Is anyone familiar with the Oster egg cookers? Do they work? Are they worth the counter space?
Oster Egg Cookers
- Thread starter dalangdon
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Not sure about Oster.. but....
I have used the Salton and (currently own) the West Bend version.
For hard-boiled eggs they work well.
For poached eggs, they are a disappointment. The poached eggs come out essentially hard-boiled without the shell.
If you make deviled eggs, the egg-cooker is a boon.
Of course, I can only speak for the West Bend and Salton versions...
Hmmm. Let's see if the John Oster groupies of the world have a different tale to tell....
I have used the Salton and (currently own) the West Bend version.
For hard-boiled eggs they work well.
For poached eggs, they are a disappointment. The poached eggs come out essentially hard-boiled without the shell.
If you make deviled eggs, the egg-cooker is a boon.
Of course, I can only speak for the West Bend and Salton versions...
Hmmm. Let's see if the John Oster groupies of the world have a different tale to tell....
Egg Cookers
I used Sunbeam egg cookers for years. I left the last one in the divorce. The Oster is similar, but slightly heavier. The man in my life likes 2 hard boiled eggs every morning. I bought a Cuisinart at Bed Bath and Beyond. It is super, but the lid of the Sunbeam was the measure and the tip to pierce the eggs was in the rack so setting it up was a breeze. At the end of the cooking cycle, the Sunbeam, Oster and Salton all turned off. The Cuisinart shuts off the heating elements, but toots at you until you turn it off.
Twice, I have cooked two cases of eggs in it for church, so it's reliability is good.
The value in an egg cooker is that it cooks the yolk dead centered in the egg, they are never green or over cooked and they usually peel in to sections with no sticking.
Kelly
I used Sunbeam egg cookers for years. I left the last one in the divorce. The Oster is similar, but slightly heavier. The man in my life likes 2 hard boiled eggs every morning. I bought a Cuisinart at Bed Bath and Beyond. It is super, but the lid of the Sunbeam was the measure and the tip to pierce the eggs was in the rack so setting it up was a breeze. At the end of the cooking cycle, the Sunbeam, Oster and Salton all turned off. The Cuisinart shuts off the heating elements, but toots at you until you turn it off.
Twice, I have cooked two cases of eggs in it for church, so it's reliability is good.
The value in an egg cooker is that it cooks the yolk dead centered in the egg, they are never green or over cooked and they usually peel in to sections with no sticking.
Kelly
Pierce the Tip!!!!!!!!!
With the egg cooker there is a tiny nail with a very sharp end which is used to pierce the sheel and make a tiny vent. It keeps the egg from cracking and allows steam to seperate the sehll from egg as it cooks. Peeling an egg cooked in egg cooker is a breeeze. I have catered for years and I always used them to be sure I had perfect eggs for develing and using in recipes.
The lid removes. The black holder has 7 openings. The plastic measure has the pin on the bottom fo piercing and increments on the side for how much water to add based on how many eggs and how well cooked you want them. It also comes with a poaching insert and two egg cozys to hold the boiled eggs for eating from the shell.
Kelly
With the egg cooker there is a tiny nail with a very sharp end which is used to pierce the sheel and make a tiny vent. It keeps the egg from cracking and allows steam to seperate the sehll from egg as it cooks. Peeling an egg cooked in egg cooker is a breeeze. I have catered for years and I always used them to be sure I had perfect eggs for develing and using in recipes.
The lid removes. The black holder has 7 openings. The plastic measure has the pin on the bottom fo piercing and increments on the side for how much water to add based on how many eggs and how well cooked you want them. It also comes with a poaching insert and two egg cozys to hold the boiled eggs for eating from the shell.
Kelly
Thanks for the info. I have become somewhat "known" for my devilled eggs (Since I just use the recipe out of the Betty Crocker "Good 'n Easy" cookbook, I suspect my fame is because I have the patience to deal with the process, rather than the flavor of the eggs themselves) and I was looking for a way to automate things a bit.
I found a cute little retro number on eBay (it has a glass top and three little legs and for some reason reminds me of Judy Jetson) so I thought I'd start out with that one.
I found a cute little retro number on eBay (it has a glass top and three little legs and for some reason reminds me of Judy Jetson) so I thought I'd start out with that one.
laundromat
Well-known member
the yolk's on you
The Oster and Sunbeam eggcookers are excelent!!,you put enough water in for poaceh,soft cooked oe hard cooked eggs and it does the rest automaticaly shutting off when the eggs are cooked to perfection!I hate "hard bolied"eggs.Thety're way overdone.
The Oster and Sunbeam eggcookers are excelent!!,you put enough water in for poaceh,soft cooked oe hard cooked eggs and it does the rest automaticaly shutting off when the eggs are cooked to perfection!I hate "hard bolied"eggs.Thety're way overdone.
And then there's.....
Henrietta Chicken
Henrietta Chicken
Set and ready to.....
Cluck(?)
Cluck(?)
northwesty
Well-known member
1972 Sunbeam
Go Retro!
Go Retro!
58limited
Well-known member
I have a 50's Sunbeam egg poacher and a baby bottle warmer.
Both have a plastic cylinder on the top - is this a measuring cup? I don't have the instructions so I really don't how to use these. Can anyone help?
Both have a plastic cylinder on the top - is this a measuring cup? I don't have the instructions so I really don't how to use these. Can anyone help?
Yes,
The plastic cylinder is to measure the water, but beyond that, I have no clue.
Lawrence/Maytagbear
The plastic cylinder is to measure the water, but beyond that, I have no clue.
Lawrence/Maytagbear
Unless the markings have washed away from the little plastic measuring cylinders on the tops of the old egg cooker and bottle warmer, they were for the doneness of the eggs or the amount of formula being warmed. When the water boiled away, the thermostat shut off the heat, like the Coffeemonster.
Paulg, The early Salton egg cookers had a dial more complicated and with more settings than many deluxe washers. If your poached eggs are too done, can't you use a lower setting or use less water so that the cooking time is shortened? That space age, Jetson-style egg cooker that Presto made did not have a thermal cut off. The directions give times for various styles of egg preparation, so I don't see any advantage to it except style. When I used to help with the cooking for a large family, I discovered that they had a pretty neat way to do a lot of eggs in the morning. They took a twelve hole cupcake pan, put in paper liners, a bit of butter in each and then cracked an egg into each liner. The pan went into the oven and in a few minutes, they had eggs. The liners can be used in the cups of egg poacher inserts for skillets also and they really save on cleaning egg residue from the cooking surfaces.
Paulg, The early Salton egg cookers had a dial more complicated and with more settings than many deluxe washers. If your poached eggs are too done, can't you use a lower setting or use less water so that the cooking time is shortened? That space age, Jetson-style egg cooker that Presto made did not have a thermal cut off. The directions give times for various styles of egg preparation, so I don't see any advantage to it except style. When I used to help with the cooking for a large family, I discovered that they had a pretty neat way to do a lot of eggs in the morning. They took a twelve hole cupcake pan, put in paper liners, a bit of butter in each and then cracked an egg into each liner. The pan went into the oven and in a few minutes, they had eggs. The liners can be used in the cups of egg poacher inserts for skillets also and they really save on cleaning egg residue from the cooking surfaces.
Salton adjustments
You're correct, the Salton unit did have a doneness adjustment. If I had backed the adjustment down a bit I probably could have made poached eggs that looked and felt like something other than falsies.
Unfortunately, the Salton unit is long gone and I cannot test.
The West Bend unit still gets pulled out from time to time. That one regulates doneness by the amount of water you puddle in the bottom before you start the thing. I'll make a project of testing it with less water.
For poached eggs, I've found that the Williams-Sonoma poaching cups work terrific. Not appliancey but effective.
You're correct, the Salton unit did have a doneness adjustment. If I had backed the adjustment down a bit I probably could have made poached eggs that looked and felt like something other than falsies.
Unfortunately, the Salton unit is long gone and I cannot test.
The West Bend unit still gets pulled out from time to time. That one regulates doneness by the amount of water you puddle in the bottom before you start the thing. I'll make a project of testing it with less water.
For poached eggs, I've found that the Williams-Sonoma poaching cups work terrific. Not appliancey but effective.
I want one... probably the Cuisinart. I wonder if Target/Walmart/Kmart sell them?
You all probably know these hints, but I'll unload them anyway:
1) Hard to peel? Use older (but not expired) eggs. They will peel much easier.
Another technique I experimented with is to blanch the eggs for about 30 seconds in rapidly boiling water. Then remove and plunge into enough water to cover them by an inch. Heat to a boil, shut off heat and cover. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, then cool in cold water again. Yes, it's a pain, usually I need two pots for this (one to do the initial boil and the other to do the slow heating to boil and covered heat-less cookdown. The blanching seems to help with subsequent peeling. However it can also result in cracked shells during cooking, even after piercing the shell.
Also helps to crack the shell of the cooked egg all over by cracking one end and then rolling it around on a hard surface. Then peel under running cold water. This doesn't work so well in a bag lunch where you don't have a sink available.
2) Green yolks? Cook at lower temp, for less time.
3) Un-centered yolks? I guess one needs to use one of those aluminum egg carriers that I've seen but never used. I boil eggs just for hard boiled consumption, so an off-center yolk doesn't faze me much.
Overall, I find all the mess and bother of boiling a large amount of water (sometimes twice) is too much; so an automatic egg cooker as described here sounds attractive. I like eggs because they are high protein (complete protein as we were taught in college nutrition classes), and easily digested. I also like the taste of a hard boiled egg.
Recently on TV I saw a mention of a guy in England who has developed an egg cooker that uses halogen light bulbs. He claims it works perfectly - cooks very evenly. Products are expected to come out in a year or so. Apparently it excels at soft-boiled eggs with the runny yolk that Brits like to dip toast into. The device even lops off the top of the egg for that purpose. Never quite got into that, although I do prefer fried eggs easy over.
You all probably know these hints, but I'll unload them anyway:
1) Hard to peel? Use older (but not expired) eggs. They will peel much easier.
Another technique I experimented with is to blanch the eggs for about 30 seconds in rapidly boiling water. Then remove and plunge into enough water to cover them by an inch. Heat to a boil, shut off heat and cover. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, then cool in cold water again. Yes, it's a pain, usually I need two pots for this (one to do the initial boil and the other to do the slow heating to boil and covered heat-less cookdown. The blanching seems to help with subsequent peeling. However it can also result in cracked shells during cooking, even after piercing the shell.
Also helps to crack the shell of the cooked egg all over by cracking one end and then rolling it around on a hard surface. Then peel under running cold water. This doesn't work so well in a bag lunch where you don't have a sink available.
2) Green yolks? Cook at lower temp, for less time.
3) Un-centered yolks? I guess one needs to use one of those aluminum egg carriers that I've seen but never used. I boil eggs just for hard boiled consumption, so an off-center yolk doesn't faze me much.
Overall, I find all the mess and bother of boiling a large amount of water (sometimes twice) is too much; so an automatic egg cooker as described here sounds attractive. I like eggs because they are high protein (complete protein as we were taught in college nutrition classes), and easily digested. I also like the taste of a hard boiled egg.
Recently on TV I saw a mention of a guy in England who has developed an egg cooker that uses halogen light bulbs. He claims it works perfectly - cooks very evenly. Products are expected to come out in a year or so. Apparently it excels at soft-boiled eggs with the runny yolk that Brits like to dip toast into. The device even lops off the top of the egg for that purpose. Never quite got into that, although I do prefer fried eggs easy over.
Eggstacy!
Well, I don't think I'm going to have to bother with my complicated egg blanching multiple pot routine any more.
Tonite I picked up an "Aroma" brand egg cooker at Target. All of $19.99. I just got through cooking an initial batch of four large brown eggs.
I'm delighted with the results. Alhtough these are relatively fresh eggs, they came out very easy to peel, but without a rubbery layer on the outside. They were basically done exactly (eggsactly?) as I wanted, maybe a little on the soft side, but then I ate one while it was still warm, not waiting until it cooled completely.
The Aroma looks similar to the Cuisinart, with a egg shaped highly polished stainless dome lid. It buzzes when it's done, which I think is a good thing, as the eggs will continue to cook even with the heat off, and at that point it's time to turn the thing off and plunge them into cold water to stop the cooking. The manual says you can leave it on if you want to keep the eggs warm; I don't know if it continues at full power or switches to a lower power heating element at that point.
Four hard boiled eggs took about 15 minutes. Not bad.
The cons: The egg piercer on the bottom of the water measuring cup is too thick and tends to crack the egg shell. But I have another egg piercer, part of a combination egg slicer/piercer, and it works just fine.
The water markings on the measuring cup are a bit mysterious. They are clearly marked, and the photo in the manual matches them. But I'm puzzled as to why cooking just one hard boiled egg takes less water than cooking seven. Intuitively I'd think it takes more water to cook seven than one... so I'm thinking the markings are erroneous, in a reversed order. Especially since the markings show that it takes more water to cook hard boiled vs. soft boiled eggs, of any number. Hence the decision to cook a middling amount of four. I'll try cooking just one, and then seven, using the markings, to see if I need to reverse the markings. Hey, what do you expect for 20 bucks? LOL.
I'll try to post a photo of the Aroma egg cooker in a few days.
Also, while at Target, I picked up a Thomas O'Brien "Vintage Modern" retro wall clock. It's quite appliancy, with deco raised chrome numerals on a white enamel ring on a chromed metal surround. The numerals look like they're off a 30's or 40's fridge or stove. Not cheap at $30, but it looked so nice I couldn't resist. I'll post a photo of that soon enough as well.
Here's a photo of the Aroma egg cooker off the Target website. It looks a bit better in real life:
Well, I don't think I'm going to have to bother with my complicated egg blanching multiple pot routine any more.
Tonite I picked up an "Aroma" brand egg cooker at Target. All of $19.99. I just got through cooking an initial batch of four large brown eggs.
I'm delighted with the results. Alhtough these are relatively fresh eggs, they came out very easy to peel, but without a rubbery layer on the outside. They were basically done exactly (eggsactly?) as I wanted, maybe a little on the soft side, but then I ate one while it was still warm, not waiting until it cooled completely.
The Aroma looks similar to the Cuisinart, with a egg shaped highly polished stainless dome lid. It buzzes when it's done, which I think is a good thing, as the eggs will continue to cook even with the heat off, and at that point it's time to turn the thing off and plunge them into cold water to stop the cooking. The manual says you can leave it on if you want to keep the eggs warm; I don't know if it continues at full power or switches to a lower power heating element at that point.
Four hard boiled eggs took about 15 minutes. Not bad.
The cons: The egg piercer on the bottom of the water measuring cup is too thick and tends to crack the egg shell. But I have another egg piercer, part of a combination egg slicer/piercer, and it works just fine.
The water markings on the measuring cup are a bit mysterious. They are clearly marked, and the photo in the manual matches them. But I'm puzzled as to why cooking just one hard boiled egg takes less water than cooking seven. Intuitively I'd think it takes more water to cook seven than one... so I'm thinking the markings are erroneous, in a reversed order. Especially since the markings show that it takes more water to cook hard boiled vs. soft boiled eggs, of any number. Hence the decision to cook a middling amount of four. I'll try cooking just one, and then seven, using the markings, to see if I need to reverse the markings. Hey, what do you expect for 20 bucks? LOL.
I'll try to post a photo of the Aroma egg cooker in a few days.
Also, while at Target, I picked up a Thomas O'Brien "Vintage Modern" retro wall clock. It's quite appliancy, with deco raised chrome numerals on a white enamel ring on a chromed metal surround. The numerals look like they're off a 30's or 40's fridge or stove. Not cheap at $30, but it looked so nice I couldn't resist. I'll post a photo of that soon enough as well.
Here's a photo of the Aroma egg cooker off the Target website. It looks a bit better in real life:
Egg Piecer
When I bought my Cuisinart Egg Cooker, I tapped the egg against the pin on the bottom of the measuring cup and broke the egg. I finished using a pin. Upon closer inspection I realized there was a protective cover on the pin. When I removed it, it worked perfectly. I agree, it is odd that the more eggs you cook the less water you use. I don't ask questions, I just follow directions. When Cuisinart merged with Waring, the processor line remained pure but everything else was outsourced. It is all a mishmash so I am not surprised to see the same egg cooker rebadged.
Kelly
When I bought my Cuisinart Egg Cooker, I tapped the egg against the pin on the bottom of the measuring cup and broke the egg. I finished using a pin. Upon closer inspection I realized there was a protective cover on the pin. When I removed it, it worked perfectly. I agree, it is odd that the more eggs you cook the less water you use. I don't ask questions, I just follow directions. When Cuisinart merged with Waring, the processor line remained pure but everything else was outsourced. It is all a mishmash so I am not surprised to see the same egg cooker rebadged.
Kelly
Well, I've since tried seven eggs with the recommended amount of water and they came out perfect, so I will not question the directions. However I may note down the amount of water needed for each setting... just in case the measuring cup breaks or is misplaced. The reverse side has the amounts in milliliters, you see.
The pin on the measuring cup doesn't have a protective cover. It's just a little to large a gauge, and it tends to crack the eggs. The pin on the slicer is much smaller gauge, and it works fine.
The pin on the measuring cup doesn't have a protective cover. It's just a little to large a gauge, and it tends to crack the eggs. The pin on the slicer is much smaller gauge, and it works fine.
