How can I be sure my food is ready for a raw egg to be dropped on top?
When I go to a korean restaurant and order BeBimBap, there is usually an egg placed on top that is done over-medium/over-soft. How do I know if the food I prepared is at the right temperature to do this?
I'd like to be able to do this to other foods, like steaks, or hash browns, not just make BeBimBap.
Note: I'm not concerned about safety. I'm interested in the texture of the half-cooked egg, and keeping the yolk fluid.
Best Answer
There is some slight confusion but there are two methods for this. You either cook the egg separately, which is how they make BiBimBop or you poach or bake the eggs if you cook the egg on top of your food. With the latter method, the eggs generally cook very quickly so it doesn't take a lot of time but you are still cooking the egg using a heat source, you are not relying on the food to cook the egg for you.
When you make BiBimBop using a whole egg, you fry the egg in a pan before you place it on top of the food. This is why the egg often has a bit of browning around the edges of the white.
Here's an image of a BiBimBop with a whole egg:
There is a "how to make BiBimBop" video here that shows (around 8:50 in) that you cook the egg separately and place it on top of the finished bowl.
The other option is to bake or poach the egg by placing them on top of the food (which is still on the stove) and then covering the pan (or putting it in the oven) to essentially steam the egg, which is often used for hash. This gives a different final product than frying the egg and placing it on top, as the steam will cook the top of the egg while the still-cooking food heats the bottom.
Here's a video of Venison Hash where they use this method at around 5:05.
And here's a recipe that uses the oven version of this method.
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What is the egg test?
If your eggs sink to the bottom and lie flat on their sides, they are very fresh. If your eggs stand on one end at the bottom, they are a few weeks old, but still fine to eat. If your eggs float to the surface, they are no longer fresh. Don't eat them!Do off eggs sink or float?
If the egg sinks, it is fresh. If it tilts upwards or even floats, it is old. This is because as an egg ages, the small air pocket inside it grows larger as water is released and replaced by air. If the air pocket becomes large enough, the egg may float.How do you drop an egg safely?
There are three basic ways to increase the likelihood of safely dropping an egg:How do you monitor egg safety?
Wash hands, utensils, equipment, and work surfaces with hot, soapy water before and after they come in contact with raw eggs and raw egg-containing foods. Cook eggs until both the yolk and the white are firm. Scrambled eggs should not be runny. Casseroles and other dishes containing eggs should be cooked to 160\xb0 F.Are raw eggs safe to eat?
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Answer 2
The temperature of the food is mainly irrelevant, as you are not cooking the egg. It is not making the egg any safer to eat. You run the same risk whether you crack a raw egg into a glass and drink it, or top your steak with it.
If you like raw egg, find a source you trust and go for it.
If you are looking for a pasteurized or cooked egg, there are a number of ways to do that and add it to your food. In fact, you can pasteurize an egg (ensuring its safety) by cooking it in a water bath at 57 degrees Celsius for two hours. It will be safe, but look raw. You can, of course, get other consistencies (and safety) at other times and temperatures.
Using a low temperature water bath (sous vide) for you egg cookery, you can dial in on the exact texture you like...with the added benefit of no safety issues. Without dealing with your eggs as an independent ingredient, I think this would be difficult to gauge for something like a steak or hash browns. Having said that, see my comment about carbonara above, for example.
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