
Is this notable?
I'm sure you've been able to buy boiled eggs as a lunch snack in the supermarket in the same fridge where you get pasties and scotch eggs. Am I missing something?
Having been relieved of the burden of having to make a jam sandwich, those without either the time or the intellectual capacity for basic culinary tasks can now avail themselves of the latest word in labour-saving foodstuffs: Preboiled free range eggs. Happy Egg Company pack of preboiled eggs Yup, the Happy Egg Company will, …
We already have pre-cooked sausages. Why not eggs too?
I don't personally carry a saucepan and portable stove when mooching around town. Even so, perhaps I might feel a lunch time urge to partake of a snack eggy. Perhaps with said cold sausages. Add some bread and you merely eating the ingredients for a scotch egg anyway, without it having been fried.
Seems excessive, but for people with certain disabilities boiling an egg could well be quite a hassle.
An apple in cling film on a polystyrene tray, labelled "citrus product", as one motorway service station saw fit, seems more offensive.
And, yes, not quite sure where the IT angle is for this, although it's way too obvious I know...
Who's going to be the first person to write to the company congratulating them on what a wonderful product they have, inquiring how they make the eggs so round, but requesting they make them runny and in the hard white packets next time since they bought the eggs to make an omelet, only were unable to do so in spite of several attempts by them and their mother/friend/boss/doctor useing instructions from a number of different recipe books?
Preferably in the style of AMFM.
Are you really trying to teach us that the hard exterior can be removed BEFORE eating. I just thought they were naturally crunchy.
Next you'll be telling us there's a way to drink wine without having to suck it through the cork.
You learn something new every day.
./Paris. Because when asked, "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" She just cried because her head hurt.
How can someone NOT have "the knack" of boiling an egg?
In the time Joe Moron would take to figure out how to order his pre-boiled eggs and have them delivered to his nearest Asda, drive there, queue to pay for them, drive back (how do these people pass a driving test BTW?) , and unpack them from their unnatural plastic container, poor feckless Joe could have actually BOILED THEIR OWN EGGS and shelled them! And what's the betting the packing is harder to open than the "inconvenient" shell anyway?
Do such people really exist? If so, how likely is it that they will have sufficient noggin to be discerning enough to care about the free range provenance of the eggs they're about to eat (subject to half-hour round trip to go and buy them)?
Doomed I tells ya :D
Paris, cos even she wouldn't need to buy this product.
It does sound quite useful for impromptu picnics and suchlike and it's not really that expensive.
Yes, it's not cheap, but the price is roughly similar to that of six free range fresh eggs. Fresh eggs have a long shelf life and high demand. Hard boiled eggs have a shorter shelf life and lower demand due to the more limited number of uses.
I could probably think of a number of things that really are supremely lazy even if the only cooking equipment you possess is a microwave. Pre made baked potatoes with filling are probably top of that list. The blasphemy that is any form of squeezable bottle sauce. Preprepared vegetables (washed spinach, carrot batons, but not pre-made stir fries : they're actually more economic than buying the individual ingredients in supermarkets. madness.). etc.
Makes sense really, 30p premium or so per egg to save the hassle of...
Filling kettle, putting it on, waiting for it to boil, taking it off, putting on hob, adding egg carefully, waiting for it to cook, taking it out, putting it under cold water for a bit, then carefully spending the next minute or so peeling off the damn shell and all the fiddly little bits that get left on if you mess it up.
So, 30p to save 2 minutes of effort.
For these eggs to be worthwhile on a logical "time = money" basis, you would have to be earning over £9/hour. For anyone earning less than that, boiling your own eggs is a much more sensible investment.
I also like those little cheese slices (not american cheese), and pre-chopped/ peeled/ washed carrots.. much less faffing about involved.
As the prefix "Pre" means BEFORE, surely a preboiled egg is an egg before it's been boiled. Or, in fact, just "an egg". If it's also been shelled I would hope it arrives in a little plastic bag.
A few years ago, the idea of someone selling boiled eggs would have been surprising. Today, it's rather "meh". I know catering wholesalers have been offering such for a long time. Sandwich shops will happily buy cheap, boiled, shelled eggs for making egg-mayo etc. But at 45p per egg, I can't really see these taking off.
Aunt Bessies are selling frozen jacket potatoes... I mean it's a potato... stick it in the oven, it's not rocket surgery :P
I wouldn't mind if you could nuke it in the microwave for 3 mins for a nice crispy spud, but no, you have to cook it in the oven for almost as long as you would anyway... basically, it's a frozen potato, sheesh!!
@AC 14:59 You can buy eggs like this in Japan, but they come with the shell still on, imagine our disappoint when we went to make fried eggs for breakfast one morning and find out some bastard's already boiled them. In my defense, the packaging was all in Japanese ... although the fish sausage we bought by accident was slightly worse ...
In so much non-recycleable plastic packaging that it makes an Easter egg look eco-friendly. They've a curious demographic, that they're after, and that's for sure! I hope the eggs come, as illustrated on the outside of the packaging - already sliced in half - or they could be done under the trade's description act. After all, it's so hard to slice a hard boiled egg in half without at least one of the yokes crumbling and falling out.
Mind you, the packaging looks so infernally byzantine, it probably requires so much brute force to get at the eggs, that there's nothing but yellow power and white rubbery stuff, left, by the time you're done.
@Duncan Hothersall, I saw them in London - peeled oranges and sliced apples. I also saw an egg sandwich filling that had "Caution, may contain eggs" on the side. Then there's the very very long egg that they put into the middle of pork pies, not to mention "cheese substitute" and predigested cheese-style paste (cheez wizz).
So, all you clever people always make a packed lunch when travelling? Even when you're on expenses, it's last minute, or you're not sure how long you'll be gone? Or do you carry a stove and a pan instead?
Are people stupid for going to restaurants, chip shops, or takeaways?
Yes, the article pitching these as being for people too stupid to boil an egg was funny, but there are clearly other reasons than stupidity and laziness to buy these.
Good idea and not just for the lazy people. Known some body builders who eat a lot of hard boiled eggs, 20+ per day so it generally makes sense for them. Also seems better than the rest of the crap that is on offer as on the move munchies, it's difficult to ruin a hard boiled egg after all.
"free to roam on green pasture and are equipped with perching platforms and sandpits to enhance the birds' natural surroundings"
Are they crammed in a large shed, fed food & water (but free to nip out of the little hole in the wall to find sandpits & perches where food & water is not provided)?
Cooked, pre-shelled eggs are available at various local stores here in Sonoma (well, I'm in Fort Bragg at the moment, but the local Harvest Market sells 'em too) ... mostly they sell to the tourists. As a convenience item when you are away from home, I see no problem with it.
What gets me is pre-chopped veggies for stir fry at a ~8X markup. Seriously ... 98 cents worth of onion and bell pepper for $7.99 ... or the "party platter" containing about $1.99 worth of pre-cut carrots, celery, broccoli and cauliflower and about a half cup of Ranch Dressing for $17.99 ... Is chopping veg really THAT hard?
Then there is the pre-washed, individually wrapped `organic` potato "ready for the microwave or oven", for the low, low price of $4.99 ... Yuppies are stupid.
> How can someone NOT have "the knack" of boiling an egg?
To be fair, they don't come with instructions either on the egg, nor on the box. And (looking at the pack I bought last week) there's no warning about cooking them first, nor eating the shells either.
I would therefore expect that having everything done for you, by treating the purchaser as if they were a small child ("come on Johnny, eat your eggs, they're yummy") will make them a runaway success. Assuming of course that the purchasers have enough intelligence to work out how to open the packaging. Hmmm, better make that a "measured" success.
>" Anyone out there who's too thick even to work out what to do with an egg that someone else has boiled for them should note that "as well as being eaten on their own, the eggs can be chopped and served in sandwiches or as part of a summer salad". "
What I just love is all that pre-packaged pre-cooked food that comes with lovely bright pictures on the packaging and the printed phrase "Serving suggestion". Which sounds like some kind of a recipe, but is in fact usually just a euphemism for "Rip off the lid and slap it on a plate."
And I thought the human race couldn't get much more lazy than it already is. However we now have people actively marketing not just pre-boiled, no no but also pre-shelled eggs. Because taking the shells off the eggs is faaaaaaaaaaaaar to difficult isn't it? WTF people, seriously WHAT THE FUCK??
I think I need a ticket on the first rocket ship headed to mars because even if the aliens eat my face at least I'll be away from the kind of sheer stupidity and laziness that feels the NEED pre made jam sandwiches and pre boiled/shelled eggs. It just seriously boggles my mind.
Several people have pointed out that carrying a saucepan and burner around may not be practical and therefore this might even make sense. Someone else asked if this isn't an old idea - after all boiled eggs have been around for a while in supermarkets.
If it's just that, then okay, I get it and that's cool. You're out and about, forgot to make yourself a pack lunch so you pop into Asda for a snack.
But what I got from this was they boil YOUR eggs for you. In other words you take the eggs you bought previously to the store and they return them boiled. Is it just me or does that not sound like something that would take longer than the 4 minutes (plus time to bring the water to a boil) you need to hard boil egg the normal way?
How to (soft) boil an egg perfectly every time
------------------------------------------------------------
Okay if you really don't know how to do this.. I'll be facetious and tell you.
1/You boil the water first. That's right, you bring the water to a boil with NO eggs in it.
2/Throw in about a teaspoon of salt - it helps prevent the shell from cracking and bursting before you pull out the egg.
3/Once you can see some vigorous bubbling and steaming, your water is boiling. Look at your watch or a clock. Write down the time if you're a pot head and have no short term memory.
4/Put your egg(s) into the water.
5/Wait precisely 3 minutes. Not longer, not less, 3 minutes.
6/Pull out the egg and put it in an egg cup.
7/Take off the top 1/4 of the egg.
8/Put your spoon into the egg.
9/Notice that your egg has been perfectly soft boiled.
10/Wait.. I wanted a hard boiled egg, I'm totally screwed, what can I do?!? Nothing, because you've already opened your egg and unless you like some sort of fucked up poached egg deal with no yoke you'll just have to eat it.
Notes
Some people do indeed prefer their eggs HARD boiled. This is particularly tricky as it take an entire extra minute to go from soft boiled to hard boiled. That's 4 minutes.. or less time than it takes most people to deliver two eggs to Asda and wait for them to have your eggs returned hard boiled.
I actually like the variety of pre-made food. Not because I need it or buy it, but because I like having the option of doing so. Will I ever buy preboiled eggs? Probably not. But if I end up on a picnic and it turns out I've forgotten the eggs, I'd rather grab some pre-boiled ones from a local store than travelling all the way home.
Best thing is: These options are financed by people who are too lazy/stupid to boil eggs on a regular bases (because otherwise, they wouldn't sell these things).
Love that way of harnessing stupidity/laziness for more emergency options!
I see a trend, no longer having to service your wife or significant other. Oh sorry, my bad, that's a profession already in place.
Dang, and here I was getting ready to gear up for a new profession ... the world's oldest. And well, paying for pre-boiled and pre-shelled eggs is just another way of getting f**ked by large corporations anyway.
Now if we could just mount a chicken on the counter top and get the egg's insides without the shell by jerking the chicken's neck I'd be happy. Just jerk the neck a few times and out comes the yolk and white ready for cooking. Now why does that sound so familiar? Oh well, jerking the chicken will never catch on. Too much effort required and probably too messy in the long run.
I'm sorry, but leaving aside the lazy aspect of it, this is a work of sheer genius! Have you looked at their website? I have and I couldn't believe it. There was something charming and vaguely childish about the whole thing.
Personally I wouldn't buy them as I prefer my eggs with the shells still slightly soft and warm from the chickens bum, but I could see the attraction for a quick snack at lunchtime.
@AC Tuesday 7th July 2009 14:59
"Who's going to be the first person to write to the company congratulating them on what a wonderful product they have, inquiring how they make the eggs so round, but requesting they make them runny and in the hard white packets next time since they bought the eggs to make an omelet, only were unable to do so in spite of several attempts by them and their mother/friend/boss/doctor useing instructions from a number of different recipe books?..."
See "Idiot Letters" byPaul Rosa (isbn 0-386-47508-x) for the Inside Scoop and real-life hardcopy on and of that very fine culture-jammin' artform. (One might later realize that one has not wanted for tee shirts nor coffee mugs for many years now, one day, but it is not wise to hold the breath for so very long.)
"...Preferably in the style of AMFM."
[josh] Um, is that the premium dashboard radio option on this rig? Can I get a Blaupunkt in-dash all-in-one, with MWSW too? [/josh]
I for one tend think amfM, on the other hand, might have even more Advancedly Intelligent (likely non-faulty too) things to take up and/or do.
Just to call the man by his right name. A distinction with a difference. Recognition is sweet. To go is to return etc inter alia et seq et al.
Mine's the one with the roll of international postage stamps and box of envelopes in one pocket, and a portable replicator for quasi-garbly Latin-derived Infinitely Inclusive Meme Abbreviations in the other. (Touch gently; teeth like cats...)
"a hitherto unmined seam of hard core cookwit readership."
Eh? Do you really think "hacking" doesn't include playing with the very thing that keeps you alive? If you have a problem with combining time, ingredients, +/-heat and pleasing display on a plate in order to please both your palate & your nearest & dearest's ... well, all I can say is that I feel sorry for you. And even sorrier for your nearest & so-called dearest.
"Can we have a recipe section?"
Recipes have been posted more than several times here on ElReg. Here's another ...
Hard cooked eggs:
1 dozen eggs in 5 quarts of cold water. Throw in a handful of salt (4 Tbs or so). Bring to a rolling boil, then closely cover and take off the heat. Let stand covered for 14 minutes, then plunge into icewater for 15 minutes or so. Dry and refrigerate for up to three weeks before using.
"None of you hard line cooktards buy egg sandwiches, then?"
Absofuckinglutely never. I make my own. Eggs from the henhouse down the street. I bake my own bread. I make my own aioli (with or without garlic, depending). Pickling is trivial. I make my own mustard. It's not hard to keep a kitchen/pantry full of ingredients that can be combined to make food ... unless you're too much of a fuckwit to realize that cooking in essential to life, and thus a good skill to figure out.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has lusers -particularly managers - that aren't bright enough to boil an egg...
In some cases I'm not sure they'd even 'recognise' an egg unless it was presented to them in some form of labeled packaging.
I'm be more than happy to offer them some advice on where exactly they can stick their egg too - especially if it's hot.
You're comparing apples to oranges. That's like saying prices in Netto and Waitrose are different - no surprise there.
No, I don't go to farmers markets. There's a reason supermarkets are successful : they stock a wide range of food, at a basically reasonable cost (albeit sometimes overpriced or packaged in inflexible quantities), in an acceptable location (near to home and work) and most importantly : at a reasonable time (either close by during lunch hour, or at a convenient time for me that doesn't take up my weekend).
As a matter of interest, I tried searching for a local farmers market via www.farmersmarket.net and it found nothing. Despite the fact I know there's one in Manchester and various markets, probably of the non farmers type, nearby.
Is it really a surprise supermarkets are successful given the above? I don't deny farmers markets have some decent produce, but there's no way I'm going back to small overpriced local shops with a restricted range or more specialist shops that require a substantial journey time, that are only viable if you go occasionally and do a large shop of unusual items.
I do use local shops where it's reasonable to do so, but it's the exception rather than the rule.
Reminds me of the 'Microwave-in-the-bag carrot batons' (nb 'batons', not 'sticks' !*) I spotted in Marks & Sparks some years back - a snip at only £1 for about half a pound (227g to you, young 'un) of Bugs' favourite nibbles - about 10 times the price of actually buying some whole ones and doing a minute's scrubbing and chopping.
*Bart: Wow! Can I see your club?
Lou: It's called a baton, son.
Bart: Oh. What's it for?
Lou: We club people with it.
I can see this as a bad thing especially for customers of the small "local" Sainsbury/Tesco places which already chuck out most "ingredient" products in favour of overpriced flavourless lazy-ass ready made products for those too lazy or too thick to even cope with cooking the simplest of foods.
So out will go the boxes of eggs and in come pre-boiled eggs.
How will I make my Yorkshires now? Ah, but these places have overpriced "tastes like cardboard" bloody Aunt Bessies lazy-ass things they claim to be Yorkshires!!
What's the betting they're laid by chickens in Bolivia, shipped to Honduras by air to pre-boil them, and then shipped to the UK for packaging before shipping to the supermarkets?
What next? Pre-boiled tea and breakfast cereals with the milk already in? They can do away with stocking milk then.
Anyone who wasn't prepared with their packed lunch, but who has discovered its still cheaper to buy boiled eggs and a loaf of bread than it is to support the corporate rip-off merchants flogging egg sandwiches for £2 with an ingredients list which has "bread" listed in quotes, at the office from their mini-vans.
I have to get up at 5:30am to beat the commuter traffic jams. I am not getting up 5 minutes earlier just to boil an egg!
But no, I've never bought one.
'What I just love is all that pre-packaged pre-cooked food that comes with lovely bright pictures on the packaging and the printed phrase "Serving suggestion". Which sounds like some kind of a recipe, but is in fact usually just a euphemism for "Rip off the lid and slap it on a plate."'
Believe it or not, it's a legal get-out; by putting 'serving suggestion' next to a picture of a delicious egg with buttered soldiers they protect themselves from morons who might sue them expecting to find spread and the Light Infantry inside the carton.