Just catching up on the photos from the time I was sick recently. I was definitely too sick to go into work, but not too sick to take photos of my meals. :) Here’s the first – a comforting meal at the best of times, very good for when I’m unwell – boiled eggs with soldiers. The last time I posted a photo of boiled eggs with soldiers a number of people asked me why “soldiers”? I’m not sure, to be honest. Could it be from the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty? “All the King’s horses and all the King’s men (soldiers, perhaps?)… couldn’t put Humpty together again (Humpty being the boiled egg?)” Hmm. Any ideas, anyone? Look at the egg in the photo – it’s kind of Humpty Dumpty-ish, isn’t it?
If you google “boiled eggs with soldiers” you’ll find many recipes and variations to this simple dish. I like it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I wouldn’t eat boiled eggs and soldiers for dinner if I was feeling very hungry; I don’t think it would fill me up. But it’s a great savoury hot meal that can be prepared simply and quickly, great for an evening when I’ve come home from work late, am very tired and need something to eat, but not a big meal because it’s too close to bedtime. I cut the top off the egg to expose the soft egg inside and crack fresh black pepper over it before eating. I love dipping the buttered toast soldiers into that soft gooey hot egg. I keep cracking pepper over the egg as I eat. Beautiful.
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
YUMMO! I always thought they were called soldiers becasaue they are tall and thin like those old tin toy soldiers from back in the day!? Could very easily be wrong though!
That egg especially looks terrific. I also like lots of black pepper. As for “boiled eggs and soldiers,” I’ve never heard of that before.
are the eggs like 3/4 done? i love them this way. i cant stand them half boiled and then its all…ugh!!! gross with like membranes and funni uncooked-like egg white parts.
u must have also tried the sgrean/msian butter+ kaya toast and eggs? how do you like those? u noe what? tt’s gg to be breakfast tmr!! :)
Those “breadsticks” aren´t called soldiers here in Germany, but its the way my parents always prepared our eggs on sundays, when we were small. (and, still it is the most yummy way to eat boild egg!)
i LOVE pepper over anything!!! so good. actually, one thing i always wondered, does anyone know if pepper is good or bad or you?? or just kind of there? haha.
Your eggs always look so good with the cracked black peppers on top! That does look like a very comforting meal. :)
why is humpty-dumpty an egg?
i know that’s the tradition, but there’s nothing to indicate it in the rhyme. ;)
I posted on an older post but thought this would be easier have you had eggs in a basket?
Yum, I have to try this some time! I adore eggs with runny yolks… and in fact, won’t eat them any other way now.
replace the the soldiers with guerrilla commandos (french toast sticks) and throw some shrapnel in the egg (bacon chunks) and you might have something there.
Eeek… i remember this with much trauma. Have never been able to eat eggs like this without them being forced most unpleasantly down my throat.
Maybe, given my fairly recent appreciation of poached eggs, I should try again…
My kids love this for brekky, lunch and even dinner. As for myself, I used to hate this type of egg when I was young. I used to put a lot of kicap (soysauce) to mask the taste. Now, I’ve grown to love it.
We would never make good breakfast mates. That egg looks soooo raw to me! (If you don’t remember, I like my bacon to shatter as well!) I used to adore runny eggs but about 30 years ago while living in Japan (where they put raw eggs or yolks on things as a garnish) I developed what a friend calls “egg-squeamishness”, and can no longer eat eggs unless certain criteria are met. Which means I have to cook them, throwing out almost all the yolks, pretty much. And I can’t eat french toast, custard, creme caramel, eggnog, or anything “eggy”. My friends laugh at me and you probably will too, but it is a very real thing. I also can’t stand accidentally touching the egg-insides when I am cracking them. And yet…I love mayonnaise!!! And ice cream! I just can’t think about it while eating it…
There is no explanation for this. I was never traumatized by a runny egg or anything. One day I just woke up feeling this way and knowing it was totally irrational. I am afraid of old eggs, too, and go into great frets and tithers on how to dispose of them. Nutty, whot? I would be the first to agree. So your post made me laugh at myself, as it is quite a lovely photo for all the runny yolk lovers out there. Do you have raccoons down under? That is a funny sight… to give a raccoon a raw egg and watch them eat their treasure. (Now you know how I dispose of some of my old eggs!)
The soldiers are best eaten with vegemite or promite on them! Eggs and vegemite are one of the best combinations i’ve known!!! Perfect match.
I love anything soft and liquidy when I’m not feeling well – soft boiled eggs rank pretty high, and are quite nutritious as well! Love mine with white pepper and a dash of soy, just like how i grew up eating them. Other favourite ’sick-day’ foods of mine are macaroni soup with cabbage, carrot and shredded chicken, and fish congee with plenty of ginger.
I think I am going to have to comment on every egg post! I love them.
Boiled eggs are fast food without the junk. I call them boiled eggs with dippy soldiers. My parents always called them soldiers and I still have no idea why.
One of the ways I like to indulge in once in a while is to make real crispy bacon then dip them in the yolk instead, so good!
I second kissy about dipping crispy bacon into egg yolk! Mmmmmmm I must have butter (not margarine) on my toast!! It doesn’t taste the same :(
You’ve TOTALLY got to get yourself one of these units:
http://www.tefal.com.au/All+Products/Breakfast/Toasters/Products/Toast+n+Egg+2-slice+Toaster/Toast+n+Egg+2-slice+Toaster.htm
This baby boils/poaches/scrambles your eggs to perfection within the time it takes to gather your troops.
emma,
You may be right! I can see the resemblance.
Cindy,
I love lots of pepper too. I do find a lot of people have never heard of “boiled eggs and soldiers”, and whenever I mention it I get lots of questions about it.
hy,
I like them 3/4 done but I also don’t mind them very runny and drinkable. When I was a kid my grandma would make me a very runny egg in the morning and I would crack it into a bowl, add soy sauce and pepper, stir it up and then drink it down. :-P I love kaya toast! We’re currently out of kaya at home though.
Caro,
I love boiled eggs this way! I also love them Chinese-style, with soy sauce. And I love a good hard-boiled egg sandwich, better still – curried hard-boiled egg sandwich.
Erryn,
I have no idea! I figure due to its peppery-ness there’d be a limit to how much of it we’d eat anyway. Even those of us who love lots of pepper!
Cookie,
It is definitely comforting. The taste, the texture, and the act of dipping toast into the egg. All of it.
jessi,
I don’t know! That is a great question! But Humpty Dumpty has always been an egg in the illustrations in all my nursery rhyme books.
Stephanie,
Not sure – what is eggs in a basket?
Megan,
I love runny eggs – I’ll eat them not runny, but always feel a little disappointed when I do.
jetgirl,
It may be a little less comforting your way! Hahaha.
Charlene,
I think you need them 3/4 done so they are soft, rather than 1/2 done, so the membraney white bit is still detectable.
flower,
I taught Jac to eat them with soy sauce and now she loves them that way!
deborah,
Oh well! To each their own! I am paranoid about old eggs and will crack them into a cup and sniff cautiously before adding them to my wok or bowl or whatever vessel I’m cooking with.
Amycat,
I don’t mind Vegemite/promite/marmite etc but haven’t tried soldiers spread with it. Maybe another time I will give it a go!
dea,
All of your “sick” foods sound like my ideal foods too – my mum makes a fantastic gingery fish porridge. I haven’t had that for a while – must mean I haven’t been all that sick for a long time.
kissy and Clekitty,
Oooh, I’d love crispy bacon to dip in the egg. That would be amazing!
Clekitty,
We tend to cook with butter but spread margarine on bread, mainly because we have to keep the butter in the fridge (ants, heat) and it’s just not spreadable whenever we need it!
cary,
That would be great! What a fabulous idea!
I have ALWAYS called these humpty dumptys so i do think the soldier reference comes from this. It’s always so devastating when you don’t get the egg just right, but it’s the best eggs going. I could eat these for any meal of the day!