I discovered this recipe in a 1976 advertisement from the Egg Farmers of Ontario.  The ad promoted the recipe as The 42 Cent Lunch, but it struck me that eggs on toast might be better suited for breakfast.  It’s an interesting take on the classic Egg in the Hole.  Instead of cooking an egg within a slice of toast, the egg rests on top of the toast.  The yolk is supported by a pillow of beaten egg white that’s baked until golden brown.

This morning I “got cracking” and tried making this vintage recipe.

Above, you can see that the dish turned out pretty much like the picture in the ad.  The yolk wasn’t quite as vibrant, but other than that, it was awesome. It was easy to make, tasty and a really fun way to do eggs and toast in a unique way.

Here’s how to make it…

The ingredients are just eggs, bread, butter and salt.  For the original recipe as printed in the ad, click here.

Toast your bread.  While the bread is in the toaster, separate your egg whites from the yolks.  Beat the egg whites until stiff.  It only takes a minute with an electric beater.

Butter your toast.  Dollop pillows of egg white on each slice of toast.  Make an indentation in the middle of the whites.  Carefully, place a yolk in each of the holes.  Dot the top of the eggs with butter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 17 minutes. (The original recipe says 15 minutes, but I found that it needed 2 minutes more.)

Remove the Baked Birdies from the oven and serve with hash browns or fruit.

You can eat this with a fork or with your hands.  The yolk will still be just a bit runny, but not enough to get messy.  If you want the yolk cooked through completely, switch your oven to broil for the last 2 minutes of cooking.

No mater what you call it, Baked Birdies in a Nest (aka Egg in a Basket; aka Egg in the Hole; aka Toad in a Hole; aka Baked Popeye) is a fun way to serve an ordinary breakfast in a fun, new way.  Even though, ironically, this new way is 37 years old.

This post is a companion piece to the following article on MrBreakfast.com:

Baked Egg Nests

Related Recipe:

Egg In The Hole

“The Toaster” is an art piece created by Ingrid Falk of Sweden, and her husband, Gus­tav Aguerre of Argentina. It measures roughly 16 feet by 15 feet.  You can view “The Toaster” at the Modern Art Museum of Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’ve read conflicting accounts that the piece is comprised of either 2,500 or 3,053 pieces of toast.  Either way, we’re gonna need a lot of butter. (More information: fa-art.pp.se)

This toast rendition of the “Mona Lisa” is by New Zealand artist Maurice Bennett, aka The Toastman.  It hangs in the K11 Art Mall at the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR in Hong Kong. Over time, the portrait has been altered to change the item that Mona Lisa is holding.  Here, she holds an ice cream cone.  She has also held a glass of wine and a stack of holiday gifts. (More Information: mauricebennett.co.nz)

In 2010, Maurice Bennett created this toast portrait of President Barack Obama.

Also by Maurice Bennet is this toast portrait the Australian character Dame Edna.  This work features 2,989 slices of bread.

The Toastman (Bennett) showed that toast art doesn’t have to be brown.  He hand painted about 6,000 slices of toast to produce this portrait of Marilyn Monroe.  This piece was displayed in Shanghai. (More Info: CNN)

Other toast portraits by Maurice Bennett include filmmaker Peter Jackson, legendary rock star Elvis Presley and television actor Dean Cain.

Mixed media artist Henry Hargreaves created portraits of The Beatles using toast.  Each individual portrait of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr consisted of over 900 pieces of toast.  Hargreaves used a creme brulee torch (not a toaster) to get the right amount of toasting for each slice of bread.  The artist is originally from New Zealand but created The Beatles portraits at his studio in Brooklyn, New York. (More Information: henryhargreaves.com)

The Queen by Henry Hargreaves (approx. 900 slices of toast).

Other toast portraits by Henry Hargreaves include Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison and Che Guevara.

The world’s largest toast portrait isn’t of someone famous, but it is someone very special… the artist’s mother-in-law.  Laura Hadland used 9,852 slices of bread to create this giant mosaic measuring 32 feet by 42 feet.  The piece, which was displayed in Cheshire, England, was a birthday gift to Hadland’s mother-in-law. (More Information: Laura Hadland’s Blog  – Be sure to check out her mosaic of Pippa Middleton made out of crumpets.)

Laura Hadland also created this rendition of the “Mona Lisa.”  This piece was assembled in Matera, Italy.

Toast Mosaics By Unknown Artists:

This rendition of video game legend Super Mario shows a simpler approach to toast art.  The piece appears to be laid out on the floor of someone’s apartment.  On close examination, you can see that the artist made clever use of two hamburger buns.

Toast mosaic of an eye – artist unknown.  It appears that this piece was displayed at an interactive gallery where spectators were encouraged to touch the art.  Or possibly, these women are on ecstasy.

Amy Winehouse by Unknown on display at the Berlin Music Festival 2011.

Toast portrait of Murat Kurnaz by Unknown displayed in Berlin.  Karnaz made headlines for being wrongly imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.  Pictures of this mosaic have been distributed on the internet labeled incorrectly as a picture of Jesus Christ.

About Toast Art:

In this article, we featured a form of toast art called the Toast Mosaic. Let’s take a quick look at the three major styles of toast art.

Toast Mosaics – Works of art made by toasting slices of bread to varying degrees, from untoasted to completely burnt.  They are then combined to form an image consisting of hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of slices of bread.  Most often, artists utilize toasters or torches to achieve the desired amount of browning.  This form of art is also called Toast Pixel Art as each each piece of toast often represents a single pixel in the completed mosaic.

Individual Toast Slice Art – A piece of art on a single slice of toast usually accomplished with a creme brulee torch, a toaster template or spreads like Marmite or jam.

Toast Mosaic With Slice Manipulation – This is a combination of Individual Toast Slice Art and Toast Mosaic to form a large multi-toast image with a high degree of detail.  In the examples above, artist Nathan Wyburn uses Marmite and jam with traditional toast mosaic technique to create his desired effect. (More Information: odditycentral.com)

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Do you love toast? Check out my article 351 Ways To Enjoy Toast.