one man's boring wankoff in a narcissistic, voyeuristic...

...shitty little car crash of a thread.


So, sultanas and raisins. What is the difference?







(This excellent thread title was just too good for me to resist, although credit is really Brass Monkey's who coined it for his opinion of another of my threads. Shame it's too long to fit in the box though.)

This forum really is going to the dogs.

Made me actually go and seek out Mon-kay's quote. Dan really does have an excellent turn of phrase.

I think sultanas are dried, seedless white grapes. Raisins are dried, seeded red grapes, which is why they tend to be a bit gritty. Currants are dry, seedless black grapes.

Raisins are dried for longer and come from California.

Thank you. I prefer sultanas but like both.

Next up: boiled eggs

My general rule, for a soft boiled egg is wait till the water's boiling, then put the egg in for three and a half minutes. This usually works to perfection, but just occasionally (eg last Thursday I think it was) the egg is slightly underdone. Any suggestions for an imnproved method? Egg needs to be just right for dipping toast soldiers into, but not translucent or raw in any way. I use large free range eggs.

Incidentally, is it just me or are the "large" eggs a good bit smaller than they used to be?

Wait for the water to come back up to the boil after immersing the eggs -
and only THEN bubble away for 3 minutes - but, NOT too aggressively.

A gentle bubbling ought to do it.
3 minutes - perfect soft boiled eggs with a runny yolk and softish white.

Butter the toast ... eggs on top ... lotsa ground sea salt and black pepper, a dibble of tabasco .... BINGO !
Bugger ... all this has made me hungry now ...

Thanks for that; I'll try it, though not convinced 3 mins is quite enough.
Tad of vinegar in the water is supposed to stop them cracking.
Must be lunchtime!

eowyn wrote:Raisins are dried for longer and come from California.

Well, actually California is the largest commercial producer, but Australia, Turkey, Greece, Iran and Chile are among the leading commercial producers of raisins. I know this because dried fruit is my raison d'être hahahahahha!

Merlin wrote:Wait for the water to come back up to the boil after immersing the eggs -
and only THEN bubble away for 3 minutes - but, NOT too aggressively.

A gentle bubbling ought to do it.
3 minutes - perfect soft boiled eggs with a runny yolk and softish white.

Butter the toast ... eggs on top ... lotsa ground sea salt and black pepper, a dibble of tabasco .... BINGO !
Bugger ... all this has made me hungry now ...

Sorry, but life just isn't that simple. Have you taken into account the size of the egg? 3 mins might be fine for a large one, but how about a medium one? Also, how about temperature? A lot of people rightly, or wrongly, keep their eggs in the fridge so does your 3 mins allow for that?

Well, as I said, I usually go for three and a half mins. But you're right, I do keep my eggs in the fridge. What I haven't always been doing is bringing the water to the boil again before I start timing once the (cold) egg is in the pan. This is where I think Merlin's advice may be useful. I was going to try it for lunch, but in the end I went for a cold lamb sarnie instead, made from yesterday's roast.

Cold roast lamb ... nice!

Dem -
re: Size - it's not the size that matters ... an ounce here or there makes no difference and the temperature (whether fridged or otherwise), as EH picked up, is regulated by starting the 3 minute count when the water resumes boiling. Viz., the boiling resumes quicker if the eggs are at room temperature as opposed to being out of the fridge ....

PS - I've never figured out why vinegar is added to the water ... other than ruining the taste of a good poached egg.

The vinegar stops the white oozing out of a cracked egg and leaving a big swirl of egg white in your water (and not in your egg)

Sort of like a puncture repair kit for an egg

Thanks for that!
Vinegar it is then ....

Wonder how long would it take to soft boil an ostrich or an emu egg ?

An hour ...according to this