Making them on top of boiling water is the same principle behind making egg drop soup.

I make them just like you would in a pan but do it in a pot. I can make a bigger batch this way without it spilling over the sides of my pan.

Ah, the gluttony principle of cookware. Higher sides mean bigger foods.

For most of our cooking, we use Calphalon One, which you do not machine wash. Every pan comes with a handle cover, which we immediately misplace so we have to use potholders whenever we cook just to hold the handles.

We also have a couple of Le Crueset pieces that we use for smaller portions. What can you say about a tiny pot that weighs 7 pounds? Durable.

It's like a double boiler method - makes the eggs really creamy--

same way you'd melt chocolate...

Put a glass or metal bowl on top of a pot of simmering water... Don't let the bowl touch the water...

The eggs take a little bit longer too cook, but it's a very gentle method of cooking them - makes them very tender and creamy...

Nothing to do with gluttony... try making scambled eggs for six.

Tender and creamy
sounds like a different board. Anyway, I am trying to come up with a reason to have exceptionally tender and creamy scrambled eggs. I would think it would be more difficult to over cook eggs in general, and I guess you could top some other food with the simmering water eggs, but I am not sure of any specific reason for this, other than for the general experiment.

Any food that would call for this?

eh, as long as they come out fluffy and dont stick to the pan, I dont care where or how the eggs were made. I usually eat mine fried. The only time I use the double boiler thing is to "cream" eggs when making desserts

It's one of the methods for making hollandaise sauce and also is the method for zabaglione, both sauces. Zabaglione is usually used in topping desserts.

From Giada de Laurentiis:

Mal... I may have to try the double boiler method. Seems like extra work BUT I like surprising the family with new and interesting methods in the kitchen.

Personally all my pan except one are Revere ware staneless with copper core. They aren't terribly expensive (a beginners set is a little over $100) and I expect mine to last my lifetime, my mom's have =) The one exception is a heavy cast iron job which I self seasoned, I use that when I have to sear something with a lot of mass like a roast. Cast iron is just too impractical with my current electric range, if I had to wait for my pans to heat up I would cook even less than I do now, and that would make me sad.

I will admit that I do have 2 teflon pans that get a bit of regular use here at home from the gf, but I am all over my 3 skillet/pan cast iron set I stole from my mom when I moved out on my own 10 years ago :)

you don't get too many guys stealing stuff from mom when they move out on their own, but hey I knew what I wanted, and believe it or not I have a huge cast iron care sheet hanging on the 'fridge for the gf to see since she always just washed hers when she lived on her own and had a single small skillet she ended up throwing away before she moved in with me because it got rusty :(

Oh, I must say, THANK YOU GUYS for starting this thread! I had my grandmother's cast iron skillet tucked in the back of the cabnet before this thread, and you inspired me to bring it out. Now I cook EVERYTHING in it, and LOVE it- it's got a permanent home on the stove now. Everything tastes better, it takes all of five seconds to heat up.... it cleans easier than my other pans (which I put in the dishwasher)... the only thing I don't make in it are omlettes!

Plus, using this pan I feel connected to my grandmother, who I never knew. It's a little bit of family history every time I make dinner... and I would have never pulled it out of the cabnet if it wasn't for y'all! Thank you! :icare: