Egg and Onion

Updated Oct. 10, 2023

Egg and Onion
James Ransom for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
Total Time
30 minutes
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Rating
4(338)
Comments
Read comments

Served to start the Sabbath dinner or as a simple breakfast on weekends, this Ashkenazic dish of mashed hard-boiled eggs and ultracaramelized onions feels indulgent in its rich flavor. Lisa Goldberg, a founder of the Monday Morning Cooking Club in Sydney, Australia, shares her grandmother’s Polish Jewish recipe for this beloved, time-honored dish, also called “eier mit tsibeles” in Yiddish. The key to deep, complex flavor is in the onions, which should be cooked slowly until caramelized, with a slightly burned texture. Save the leftover onion-infused oil to add flavor to vegetables or chicken. Serve this as an appetizer, with good bread or matzo, or as breakfast, with bagels or matzo. —Joan Nathan

Featured in: The One Dish an Australian Preserver of Jewish Recipes Always Serves

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Ingredients

Yield:6 servings
  • large yellow onions, peeled and roughly chopped into ½-inch dice
  • ½cup vegetable oil or chicken fat
  • 6large eggs
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Chopped tarragon, chives or parsley, for garnish
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

252 calories; 23 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 15 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 7 grams protein; 248 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Put the onions and oil in a large frying pan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, or until the onions are golden brown and very soft.

  2. Step 2

    Meanwhile, put the eggs in a medium saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 8 minutes, until hard-boiled. Drain the eggs and run under cold water until cool enough to handle. Next, tap each egg on the side of the sink until cracked all over, then peel under cold running water. Transfer the peeled eggs to a medium serving bowl. Coarsely mash the eggs with a fork.

  3. Step 3

    When the onions are caramelized, transfer them to the eggs with a slotted spoon, leaving most of the oil in the pan. Gently mix with your hands or a fork or spoon; you should still be able to distinguish the egg bits from the onions. Season generously with salt and pepper. If the mixture seems too dry, add a little oil from the pan. The mixture should stick together if pressed with your fingers, but should not be oily. Sprinkle with herbs before serving warm or at room temperature.

Ratings

4 out of 5
338 user ratings
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Comments

I am so thrilled that this recipe from my Bubbe Shendel has been shared with so many people around the world. It is a dish that is part of my DNA. I use a box grater to coarsely grate the eggs because that's how Bubbe did it! I hope everyone loves it as much as my family does.

Leave extra time. It’s not possible for onions to caramelize in 20 minutes, recipe editors just don’t want to scare people off. Budget more like 45.

My grandmother made something like this, but she added 1-2 cooked potatoes, lightly smashed with a fork, and mixed in. Chicken fat is a must for the incomparable flavor!

This is just the same as my mother's recipe (we are also a Polish-Jewish family from Melbourne!) and us kids (I say 'kids', we are all in our 50s!) use good quality, whole-egg mayonnaise instead of the oil & schmaltz. It works a treat. Also chopping in some spring onions rather than the suggested garnish adds flavour and colour.

This is exactly how my grandmother did it, except she grated really eggs. So glad to find this

This was wonderful. I agree with other cooks, that 20 minutes is not long enough to carmelize the onions, but it still tasted darn good. I used Vidalia onions, because that was on hand (and why I had been searching NYT Cooking for an onion recipe), but I suspect that using regular yellow onions would take the dish to awesome. An important factor that folks have not brought up is that this dish is wonderful, at room temperature, something not true of most egg recipes.

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Credits

Recipe from Lisa Goldberg

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