Egg in the basket


Egg in the basket—also known by many other names—is an egg fried in a hole in a slice of bread. A waffle or bagel can also be substituted for the slice of bread.

Names

Variant names for the dish include "bullseye eggs", "eggs in a frame", "egg in a hole", "eggs in a nest", "gashouse eggs", "gasthaus eggs", "hole in one", "one-eyed Jack", "one-eyed Pete", "pirate's eye" and "popeye". The name "Gashouse Special" is used in the 1975 book The Kids' Kitchen Takeover by Sarah Stein. The name "toad in the hole" is sometimes used for this dish, though more commonly refers to sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter.

Description

The dish is typically bread with an egg in the center and then cooked with a little butter or oil.
It is commonly prepared by cutting a circular or square hole in the center of a piece of bread. The bread, sometimes buttered prior to cooking, is fried in a pan with butter, margarine, cooking oil, or other fat. When browned, the bread is flipped, and the egg is cracked into the "basket" cut into the toast. Alternatively, the egg may be dropped into the bread before the bread is browned. The time the egg is placed in the bread is dependent on desired consistency.
The dish is often either covered or flipped while cooking to obtain even cooking, and requires a degree of skill and temperature control to prevent burning either the egg or bread while the entire dish is cooked to the desired consistency.

Appearance in pop culture

The dish is prepared by actor Guy Kibbee in the 1935 Warner Bros film Mary Jane's Pa, leading to it sometimes being known as "Guy Kibbee eggs". It is also called "Betty Grable eggs", from the actress’ preparation of "gashouse eggs" in the 1941 film Moon Over Miami. It is prepared by both Hugo Weaving and Stephen Fry's characters in the 2005 film V for Vendetta, the latter referring to it as "eggy in the basket". Other film appearances include Moonstruck and The Meddler.
On television, the dish is prepared in a 1996 episode of the sitcom Friends by the character Joey Tribbiani, who refers to it as "eggs with the bread with the hole in the middle, à la me!" In the seventh episode of season two of Lucifer, it is prepared with Hawaiian bread and oyster leaves. Other television appearances include Frasier, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Atypical.