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09/19/2001 Archived Entry: "Perfect Hard-Cooked Eggs and Hungarian Egg and Potato Casserole"

The following two recipes used to be on the WOR web-site, www.WOR710.com. That site no longer offers my recipes, however, so I thought, for the record, they should be here, at www.thefoodmaven.com. They are incredibly popular.

The first sounds like a joke: Offering a recipe for hard-boiled eggs. But I love a properly boiled egg, just as is, sprinkled with a little sea salt or mashed with mayonnaise into egg salad, and I loathe the poorly boiled ones that are more typical. I am not alone. In fact, after I first offered this method on Food Talk, a listener I met at an event told me it changed her life. She’d never had such a good hard-cooked egg before and making it right was easier than making it wrong. Here’s what I do to get that perfect tender white and just-firm yolk: You’ll never see (or smell) a sulfurous green-gray ring around the yolk again.

The second recipe is an adjunct to the first: It’s something to make with hard-cooked eggs, a delicious Hungarian egg and potato casserole.

Hard-Cooked Eggs
Put cold eggs in a pan that holds them comfortably -- not tightly, but not vastly bigger than necessary.

Cover the eggs with cold water by about one half inch. Bring the water to a rolling boil over high heat. As soon as it comes to a boil – and I mean immediately -- cover the pot, remove the pan of eggs from the heat, and let it stand for 10 minutes.

That’s the timing for large eggs. Add another minute to three minutes for extra large and jumbo eggs. The absolutely exact timing depends on several factors -- the pan size and consequently the amount of water it holds, the number of eggs you’re cooking, the pan’s weight, the intensity of your stove’s flame, etc. So you’ll have to adjust the timing slightly -- to your equipment, experience and taste. That means the first eggs may not turn out perfectly perfect, but after that they should be. In any case, they will never be overcooked, but perhaps slightly undercooked, meaning the yolk may not become dry and powdery to the center.

Hungarian Potato and Egg Casserole

Serves 4

In Hungary, this is served as a side dish, but it is so rich I like to serve it as a lunch or dinner main course with a big salad and/or a cooked vegetable. (You might like it as part of a Yom Kippur break-fast.) It’s from my book What to Cook When You Think There’s Nothing in the House to Eat. I remember that when I formulated it, using an old Hungarian recipe as the model, I reduced the amount of butter significantly. Still, even in this lower-fat form, it is not a diet dish, and if you try to reduce the fat further by using low-fat sour cream or less butter, you will miss the point, and the deliciousness, of it. (

1 1/2 to 2 cups sour cream
1 small clove garlic, pressed or crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (or a few dashes Tabasco)
3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 to 2 pounds all-purpose potatoes (about 5 medium), peeled, cooked,
and sliced 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick
4 hard boiled eggs, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1/2 cup fine dry (unseasoned) breadcrumbs
3/4 teaspoon sweet paprika

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, garlic, salt, pepper, and cayenne (or Tabasco). Blend well.

With 1 tablespoon of the butter, coat the inside of an 8-inch-square (or equivalent size) baking dish, then make a layer of about one third the potatoes.

Arrange 2 of the sliced eggs on top of the potatoes. With a spatula, spread on about one third of the sour cream mixture. Repeat the potato layer, the egg layer, and sour cream. Add a final layer of potatoes, then the final one third of sour cream.

Sprinkle evenly with bread crumbs, dot with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Sprinkle with paprika.

Bake for 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. (Can be reheated.)