096Eggs with staka

Method

Mountain village skillet style. Serve straight from the skillet alongside crusty sourdough and a glass of chilled tsikoudia.

You will need

• small cast-iron skillet or frying pan
• wooden spoon
• tablespoon for basting

1. Place a small heavy skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium-low heat, add the staka and 2 tablespoons of water, and warm gently while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. 3 min Ready when: staka melts into a smooth, bubbling, creamy sauce and releases golden butterfat
2. Season the melted staka with a pinch of sea salt, keeping in mind that staka is often naturally salted. 1 min Ready when: seasoning is integrated into the bubbling cream
3. Crack the eggs into individual small cups and gently slide them one by one into the simmering staka, spacing them apart evenly. 1 min Ready when: egg whites immediately begin turning opaque in the hot cream
4. Cook undisturbed over low heat for 3 to 4 minutes, using a spoon to gently baste hot staka fat over the egg whites while leaving the yolks clear and soft. 4 min Ready when: whites are set and creamy while yolks remain loose and glossy
5. Remove the skillet immediately from the heat, grind generous amounts of black pepper over the top, and carry the sizzling pan directly to the table with plenty of crusty bread. 1 min Ready when: dish is served bubbling directly from the pan

Tap a step to tick it off.

Make ahead and storing

Must be made to order; cannot be prepared ahead.

Does not keep; best consumed immediately while hot and runny.

Substitutions

• double cream reduced with 1 tsp flour and 1 tbsp butter for Cretan staka (cream roux). When staka is unobtainable outside Crete, reduce rich heavy cream with a tiny touch of flour and sheep butter to simulate the emulsion.

Common mistakes

• Using excessive heat. High heat scorches the dairy solids and rubberises the egg whites before the sauce can gently poach them.
• Overcooking until the yolks are hard. The dish relies entirely on dipping bread into a mixture of runny yolk and savoury staka cream.

Regional variants

• Apokoronas style: scrambled lightly with the staka rather than poached whole.
• With chips: eggs and staka poured hot over freshly fried hand-cut potatoes.

About the dish

Staka me avga is one of Crete's most primal and revered pastoral dishes. Staka itself is the rich, cooked cream-curd skimmed from sheep or goat milk, simmered with flour and salt until the fat separates into stakovoutyro, leaving behind a thick, roux-like dairy concentrate (staka). In mountain villages, fresh eggs are cracked directly into this bubbling, savoury fat and cream in a small skillet, creating tender whites and runny yolks enveloped in an intoxicatingly rich, nutty sauce meant to be mopped up with crusty sourdough bread.

Found in Crete. Cooked for everyday, sunday lunch, easter.

Cousins elsewhere

• Eggs in labneh / Shanklish eggs (Levantine). Eggs gently cooked directly in rich cultured dairy fats exist widely across pastoral sheep-herding cultures.

Nutrition per serving (estimate)

662 kcal · protein 18.2 g · fat 62.4 g (saturated 36.7 g) · carbohydrate 7.5 g (sugars 2 g) · fibre 0.6 g · sodium 769 mg

An estimate (summed from ingredient estimates) that varies with the exact ingredients. It is not dietary advice.

Written fresh by Epikouria editors from general culinary tradition. Recipe by the Epikouria editors. Traditional Cretan shepherd fare from the White Mountains (Lefka Ori) and Psiloritis..

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