Egg in a hole, or Egg in a basket – also known by many other names – is an egg fried in a hole in a slice of bread.
Consists of a slice of bread with an egg in the center, fried with butter or oil.
It is commonly prepared by making a circular or square hole in the center of a piece of bread, which can be buttered.
The bread is fried in a pan with butter, margarine, oil, or other fat, when an egg is cracked into the hole in the bread.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 2 Minutes
- Portions: 1 Person
- Cooking methods: Frying
- Cuisine: American
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1 slice bread (sandwich, for toast)
- to taste butter (or margarine or oil)
- to taste salt
Tools
- 1 Cookie Cutter round
Steps
Cut a hole in the slice of bread using a cookie cutter.
Fry the bread slice in the fat for a few minutes on both sides.
Crack the egg into the center of the hole. Fry for a few minutes. Flip over and turn off the heat.
Serve hot, seasoning with salt.
Homemade Bread with Sourdough
I used homemade bread: sourdough loaf or toast bread.
All-purpose flour
300 ml Milk
2.1 oz Butter
7.1 oz Sourdough starter (refreshed)
1 tablespoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
Rising time 5 hours.
Bake in the oven at 392°F for 30 minutes.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
What are the other names for Egg in a Hole or Egg in a Basket?
There are many names for Egg in a Hole, “bullseye eggs”, “eggs in a frame”, “egg in a hole”, “eggs in a nest”, “gashouse eggs”, “gashouse special”, “gasthaus eggs”, “hole in one”, “one-eyed Jack”, “one-eyed Pete”, “one-eyed Sam”, “pirate’s eye”, and “popeye”.
Also the name “Toad in the Hole” is sometimes used for this dish, although it more commonly refers to sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter (recipe on the blog).In which movies is Egg in a Hole mentioned?
The dish is also known as “Guy Kibbee eggs”, due to its preparation by actor Guy Kibbee in the 1935 Warner Bros film Mary Jane’s Pa.
In the film, Kibbee’s character refers to the dish as a “one-eyed Egyptian sandwich”.
It is also called “Betty Grable eggs”, from the preparation of “gas eggs” by the actress in the film Moon Over Miami from 1941.
It is prepared by both Hugo Weaving’s and Stephen Fry’s characters in the 2005 film V for Vendetta, the latter calls it “eggy in the basket”.
Other film appearances include Moonstruck (1987) and The Meddler (2016).
On television, the dish is prepared in a 1987 episode of Sledge Hammer!, with the title character using his gun to shoot the hole in the bread.
An episode of Friends from 1996, the character Joey Tribbiani refers to it as “eggs with the bread with the hole in the middle, à la me!“.
In a 2016 episode of Lucifer, it is prepared with Hawaiian bread.
Other television appearances include Frasier (1993), Once Upon a Time (2013), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2019), Atypical (2019), Search Party (2022), and Resident Alien (2022).
