Are You Up To Challenging Yourself To Fry An Egg On The Sidewalk This Summer?
Louise Peralta
Summer is almost upon us, everybody!
Some are already experiencing the intense heat of the sun and are preferring to stay indoors where they can stay cool with the help of their air conditioning units.
And then there are others who actually enjoy and even anticipate the summer season. Usually, people go to the beach and make the most out of their vacation while others use their time indoors to do their hobbies.
One thing you can do while it’s hot outside is to make use of the heat to… cook things.
In the past, we’ve seen people bake cookies in their cars, and they turned out successful. But what if you try using the hot pavement to use as an alternative heat source to, say, fry an egg? Would it really work?
Watch our cookies bake! Our thermometer remained in the shade of the car through the experiment and has been hovering around 140° this afternoon.
Remember every hot car death is preventable! Help us spread awareness and always remember #LookBeforeYouLock! pic.twitter.com/8mbmxEDjO5
— NWS Kansas City (@NWSKansasCity) June 18, 2021
It’s not a crazy idea, or even a new one. The fourth of July isn’t just for fireworks - Independence Day shares its date with Sidewalk Egg Frying Day, which is also celebrated on July 4.
But to be successful in frying an egg on the sidewalk, one should be aware of what to do and where to do it. You can’t just get a pan, put it on any sidewalk, and hope for the best.
In order to cook an egg, you should look for darker asphalt sidewalks, as they are a far better option compared to concrete, which is made from lighter materials, thus making them a poor conductor of heat. This information is also crucial for pet owners, as they wouldn’t want their dog’s paws to suffer from asphalt sidewalks that can heat up to 161 degrees Fahrenheit during a heat wave.
The surface isn’t the only factor in a successful fried egg. Say that you’ve found a perfect slab of asphalt with the hottest surface, but once you crack open an egg and put it on the sidewalk, it inevitably cools the surface down. The thing is, eggs need about 144-158 degrees to cook. More specifically, 144-149 for the egg whites and 149-158 for the yolk.
“If you’ve got a road that’s at 150 or 155 degrees and you crack an egg onto it, it’s going to lower the temperature, and that temperature’s not going to heat back up anytime soon,” Chef Wylie Dufresne, an egg enthusiast, said.
PHOTO: Youtube/BuzzFeedVideoBut the good news is that you can still somehow cook an egg if you use a metal pan or a cast-iron skillet. If the sidewalk doesn’t work, try putting your pan on the hood of your car, or in the car, like how people bake their cookies in the summer.
If you don’t want to try and experiment with cooking outside on a very hot day, then maybe just watch the video below to see a successful, yet tedious, sidewalk fried egg!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Lsx5uUzYw
