Supplementary clever_title Sunday gadget post
Been meaning to confess my love for the Back to Basics Egg and Muffin Toaster. I bought it last winter and have used it possibly more than what would be considered "normal" and certainly "healthy," leading most of my friends to wonder if I have stock in McDonald's or just some unholy obsession with Egg McMufins.
Truth is, the thing is simple to use, easy to clean, and the sandwiches are a good freakin way to start the morning. If you read the reviews on Amazon, most people who give it a low rating complain about one of a few things:
the non-stick coating on the egg-poaching cup started to peel off
Hasn't happened to me in 8 months of using the thing almost daily. I think people are probably cracking the egg into the poaching pan - which is somewhat flimsy - and jarring off the teflon over time. The manual also suggests you use a fork to pierce the yolk, which (although it may not be obvious to these folks) you do not want to do *in* the pan itself. Manual also suggests using nonstick spray to coat the pan, which is notorious for speeding up the teflon peeling process.
Easy solution - crack the egg into a separate bowl (I use a teacup) and pierce it there. Use the tiniest bit of butter to grease the thing.
english muffins take 2 full cycles to brown on darkest setting
...
The toaster, when used alone, is painfully slow to toast and toasts unevenly
Again, not my experience, but I don't really want the muffin *toasted*, I want it warmed up and pliable enough to hold the rest of the sandwich. Actual, toasted muffins crack apart and just make the whole thing messy. The toaster also tends to work better with actual (non-"light") English Muffins, but I've been using it with the light multi-grain variety without any problem.
My biggest problem has been with friends and the wife, who think I'm some sort of breakfast sandwich zealot, the way I go about making (and talking about) these things every damn day. (Mary calls it my "whore.") But nothing beats it for convenience, and I've got my make breakfast/make coffee/make lunch routine down to 20 minutes from start to finish, which is important when you tend to sleep until, oh, 8:20am and need to be at work at 9.
Truth is, the thing is simple to use, easy to clean, and the sandwiches are a good freakin way to start the morning. If you read the reviews on Amazon, most people who give it a low rating complain about one of a few things:
the non-stick coating on the egg-poaching cup started to peel off
Hasn't happened to me in 8 months of using the thing almost daily. I think people are probably cracking the egg into the poaching pan - which is somewhat flimsy - and jarring off the teflon over time. The manual also suggests you use a fork to pierce the yolk, which (although it may not be obvious to these folks) you do not want to do *in* the pan itself. Manual also suggests using nonstick spray to coat the pan, which is notorious for speeding up the teflon peeling process.
Easy solution - crack the egg into a separate bowl (I use a teacup) and pierce it there. Use the tiniest bit of butter to grease the thing.
english muffins take 2 full cycles to brown on darkest setting
...
The toaster, when used alone, is painfully slow to toast and toasts unevenly
Again, not my experience, but I don't really want the muffin *toasted*, I want it warmed up and pliable enough to hold the rest of the sandwich. Actual, toasted muffins crack apart and just make the whole thing messy. The toaster also tends to work better with actual (non-"light") English Muffins, but I've been using it with the light multi-grain variety without any problem.
My biggest problem has been with friends and the wife, who think I'm some sort of breakfast sandwich zealot, the way I go about making (and talking about) these things every damn day. (Mary calls it my "whore.") But nothing beats it for convenience, and I've got my make breakfast/make coffee/make lunch routine down to 20 minutes from start to finish, which is important when you tend to sleep until, oh, 8:20am and need to be at work at 9.