You would think teaching a kid to cook a couple of eggs would be the easiest thing in the world ... until the school system gets involved
It's been a couple of years since my daughter was in high school and their version of Home Ec ... Now called F&CS or FACS depending on how they write it out long-hand ...
When I went to school Home Ec was taught by a parent who had hands on knowledge of what they were doing, it wasn't until my last year in high school that the district required they have an actual degree in Home Ec (I remember because my Sewing teacher with 20 years experience had to go back to school to get a BA since her Associates degree was good enough anymore) ... But it was taught by someone who would teach you the PRACTICAL way to do things ...
Teach you to put water in the jar after emptying the pasta sauce in the pot to get that last little bit ...
to roast/broast/fry up the same cut of chicken ... with OUT a meat thermometer ... to perfection, or at least edibleness
how to cook up a batch of muffins which were tough but tasty (no stir 10 and step away back then) and could take the abuse of the lunch sack without turning into a baggie of crumbs
And the benefits of butter and bacon fat! At least for flavor ...
All this said - no matter how many years I and her grandmothers have taught her these practical lessons ... today I saw that the new system has become intrenched in her ...
and explains the state of my kitchen when I get back on the weekend ...
she cooks with OIL, lots of it ... And she cooks her eggs ONE AT A TIME, no salt, no pepper - not that she eats them that way, she puts it on afterwards.
In 8th grade I taught her to teach her teacher that the way to open an egg without sending bits of shell up into the yolk .. Oh how proud she was to explain to her teacher that mom put herself through college as a short-order cook (well one year of it)
What happened to that kid who felt I knew more than the teachers?
Somewhere between 8th and 12th grade they took over her mind ...
No matter how I try to explain that cooking both eggs at once is more environmentally friendly because it uses half the energy
Or how it's better to season while it's cooking because it will take more salt to get the same taste afterwords ... and the salt is harder for your body to process because it hasn't had the aid of heat to bond molecularly to the food
Or how using 1 tsp of butter or bacon fat will give the same non-stick power as a tablespoon of her oil
Not to mention the flavor boost ... And with the bacon fat you don't even have to use salt because it already has it.
Now she did do the trick I was taught by my big brother which I passed onto her to get the "perfect" sunny side up egg - cooked top with runny yolk which isn't half cooked and hard around the edge) ... add water and lid the pan!
Of course she should only use 1 tablespoon of water per egg in the pan but not more than 1/4 cup and the lid needs to seal to the edge of the pan ... and kill the heat allowing the steam to do it's job. You have to have a HOT pan for this.
For that single egg she used a lid too big for the pan and must have used 1/2 cup of water on a fairly cold pan - which meant she had to keep the heat on to build the steam
No wonder her eggs came out looking like rubber ... she basically poached her egg, over cooked the white, over firmed the yolk, and under flavored it
Yuk!
If that's the way they are teaching the kids to make them - it's no wonder there is a anti-egg movement!
Who wants to eat flavorless eggs drenched in oily, flavorless water?
Oh I feel a YouTube video coming on!
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