Lately I've been making my own Egg McMuffins at home. I make them more dietetic than McDonalds does, and they're just as delicious. No doubt they'd be even better with fattier ingredients, but they're still pretty darn good. Here's how I make them:
INGREDIENTS:
1 soft cinnamon raisin English muffin
1 egg
1 tablespoon (or more) shredded mozzarella (the kind that comes in a bag)
1 or 2 slices Canadian bacon
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon vinegar
First off, start water boiling so you can poach the egg. Unlike the chef in the picture below, I use a small pot to make cleaning up easier, and I make the water about an inch deep.
While the water is heating up, grab a muffin and some Canadian bacon from the freezer. Thaw them in the microwave for about 15 seconds. After that, cut the muffin in half and pop it into the toaster.
The water is almost ready to boil now, and that's exactly where it's supposed to be...almost ready. Turn down the heat a bit to keep it just below boiling. After that, carefully break an egg into a saucer or small glass bowl. Don't break the yolk.
Add a half teaspoon of vinegar to the water, then stir it to create a whirlpool in the center. Slip the raw egg out of the bowl into the middle of the whirlpool. The whirlpool will keep the egg from spreading out, and will give it a nice, round shape...well, sort of. Let the egg cook (poach) by floating on top of the near boiling water.
While that's going on, take the muffin out of the toaster, sprinkle lots of shredded mozzarella on the inside of one of the slices, and microwave it for 20 seconds. This'll melt the cheese into the bun. Spread a little butter over the cheese, and put the Canadian bacon slice(s) on top.
Return to the stove to see how the egg's coming along. If the yolk is still yellow, spoon some hot water over it to speed up the cooking. After a total of about about 3 1/2 minutes cooking, remove the egg with a slotted spoon and put it on top of the melted cheese and bacon on the muffin. Put the other muffin slice on top to make a sandwich, and that's it!
Actually the whole process is quick and easy...don't be deterred by the written-out length of the recipe.
A couple of caveats: don't use crumpets...they're dense like a bagel, and they don't make good McMuffins. And don't skip the vinegar, it helps to keep the cooking egg together. Lastly, don't worry if some of the egg squeezes out of the sandwich while you're eating. You could fix that by cooking the egg longer, but then it wouldn't taste as good. Learn to love the messiness!
12 comments:
Eddie, have you ever considered being a professional cook?
Yummy! I never thought of trying to make the McDonald's menu choices at home, but you make it look really fun to do. For the record, out of the thousand times that I've eaten there, I've never had the Egg McMuffin. What do the kids think, if they still live at home with you?
Woah! Neat stuff! I'm going to do this on the weekend. I'll tell you my results. Also, have you ever used biscuits instead of English muffins? I still prefer English muffins but I had them with biscuits and they're pretty good too. McDonald's in Canada is starting the sell them that way as an option here too.
You should call it Edd's Fitzmuffin
Steven: I'm an artist. I only got interested in cooking because I was looking for a way to make vegetables taste good.
Roberto: Haw! My family won't eat anything I cook. My wife grew up in Amish country, and has their belief that too much fussing over food is a form of gluttony.
Damiano: Bisquits? I could see that. Imagine using a bisquit fresh from the oven!
I don't know if McDonalds bakes their bisquits or just heats up ones that are ready made. If they bake them in the store, that's a strong selling point that they really ought to advertise.
McDonalds came up with the Egg McMuffin in 1972 as an inexpensive, easy to prepare version of Eggs Benedict, skipping the time-consuming steps of poaching the egg and keeping Hollandaise sauce fresh for long periods of time by constant replenishment. These last two steps could not have been efficiently managed by McDonalds minimum wage, off the street workforce, so they sought simplicity. Your version is far better tasting because it involves care and you carefully poach the egg. A fried egg is a dry egg at McDonalds. But it IS fast.
John K. schooled me about "Canadian Bacon."
We Americans have been living a lie! "Canadian Bacon" is NOTHING compared to REAL Canadian back bacon!
John knows his stuff!
It's from the pig's back. In Canada, all bacon is Canadian.
We call those individually-wrapped slices of American cheese, "back cheese".
My aorta is congealing into the atomic density of a hockey puck just from looking at the picture.
Wouldn't the vinegar affect the taste of the egg?
Anon: Good question! I had the same misgiving as you did and I made a few tries without vinegar. It always worked better with the vinegar.
If you use the right amount you shouldn't even taste it in the finished egg.
BTW, The vinegar is to keep the egg white from dissipating into the surrounding hot water. if you're determined to dispense with the vinegar you can try using a mold for the egg made from an old tuna fish can. That should keep the egg all together. Some of the egg poaching videos on YouTube show people using it.
I was at an anime con in Texas. The hotel restaurant served Eggs Benedict, with a difference. They grilled the English muffin with butter. There are not positive adjectives enough to describe the result.
The vinegar trick is a necessity unless you use those dreadful egg-poaching cups. The vinegar also adds a lovely tang to the egg.
Let's do brunch! In North Alabama!!
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