Summertime

This has been a very hot summer here in Shepherdstown — lots of days of over 100 degrees. The weather is always a good topic for discussion, but any discussion about the weather is typically pretty boring. Heat waves like we’ve had this summer invariably encourage people to say things like “It’s so hot outside you can fry an egg on the sidewalk.” Most people know that the expression is an exaggeration — but can you really fry an egg on the sidewalk? I figured my extensive research should come up with the truth on this one…. here’s what I found.

Eggs must reach 144 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit to change from liquid to solid and be considered cooked, according to the American Egg Board. Even on the most extremely hot day summer days, the typical sidewalk falls way short of the 144 degrees necessary to fry an egg. 

A book, What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained, by Robert Wolke says that pavement of any kind is a poor conductor of heat. When you crack an egg onto the pavement, the egg slightly cools the pavement’s surface. In order to fry an egg, the temperature of the sidewalk has to climb enough to start and maintain the coagulating process. If there is not a constant flame or source of heat from below or from the sides, pavement can’t maintain a temperature that’s hot enough to cook eggs evenly. About the best you can hope for is a runny mess.

All that said, frying an egg on the sidewalk isn’t impossible. There is a Solar Egg Frying Contest, held each Fourth of July in the town of Oatman, Arizona. People come from far and wide in hopes of winning a trophy for “the most edible” solar-cooked egg.

But technically, these people are cheating. Contestants are allowed to use mirrors, magnifying glasses, aluminum reflectors, and any kind of homemade cooking surface or contraption they can come up with to harness the power of the sun.And  Arizona in July is probably a good time and place to hold the contest — heat is high, humidity is low, and the liquid in the eggs dries out a little faster. 

Anyhow, we all agree that it’s been hot this summer, even if we don’t all agree that we could cook eggs on the sidewalk. Some people think it was so hot that we didn’t even need to worry about using the sidewalk — it was the kind of heat that would fry an egg inside the chicken…….
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