In his native Austria and in Germany, soft-cooked eggs beat the competition for breakfast, and getting them just right is an art form.

How does a soft-cooked egg differ from a soft-boiled?

A simple soft-cooked egg will take much of what you throw at it, from shaved Parmesan and olive oil to an outspoken curry.

Open it up and dig out a soft-cooked egg with truffles and strips of luscious duck liver.

The soft-cooked eggs in silver cups required mechanical mastery, but tasted good, if bland.

High on his list of egregrious food policing was the recent ban in New Jersey of runny or soft-cooked eggs.

Topping the anchovies is a soft-cooked egg.

It was a square, two-crusted sandwich with lobster filling, all crowned with a runny, soft-cooked egg.

It usually varies from 15-17 minutes for large hard-boiled eggs and 1-4 minutes for large soft-cooked eggs.

For the basic soft-cooked egg you want what Escoffier called an oeuf mollet, essentially no more than a six-minute egg.