Eggs for Jamericans

I am here is bed trying to determine what sort of cold I have been gifted by my husband, so that I could then move on to figuring out what the most effective remedy. Throat hurts. I have thus far been unsuccessful in self-diagnosis. Instead, I starting thinking that I was hungry and that I should do something about it. Thus far, I have gotten as far as writing about it - I love how everything seems to take extra effort when you're getting sick.

I think I will make what we have dubbed "Jamaica Eggs". I don't think they are a Jamaican specialty; personally they would seem to be British-inspired. What I like most about them is that this is a reconstructed recipe.

We (re)visited Jamaica last spring, as I briefly mentioned here. (Woo hoo! I just linked to a previous post! First time for everything.) One morning, Mr. Tomato-then-Chocolate and I found what the resort dubbed cheese toasts; we spent the next 10 minutes trying to determine how they were made. The general formula was scrambled eggs sitting on an English muffin with mustard and cheese. Reconstructing this state-side was another matter.

For my first attempt, I put raw egg on English muffins and placed both in the toaster oven. This resulted in egg all over the tray but not much on the muffin. During attempt number 2, I tried pre-toasting the muffing and making it concave, with both adaptations aimed at keeping more egg on muffin. The result was not much better than attempt 1.

I then realized that the egg needed to be more stable if it was going to stay on the muffin. The solution was to par-cook the scramble to a stable yet runny consistency. This resulted in eggs staying on top of their English muffins and having the stability to support a cheese topping! Success!

One final adjustment I made during the last iteration of Jamaica eggs was to not mix mustard in with the egg mixture. While it seemed to make logical sense to mix in the mustard, it never quite dissolved/emulsified correctly. I found that putting mustard directly on to the muffin during the "construction" phase resulted in more mustard flavor.

Hungry yet? I am. I'm off to make eggs that only Jamericans could love.

By the way, while it's not quite a recipe, here is the method to all of this egg madness:
Split English muffins (I do one muffin per person) and toast in toaster oven (a conventional oven would work too, I suppose).
Scramble eggs - I usually do one fewer egg than I have muffin halves - with milk, seasoning, etc.
Cook on stove until stable yet runny.
Spread mustard on English muffins (place muffins on a tray of some sort), then top with eggs.
Toast a little, then top with cheese (cheddar is nice) and toast again until everything is set, toasted, and melted.