I was in the car one morning and heard the weather report on the radio say, “It’s going to be so hot this week that you can fry an egg on the sidewalk.” Although I’ve heard that phrase dozens of times, I started to wonder — is it even possible to fry an egg on the sidewalk? And if so, how would you do it?
I’d never before considered if it was a legitimate thing you could accomplish. But now, I was pretty bored — I mean, it was the middle of summer vacation. So, I gathered the two materials that I needed: tin foil and an egg.
Here’s how to fry an egg on a sidewalk with decent success.
The Setup
I waited for a hot day – the temperature was in the high 90s the day I did this. Granted, the day that I decided to complete this so-called experiment was incredibly windy, so I needed to use some flower pots to hold down the tinfoil for a photo. Looking back, I certainly think the flower pots added to the aesthetic, definitely #InstaWorthy.
I went ahead and placed a sheet of tinfoil on my black asphalt driveway. Then, I waited for the foil to heat up from the asphalt.
Frying the Egg
I put the sheet of tinfoil on my driveway around 10 am, hoping that letting the tinfoil sit in the sun for a few hours would create a hot enough surface to fry an egg. I cracked an egg onto the tinfoil around noon. My driveway isn’t the most level surface, which I had not realized prior, so the raw egg began to run all over the tinfoil. Eventually, the egg settled in the upper lefthand corner of my makeshift frying pan.
I let the egg sit in the middle of the driveway for about 30 minutes before going back outside to check on it. I mean, if it was actually hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, I wanted to be inside with the AC.
The Outcome
I came back outside and saw that my experiment actually worked, well, sort of. The egg did cook a little, but it was still raw on top and pretty much everywhere besides the very thin edges. I went back inside it to see if the egg would cook more if I left it out.
I got side-tracked watching recipe videos, and about an hour and a half later remembered the egg I left sitting in front of my house. When I came outside, there were little kids riding their bikes, probably wondering what this crazy lady was doing with a half-raw egg and tinfoil sitting in front of her house. It’s science, kids.
Much to my disappointment, the egg didn’t seem like it cooked any more than it did before. I tried to take the egg off of the tinfoil, but it was so raw, it fell through the cracks of my spatula and splattered all over my driveway. Sorry, Mom and Dad.
So, can you fry an egg on the sidewalk? I’d say it’s possible. Can you eat an egg that has been fried on the sidewalk? I wouldn’t recommend it. Next time I want to cook eggs, I’ll stick to eggs made indoors.