like the egyptian touch though :)

[Eleanor]

On a whim, I googled 'one-eyed Egyptian' while I was waiting for mine to cook. I was surprised to be directed here. I've been eating it all of my life. My now 83-year old Dad says that his grandmother brought back the recipe from the 1939 Chicago Worlds Fair. I've always accepted it as fact.

[squeakyfrommage]

My grandad called them (interchangeably) egyptian sandwiches or pyramid eggs. I assume the last because the toast is four-cornered and the egg can sit slightly up, making a vaguely pyramid shape.

[m. lipiecki]

my British wife cooked me up some one eye egyption for breakfeast,delicious. Been havin them for some thirty years now."toad in the hole" is sausage in yorkshire pudding.

[Bill Lodge]

The one eyed Egyptian is named after the god Horus or Ra. The all seeing eye was displayed on the upper bow of the Pharaoh's naval fleet. This breakfast delight got its name from the British stationed in Egypt when there was an Empire. It is not toad-in-a-hole which is sausage cut up and placed in a casserole dish and covered with a pan cake batter and put in the oven.