Egg Genie: Because Boiling Eggs is So Hard!
April 23rd, 2009 Paul Lucas
Infomercials can be so illuminating. I always thought that boiling eggs was among the easiest cooking tasks, right alongside making toast and cold breakfast cereal. But the commercial for the Egg Genie steamer informs us that boiling eggs is a monumentally difficult and grueling task forcing housewives everywhere into lives of quiet desperation.
Ridiculous Infomercial Review reader Sam Krysiak emailed the following observations about the EggGenie commercial:
1) The outcome of an easy recipe (boiling an egg) is shown to result in chance when not performed without the aid of the product.
2) A pan of water is considered to be heavy; filling the product’s reservoir with graduations of water from a small beaker will be lighter, but then the product will still have to be lifted to empty it when the eggs are done cooking (unless anyone fancies syphoning it into a drain).
3) Awful pun: “eggs-actly”. Barf.
4) While in real life no sane person would eat boiled eggs for every meal, this infomercial not only gives examples of many egg-based meals, but shows the lady biting into a whole peeled boiled egg as though it were an apple.
5) Depiction of numerous eggs being cooked at a time which, unless making the devilled eggs party favors shown in the spot (shown as an unsubtle “everyman” gambit), seems kinda excessive unless Ex-Lax is at hand.
6)”Audible signal” that sounds worse than my car alarm.
7) In spite of contradictory guidance over the health concerns from consuming eggs (notably that their dietary cholesterol content is high), magic phrases like “diet” and “low-cal” are thrown in to appease the South Beachers.
8) By adding a plastic gauze, the product is magically transformed into a vegetable steamer. For some reason.
9) BUT WAIT! An extra (and entirely unrelated) product is yours free when you order. While the implication is that it’s a great cost saving, it shows just how cheap the free item is for it to given away for free, and by extension how unsellable the main product is if they have to shoehorn another item into the package to make any sales.
Thank you Sam for those eggs-ellent insights. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!) Here are some further observations about the Egg Genie commercial from me:
The EggGenie commercial does show as many as seven eggs being cooked at once, which seems kind of excessive unless one has a large family or is hosting some kind of party. Maybe they’re holding some kind of Cool Hand Luke egg-eating contest—but I think a big pot would be a better way to boil 50 eggs.
The “sound indicator” reminds me less of a car alarm than of a fire alarm designed to be so annoying that it forces everyone to the exits as soon as possible!
I don’t think the Bacon Wave offered as a free bonus is an “entirely unrelated” product—it’s more of a sort of related product. Bacon and eggs is a breakfast favorite, but it is usually scrambled or fried eggs (as shown in the ad) that are eaten with bacon. Boiled eggs and bacon is not a common meal.
I have never used the Egg Genie, but it strikes me as one of those types kitchen gadgets that looks very handy on TV. So you buy on an impulse. Once you get it home you try it but soon realize that—while it does work as advertised—the thing is just more hassle than it’s worth. Unsure how you feel about the product, you stick it in some kitchen drawer, where it spends the next decade before you donate it to Goodwill.
My father hard-boils 6 eggs at a time for the proceeding lunches for the week, so cooking multiple eggs at once isn’t that rare.
Comment by Mel — April 23rd, 2009 at 11:55 am
We boil the whole dozen of a carton all at once to have for a couple of weeks. There’s also little evidence that dietary cholesterol from eggs affects bad serum cholesterol levels, and at 70 calories for an egg they are relatively low calorie.
Commercial is still retarded though.
Comment by David Lawrence — April 26th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Fuck you all. Ooh, I couldn’t simply boil water in a pan.
Have you any idea how many of these plastic pieces of shit will be churned out across the third world (ie China, where I live) and poison the bejesus out of the world for the next thousand or so years?
Comment by Myrtle Madness — May 3rd, 2009 at 5:05 am
Oh no, let’s attack the world for a simple product a little girl developed that works. Your review was nothing more than an attack on a working product. Cook your eggs up your ass then, faggots.
Comment by Fuck You Crybabies — May 4th, 2009 at 4:29 am
Oster and Hamilton beach have made this product for 20 years. It works great, they also poach eggs, though this one does not. I used my Oster this morning, definately saves time.
Comment by bobo — May 8th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Obviously you didn’t read any instructions or read about the product.. The water boild away so you do not over cook the eggs.. You don’t cook so why should you care? Nice smug comments from someone who didn’t even know how it works. Sell to guys like you every day… Make it your idea and you’d buy a box of rocks..
Comment by George — May 9th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
One last note.
Google the name and read reviews from people that used the product before you show everyone who pays attention you put your pen in gear before engaging your brain… Idiots..
Comment by George — May 9th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
The author of this review needs to get a life.
Comment by TeaRowz — May 17th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
The folks behind comments 3 through 8 must either be proud owners of the Egg Genie or the inventor’s parents.
Comment by Drey — May 21st, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Lots of people eat boiled eggs or poached eggs often. Why they try to make this appliance appear to be something just invented and “new” is misleading. Electric egg cooker/poachers have been on the market for over 50 years except instead of being all plastic they were metal and last forever. Mines from the 50’s and still works great, simple to use, doesn’t use much electricity either. To boil or poach 6 eggs it only uses about 5 tablespoons of water, yes tablespoons, not cups or ounces. So you’re not heating up the stove and boiling cups of water to boil an egg.
Comment by Pete — May 23rd, 2009 at 4:40 am
I just now used the Egg Genie for the first time. Previously, I used my mom’s method of preparing hard-boiled eggs. Just put the eggs in enough water to cover them, turn the heat on under them and when the water comes to a boil cover them and let boil for ten minutes. Then, turn off the heat and let sit. No big deal!
Comment by zui shu — June 19th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Not sure what everyone’s problem with the Egg Genie is…. But I love mine.
I, for one, If wanted hard, soft, or poached eggs would not hassle with pulling out a pan, filling it with a gallon or 2 of water, wait for it to boil, time the eggs,…. And the hope they were cooked right.
I love hard, soft, poached eggs and now with the egg genie I make them all the time and it is very easy and no pain. Just put it on the sink. Set the eggs in, Put an ounce or two of water in. Plug it in and …. in minutes perfect eggs.
Sure I could do it the way my mom taught me. But this is definitely much easier and the results are outstanding.
Sorry I cannot agree with all you “Egg Boilin’ Purists” LOL
Comment by John — July 10th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
LOL.
Comment by LOL — July 12th, 2009 at 4:24 am
The main selling point of this product is simplicity of use. If you sanctimonious twats feel the need to bitch and moan about people choosing to use devices that make life easier: turn off your computer and go back to the typewriter or paper and pen.
Comment by CW — July 26th, 2009 at 10:57 am
You can boil a half dozen eggs in less than a quart of water… it doesn’t take a gallon, silly! Just set the timer for 12 minutes. You only need a pan and a stove.
If this thing did perfect soft-boiled eggs, I might consider it. I just can’t imagine how it could possibly make the already impossibly easy task of hard-boiling an egg any easier. My six-year-old can hard-boil an egg.
Comment by Dolores — July 31st, 2009 at 10:37 pm
From my standpoint it’s just one more kitchen device that I have to find storage for. I use Alton Brown’s advice: only multitaskers in the kitchen. A pot on the stove with water can boil eggs, pasta, rice, steam veggies, etc.
Comment by Susan — September 1st, 2009 at 1:54 pm
I bought one yesterday from Bed Bath and Beyond it worked great. Didn’t heat up my kitchen or have to watch a timer, the alarm goes off and you just unplug the appliance.
Comment by Chantell — October 1st, 2009 at 10:01 am
This device actually makes it more difficult to boil eggs, because you have extra steps involved. You must first pierce each egg (really) and then measure water precisely and add, then place each egg in its own compartment. These extra steps aren’t mentioned on the misleadingly simple-sounding instructions on the box, and can only be found in the full printed instructions inside of the box.
Comment by Randy Dunn — October 17th, 2009 at 8:28 am
no one has said one important thing: how long does the genie take to hard boil the eggs? once assembled and turned on.
Comment by louis j bianco — October 26th, 2009 at 12:56 am
As someone who has used a Sunbeam egg cooker/poacher for the last twenty years or so (mine died and I now use my Mom’s which she never used). I will probably order this as my hubby likes potatoe salad with about the amount of eggs that this will cook - some mixed in and some sliced on top. Also we like to have a few H/B eggs hanging around for a sandwich. We used to have trouble with the “grey ring” when cooking in a pot, but not so with an egg cooker. I also like the steamer factor, but it’s now really important - nor are the the other “free” items. I just know that the one I am currently using will eventually die and I want to be ready.
Comment by Dianne — October 31st, 2009 at 8:19 pm