For an old-time comfort food, there's no beating an egg and bread fried together in one delicious, picture-perfect package. The names are many but in my family, they’re called ‘Gashouse Eggs’ – well, except when they’re called Kellogg Eggs.
When my sister started kindergarten, our mother went back to work and our dad went back to the kitchen. Dad cooked breakfast every single day – without resorting to pop-tarts, cornflakes or even peanut butter toast.
Instead he followed his dad-designed Breakfast Plan, a two-week rotation listed on yellow-lined paper Scotch-taped inside the cupboard beside the stove. Oatmeal. Fried eggs and scrambled too. Every other Friday, hamburger patties with tomato soup -- yes, this pair for breakfast!
My favorite was Gashouse Eggs Day, when Dad dropped an egg into a slice of bread with a hole in the center and fried em up til crisp. Fried eggs ‘n’ toast – now that’s breakfast!
Others call an egg fried inside a slice of bread an ‘egg in a hole’ or a ‘toad in a hole’ or ‘hobo eggs’. (See all the funny names for Gashouse Eggs!) But in my family, eggs fried with bread are ever and always called Gashouse Eggs – well, except when they’re called Kellogg Eggs, the name assigned by my dad’s friend of 70-some years.
When I was down with a cold after Christmas, Dad cooked gashouse eggs for breakfast one morning. He waved away the bacon grease, explaining, “I use butter for gashouse eggs because that's what Mom did,” – meaning not ‘my mother’, mind you, but his, my grandmother. Talk about generations of comfort: I felt immediately on the mend.
GASHOUSE EGGS
Time to table: 15 minutes
Serves 1
- Soft butter
- 1 slice bread
- 1 egg
- Salt & pepper to taste
Heat a skillet on medium. Lightly butter both sides of the bread. With a small knife, cut a circle about two inches wide from the center of the slice. Drop the bread slice into the skillet. (Do fry the cutout too, some people like it best!) Put a little butter in the center, then crack an egg into the hole. Season with salt and pepper, then fry until the bottom side is golden and crispy. With a spatula, flip over and cook until done. Transfer to a serving plate with the cutout served alongside for dipping into the yolk.
Mexican Gashouse Eggs: Substitute a tortilla for the bread, add salsa and cheese.
Gashouse Eggs for Lovers: Cut a heart-shaped piece of bread from the center.
Piggly Wiggly Gashouse Eggs: Substitute bacon grease for butter.
Grilled Cheese Gashouse Eggs: Use two slices of bread, slipping thin slices of cheese between the slices before cutting out the center.
More Easy Egg Recipes
from A Veggie Venture, my food blog
Easy Spinach Nests
Baked Eggs in Cream with Spinach
Baked Eggs, Tomatoes & Anchovies
© Copyright 2009 Kitchen Parade
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"Mexican One Eyes"
Shall we go for 60?!
best, S
I liked reading the other names people use - eggs in a basket, one eyed sandwiches...fun stuff!
My parents also insisted on butter, as my dad did for making grilled cheese sandwiches. It just isn't the same otherwise...
My wife and I had a breakfast this morning of a plain old fried egg and toast sandwich. If we had read your article before eating, it would surely have been a Kellogg Egg!!!!
I made them, but went 'ewwww' as I served them.
Until I made one for myself. Instant LOVE!. Instant gratification. Better than the 'eggs in a frame' my Dad used to make for us. (It's gotta be a 'guy thing', making fried eggs that way. Yes? He was a cook in the army, by the way.)
We have since evolved into using salsa instead of catsup, and/or adding a splash of Tabasco if we use just plain catsup, mmmm.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane. Think I am going to head for the kitchen and making myself one, maybe even one for hubby......he's been a good boy. Got me a new fridge two days ago to replace the non-cooling 22-year old fridge that the freezer died a week earlier. Lost over a thousand in meat. Ya, I know, ouch. But the new fridge is smaller, and that is just fine with me.
The door 'beeps' when you have had it open too long. Love it, love it, love it.
BTW, I laughed out loud when I read Russ' memory of your dad folding the bread in half and taking a bite out of it to make the hole. So funny!!
Oh, and I use different shaped cookie cutters to make the hole. Keeps it interesting. LOL
Sally
Way better than the oatmeal you convinced me to start eating every morning for the last month! (Mock sulk)
My mom called them “Danish Eggs” (no idea why) and my sister’s kids call them “One-Eyed Monsters”…