Do Americans use egg-cups?

[ice dance]

My sister will be going to the US in a few months, and we are doing some research on American culture and etiquette. We read today that most Americans don't use egg-cups when they eat boiled eggs. Is this true?

[my little pony]

i have egg cups. however, i hate eggs. but if i made one, i probably wouldnt bother with the egg cup. a bowl would be easier. though to answer your question, most people i know dont seem to have egg cups.

[AxelAnnie]

Nope....we don't. I had to even think what they were. LOL!

[peibeck]

I've seen them before, but I'd consider them pretty "old fashioned" these days. I can't think of anyone but my 83 year old mom who has ever eats a soft-boiled egg (and she did it only very rarely.)

[FigureSpins]

I do like eggs, especially poached/soft boiled and using egg cups in Germany made quite an impression on me, but...

I've never been served eggs in egg cups in someone else's house in the US. I loved using them when I was an exchange student in Germany and I inherited two wooden egg cups, but I rarely use them. The wood doesn't seem sanitary to me and they have to be hand-washed. (Love being able to toss stuff into the dishwasher!) Scooping the egg itself into a bowl is usually my method.

Hard-boiled eggs usually end up diced as egg salad or shelled and served, sliced, with salt & pepper.

Most people will choose poached or fried eggs at breakfast, so it's not on many menus when you eat out.
I'm not sure what would happen at a breakfast restaurant if you ordered a soft-boiled egg. Where I live, they would probably get confused or say they couldn't boil an egg. These are the same people who can't believe that iced tea doesn't come pre-sweetened, lol.

[numbers123]

I think you would have a hard time getting a soft-boiled egg. But no, I have never used an egg cup. I rarely eat eggs though so I am not a good judge on the use of them

[Rob]

My mother is from Scotland so we used them when I growing up, but now we don't even eat soft boiled eggs so I have no idea where they are.

Hard boiled eggs are for egg salad, deviled eggs, slicing into a salad, or eating while you are running out the door to work.

[Sassafras]

I have a pair of egg cups from Arabia in Finland. They have the logo of the 1999 World Figure Skating Championships on them. Never have used them for soft boiled eggs, but I had some egg shaped candles that fit in them nicely!

[skatingfan5]

My brother-in-law, who has spent quite a few years in the U.K., sometimes uses an egg cup, but he is just about the only person I know who does. In fact, he is just about the only person I know who eats soft-boiled eggs. I haven't had a soft-boiled egg since I was 5 years old and my mother forced me to eat one that still had a runny white.

Spoiler

My gagging it up onto the breakfast table guaranteed that she never did so again.

[Patsy]

Used them as a kid but I don't have a clue where those china egg cups ended up. I'd suspect if they're eating breakfast out that a poached egg would be the closest choice.

I've always served soft boiled eggs on torn-up toast in a bowl, so need for a cup.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[barbk]

I haven't seen a soft-boiled egg in at least twenty-five years. We do poached eggs at home, but not soft-boiled. My grandmother had a set of egg cups, and I can remember her using them, but that was a long time past.

[FigureSpins]

I think the fear of salmonella poisoning from egg yolks drove people away from the soft-boiled eggs in the US. That's probably why it's not on menus. I know when I order sunnyside-up fried eggs, I get strange looks and they always offer to make them "over easy." Probably makes the staff uneasy to serve undercooked (in their opinion) food.

Plus, yolks are a main source of the egg's fat content, so weight watchers order egg-white omelets.

[Twilight1]

I have egg cups. I eat soft boiled eggs all the time. I also love sunnyside eggs. I have yet to get salmonella from it. lol!!! But then I live in Canada... I have only ever eaten scrambled down in the US and never really thought of why??

Now chicken itself is a whole other story... and better left undiscussed.

[pat c]

Well, yes we have them and we have used them. And I do order soft boiled eggs in restaurants, but it's only in a high end hotel will you be served softboiled eggs in an egg cup. It's one of those things that if you like them, you're kind of picky about them, so it's easier to not order them in a restaurant.

And I find it easier to just serve soft boiled eggs in a bowl or cutting them in half and spooning them out on toast.

[Veronika]

I've never used an egg cup or had a soft-boiled egg. I don't think soft-boiled eggs are very popluar here. But l love poached eggs.

[Norlite]

Don't know about Americans but this Canadian does.

Every morning.

[Jenny]

I use egg cups, but then again I'm of European descent

Americans have a bit of a phobia about cooking their eggs, so soft boiled eggs are rare, and hard boiled eggs don't require a cup. I've been in many hotels and had room serviced delivered where my egg is rolling around on a big plate.

Also, because eggs are a bit out of fashion, the accompanying tableware is not as popular anymore - kind of like ashtrays.

[Aceon6]

Another person who does poached and not soft boiled. For me, it's practical, as I like to dip the toast into the yolk. Much easier to do on a plate!

[skatemommy]

My dad loved soft boiled eggs for breakfast (also Canadian). Used the egg timer, too! Now THAT'S a blast from the past! (Probably worth something these days like so many things from my childhood like lunchboxes, etc.)

[Matryeshka]

Ignorant American checking in. Before reading this thread, I'd never heard of soft-boiled eggs. To further show my ignorance, I remember a drunken conversation where some of my erudite friends and I discussed how it should just be "boiled" eggs because you can't soft boil an egg!

I think it's two things: a) Americans are funny about how things are cooked, and b) beyond that, a lot of us genuinely don't like eggs. I will eat them if they are covered in at least two kinds of cheeses, sausage, mushrooms and/or tomatos to drown out the egg taste if I absolutely must, but it's not something I'd ever order. In fact, it would be harder for me to think of someone I know besides my father who does like eggs.