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Eggs in egg cups
Eggs in egg cups. Photograph: Corbis
Eggs in egg cups. Photograph: Corbis

Consider the egg

This article is more than 12 years old
In addition to its place in religious symbolism the egg is unrivalled in its culinary potential. What's your favourite egg dish?

Because eggs contain the materials to make new creatures, and because life emerges from them so vividly, they're ancient symbols of birth and renewal. Humans have always been fascinated by them, using their image in swathes of creation myths and cosmogonies. Atum was the first god of ancient Egypt: he created himself by hatching from a primordial egg. In Orphism, practised by the ancient Greeks, the first, hermaphroditic god Phanes emerged from a celestial egg before creating the other gods. Some Hindu legends say that Brahma, the god of creation, was born of a golden egg. Once he emerged from it, the materials he left behind – splintered shell, jelly and blood – expanded to form the Brahmanda, the universe.

The Easter egg, then, is likely a Christian appropriation of some Celtic or Germanic spring rite, which linked the warm sun and sudden blossom to a pagan emblem of birth. (The Easter bunny has a similar history, as rabbits have always been proverbially fertile.) By far the most common, of course, is the remarkable and beautiful hen's egg. Its shell is so delicate the beak of the emerging hatchling can crack it, but if you squeeze a whole egg its shell is strong in the way an arch on a building is strong.

From 75 calories, a chicken egg supplies every amino acid the human body needs and a glut of minerals and vitamins, especially vitamin D which is quite rare in nature and vital for people who don't see much of the sun. An egg white contains almost no fat and, apart from its water, is almost pure protein. The yolk contains still more protein, and its fat is mostly unsaturated. The shell contains a lot of calcium, and becomes "edible" when an egg is steeped in something acidic such as vinegar or lemon juice and the shell dissolves. One medicinal recipe published in 1905 by a Dr Fernie calls for whole raw eggs to rest in rum, sugar, spices and lemon juice for around a week so the shell dissolves and the solution "cooks" the eggs. The doctor assures us the resulting tonic is ideal "for delicate persons of all ages" – I expect if you had to drink it every day you'd want to get better pretty sharpish.

Eggs are so common in the kitchen that most people barely notice the remarkable changes heat effects on them, setting the yolk and making the slippery albumen clot and cloud. An egg can be almost anything within a dish: title role or bit-part, starter or pudding, sweet or savoury. By 1900 Escoffier had a repertoire of around 300 egg dishes, and many people begin a life of cooking by boiling an egg. Catering colleges often start recruits on making omelettes, which are deceptively difficult. And soon the people who pursue cooking will be on to the magic of mayonnaise, where a single yolk will continue to thicken astonishing quantities of oil; to custards that range from the faintly creamy to the set wobbles of brûlées and the thick crumbles of quiches; to proud soufflés puffing from ramekins; to the crisp fudge of meringues. Before molecular gastronomy there was the science of eggs, far more illustrious and dazzling.

You should never actually "boil" an egg, which might crack the shell: whole eggs should sit in water just off the boil. Steaming is also an excellent idea and may be quicker than boiling because the water takes less time to heat. Older eggs are best for hard-boiling because they're easier to peel. Scrambled eggs should always be cooked slowly, with an emergency knob of cold butter flung in at the end to stop the cooking. I learned how to cook omelettes from Julia Child's books, and recommend her highly as a teacher. Baked eggs, incidentally, is one of the most comforting suppers of all; I have a recipe here.

Despite certain emetic hangover cures, a cooked egg is considerably better for you than a raw one. Its protein is twice as digestible, and laboratory animals reportedly lose weight on a diet of raw eggs. I can't remember who first told me that you should crack eggs on flat surfaces, because the rim of a bowl, for example, might push dirty eggshell into the egg, but I've stuck with it even though I suspect the rule is more important for barnyardy, poorly washed hen's eggs.

Eggs have had a hard time healthwise in recent decades, with a lot of negative press relating to cholesterol and a salmonella scare in the 1990s. The UK now has the lowest levels of salmonella among major egg-producing countries in the EU.

As for cholesterol, though we've known for some time that high levels of blood cholesterol can raise a person's risk of heart disease and stroke, the evidence now shows that, for most people, eating saturated fat is more likely to raise cholesterol than eating cholesterol itself. (In a minority of the population this is not the case, and eating cholesterol has a negative effect on cholesterol levels in the blood.) The protein and some of the vitamins in eggs, as well as folate and riboflavin, may in fact help reduce the risk of heart disease.

In any case, anyone who thinks we should be eating more real and less fake food should eat eggs with impunity – we've been doing so for hundreds of thousands of years. What's your favourite egg dish?

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