Pig Eggs

Yesterday, I found this at World Market.

It's just the kind of random thing that speaks to me.  Eggs shaped like pigs had never occurred to me before, but it seemed like a good idea.  An attainable idea.  And it was $1.99, which was perfect with the eggs I bought on sale for $0.99.

There were no instructions, so I googled it.  No help (and, because Google couldn't help me, I expected the sky to darken and heavens to fall).  Then I gathered my courage and proceeded with the classic egg-frying setup.

No, I haven't ironed that cloth recently (or ever).  Why do you ask?

I preheated my pan to medium-high, sprayed it liberally with cooking spray, and dropped in my pig mold. 

I hesitated to crack my eggs directly into piggy, so instead I cracked them in a bowl first.  I felt very organized and mature.  And then I looked at the eggs still whole, in the bowl, next to the shells.  And I thought, Let this be a lesson to you, eggs.

Next, I carefully poured the eggs into the hot pan.  A little seeped out from under piggy, and I started to panic.  Started to wonder if this would work.  Started to wonder if piggy was warped and uneven and all my hopes for Egg Greatness would go unrealized.

Then the seepage stopped, and I relaxed.  And turned the heat down to medium low.

 While the eggs cooked in the mold, I had nothing else to do.  I turned my attention to wondering about this mysterious object.

 It came with the mold, but I couldn't imagine what it was meant to do.

Except lord over its eggshell kingdom.

Yes, I know.  I have bad lighting and wrinkly cloths.  Luckily for me, I also have this.  I thought it was a pig egg, but if it's upside down, it's a smiley face. 

Because I used two eggs, and piggy was pretty much filled, it became apparent the eggs would have crisped on the bottom before cooking through.  More importantly, I'm not a fan of slimy whites.  I punted when I decided my next course of action should be to stick the pan under the broiler.  I turned it on, slid the pan in the oven, and said some Hail Marys.  Then I started wondering if my pan was oven-safe.

I left it a couple of minutes, and out it came, all cooked and kind of over-easy- perfect.  How serendipitous.

Some salt and pepper later, I transferred it to a plate.  At that point I began wondering how I would get this pig-shaped egg outta the pig-shaped mold.  

And then it came to me...



 Yeah, that's right.  The unidentified pig-on-a-stick is an egg remover.

Actually, I'm sure not. But it worked.  All I needed was something to carefully loosen the egg from the sides, and the mold came free. 

After a quick trim of the seepage, it was a perfect piggy!  Hooray!  Paired with toast and garnished with the mystery pig device (drink stirrer? yolk popper?) this is a fun breakfast.  Paired with bacon, an ironic meal. 

The verdict: piggy is simple to use and made cooking eggs really fun. 

If you had more reasonable expectations of piggy and cooked only one egg at a time, or you're freaky enough not to be disgusted by slimy whites, you could probably skip the broiler step.  As a bonus in the one-egg setup, your upside down piggy/smiley face would be a cyclops.

I'll probably run back to World Market and get more molds to speed up cooking for a crowd.  And by "a crowd" I mean Beep, who can mow down eggs like it's the last day on earth for chickens.

I hear you can use silicone molds for pancakes, which has further appeal for pork-pairing possibilities.
Enjoy!

 
P.S. If you can figure out what the pig poker is, let me know.