one-hour egg
the egg looked as though it had been poached. yet, as i pressed the side of my fork into the soft white that surrounded it, then down to the glowing yellow center, no oozing yolk emerged. rather, the yolk was the same texture as the white, creamy and delicate.
i was exploring the one-hour egg at crush. it was one of those nights when the restaurant looked it’s best – that is to say, full of people, voices and bodies smoothing out the sharp edges and bright whites of the décor. i had snagged a bar stool and was there for snacks and several of jared’s summer cocktails.
the egg shared it’s plate with la tête de cochon, a medallion of cured meat from a pig’s cheek and jowls (i had hoped it would be the whole head – brains and such – when i saw it on the menu, but was assured that this wasn’t the case). i won’t go as so far as to say that the egg overshadowed the charcuterie, but when eaten together it elevated the meat to places it never would have gone on it’s own.
it’s hard for me to imagine anyone eating this egg without wondering how they could recreate it at home. i’d tell them – put an unshelled egg in a 148 degree water bath for an hour.
the challenge, of course, for most people at home, is to keep the water at a consistent temperature for an hour. fortunately for crush (particularly for their interns), a machine has been invented to take care of this.
the wiry part of the contraption – the immersion circulator – goes into a water bath and keeps it at the desired temperature, which is usually very low. unless food has it’s own packaging (a shell), it is vacuum-sealed in plastic before being submerged (thus the name of this method, sous vide). meat cooked in this way retains all of it’s moisture, vegetables their color and flavor. a more interesting and complete discussion is HERE.
crush has experimented with short ribs and rabbit and chicken. tender meat has resulted, but as with most things, simple has won out, and the one-hour egg has a place on the menu.
Pat My Butter 