Egg Cups

I confess, I do like egg cups. They’re perfect for eating a soft-boiled egg. They’re very common in Australia and the UK, but for some reason much less common in the USA. I don’t know why. Maybe people don’t eat soft-boiled eggs and don’t have to juggle a hot egg in their bare fingers to eat it.

I’ve been using them since I was a toddler, and I have several dating from those years — especially my bunnykins egg cup, but also a slightly battered soldier egg-cup that I think I was given one Easter with a chocolate egg in it. I have around six or so, all different, one of which is a small silver one that only holds a very small egg, perhaps a bantam sized one.

The other day I was at my local shopping centre and noticed a pop-up store with all kinds of things on sale, including a small tower of egg cups.

I was instantly attracted, because although I have a number of single egg cups, I don’t have any matching ones for when visitors stay and want boiled eggs for breakfast. Also these were plain white, which matches all my crockery. Best of all they were four for $10, so I bought them.

I just had a soft-boiled egg for my lunch and of course used one of my new egg cups. I’m delighted to report that the large egg fitted perfectly and the little saucer effect was perfect for the lopped-off top. 

Eating a soft-boiled egg is always a pleasure for me and I have a bit of a ritual to it and use one of my mother’s collections of little silver tea-spoons that she collected from all over. They’re the perfect size for eating an egg. When I was a child Mum used to serve my boiled egg with “soldiers” — thin strips of toast that I dipped into the runny yolk, then ate. It’s a good way to train littlies to eat an egg, starting with toast soldiers, then using a spoon to dig out the warm yummy remainder. And they don’t have to hold a hot egg. In some parts of the world they’re called “dippy eggs” and it’s not only children who love them. In fact I’ve mentioned boiled eggs with soldiers in several of my books, as a nursery-style treat for an adult or an invalid. 

In fact some readers wrote to me about this scene in my book The Autumn Bride, where Damaris cooks the first meal for the badly neglected and almost starving old lady, Lady Beatrice Davenham.

    “And I’ll make you something tasty to eat,” Damaris said. “What about a soft-boiled egg with soldiers?”
    “A soft-boiled egg with soldiers?” the old lady repeated in a whisper. “I haven’t had that since—” She broke off, her mouth wobbling. Her face crumpled and she scrubbed at her brimming eyes. “Blast the dratted dust in here. It’s got into my eyes again.”

The readers asked me, “what are soldiers?” 

There’s a cute video here of a couple of toddlers eating dippy eggs with soldiers. 

And for what it’s worth, I’ve noticed so many sites saying to lower cold eggs into boiling water. For my money that ensures the eggs will crack and leak into the hot water. I always start mine with the egg or eggs in salted cold water and slowly bring it to the boil, then, depending on how soft or otherwise you want, lift them out after 4 to 6 minutes, depending on how big the egg is and your preferred level of done-ness. You’ll probably need to experiment a few times until you have them perfect for you.

Do you use egg-cups, and do you ever make toast soldiers to dip them in?