Eggs in some sort of container

[telophase]

The results of my informal poll of y'all and of my in-laws, about what you call eggs fried in the hole in a piece of bread, and where you came from:

Kentucky - eggs in a nest, toad in the hole
Maryland - toad in a hole
Michigan - egg in a frame
New Jersey - egg in the hole
New York City - Georgia Eggs
Oregon, NE - toad in the wall (the extra pieces of bread are toad's eyes)
Philadelphia/New Jersey - eggs in a basket
South Dakota - one-eyed sandwiches
Texas, central - house on a hill
Texas, south - Popeye eggs
Toronto - toad in the hole
Internet, cookbooks, and unspecified - ox-eye, egg in a basket, Gypsy Eggs, Egyptian Eggs, Toad in the Hole

The Kentucky ones are from my mother-in-law. My own mom grew up in West and North Texas and doesn't recall ever eating the dish until I found it and started cooking it.

edit: Also, my father-in-law reports that they called it French toast! We made sure to clarify with him that you didn't dip the bread in the egg, but fried an egg in the hole. I've forgotten where he grew up, though.

Comments

[snarp]

Kentucky: I don't recall ever hearing of it until my sister came back from London, calling the dish toad-in-the-hole.

[telophase]

Huh--so she picked up the name in London, where it usually refers to sausage in batter? Interesting!

[snarp]

Yup. From her host family; I don't remember where in London they were, if that matters.

[telophase]

It makes me wonder if it was a homegrown London term, or if the host family picked it up from a previous guest.

[the_rck]

My family always called it a fried egg on toast. I'm from Michigan, and so are both of my parents.

[telophase]

So it's fried egg on toast even when the bread has a hole cut out of it and the egg is fried in it? Interesting!

[the_rck]

Yes. I have no idea why. The bread wasn't toasted first, either, so it wasn't precisely toast. I think my mother used to tear a hole in the bread instead of cutting it, but my memories are unreliable. We discovered when I was ten that eggs give me migraines, so that was the end of those breakfasts.

[dsgood]

Note: While I first encountered the term "Georgia Egg" in New York City, neither I nor the person I learned it from came from there. He was from another state (don't remember where.) I was from Ulster County NY, about a hundred miles north of the City.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Nobody else called them God's-eyes? (Ohio, mother from middle-of-nowhere in Maine, no idea how she picked that up. I prefer toad-in-the-hole myself.)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Wow! The only that we ever used the term "God's-eye" for were those crafts (https://www.google.com/search?q=ojo+de+dios&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=SccCUrjYHsGZqAHLmoDACg&ved=0CDIQsAQ&biw=1168&bih=746) that kids made out of yarn and Popsicle sticks (which I now see from Dr Google are also a spiritual practice and we probably did the equivalent of making a crucifix out of pipe cleaners in a crafting class).

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

I knew what you were talking about, but I have *no* idea what it's called anywhere. Beyond bread with a hole for an egg in the middle, LOL.

[metaphortunate.livejournal.com]

That's what I know those as, too.

[wyrdness.livejournal.com]

I've never heard a name for it before. I suspect my family would have called it egg on toast even if it was actually egg in fried bread. I'm unreasonably grumpy about people calling it toad in the hole when it contains neither sausage nor Yorkshire pudding, but I think that's because I quite like both sausage and Yorkshire pudding and am a bit meh on eggs. It's not like I really care what other people call their meals since it's hardly going to effect me.