Earlier this week a friend of mine told me that Sir John Barbirolli claimed that the overture to The Marriage of Figaro was the right length of time to make the perfect boiled egg. Since I have always been hopeless at getting boiled eggs right, this morinng I decided to put the theory to the test.
My conclusions were that either Barbirolli conducted an unusually slow Marriage of Figaro overture, or that he liked a considerably runnier egg than I do.
I am not one to waste an egg, half-raw as it may be, so I resourcefully popped the open egg back into the boiling water to achieve a half-boiled, half-poached effect. The resulting creation, which I have named Eggs Barbirolli, and which I can confirm was revolting, is served with burned toast. (Never time your toast to the Tristan overture.)
