Tips on egg freshness, from 1912
To ascertain the freshness of an egg without breaking it, hold your hand around the egg toward a bright light or the sun and look through it. If the yolk appears quite round and the white clear, it is fresh. Or, if you put it in a bucket of water and it falls on its side, it is fresh. If it sort of topples in the water, standing on its end, it is fairly fresh, but, if it floats, beware of it.
The shell of a fresh egg looks dull and porous. As it begins to age, the shell takes on a shiny appearance. If an egg is kept any length of time, a portion of its water evaporates, which leaves a space in the shell, and the egg will “rattle.” An egg that rattles may be perfectly good, and still not absolutely fresh.
1. Eggs a la creme recipe
Six eggs, one tablespoon flour, one tablespoon butter, one-half teaspoon salt, one half pint milk; pepper to taste. Boil the eggs 15 minutes; remove the shells and cut them in halves crosswise. Slice a little bit off the bottom to make them stand. Put the butter in a frying pan to melt, then add the flour. Mix until smooth, add the milk and stir continually until it boils, add the salt and pepper. Stand the eggs on a heated platter, pour the sauce over and around them. Serve very hot.
2. Riced eggs
Cut stale bread into squares, rounds or points; trim off the crusts and toast. Make a white sauce, using one cup milk, two level tablespoons each flour and butter and a saltspoon salt. Have two eggs, boiled 20 minutes; chop the whites coarsely and add to the white sauce and pour over the toast arranged on a platter. Rub the yolks through a little wire strainer over the top and serve at once while hot.
3. Egg toast recipe
Six hard-cooked eggs, paprika, celery salt, one cup thin cream, a level tablespoon butter, one level tablespoon flour, four shredded wheat biscuits. Cook the eggs 15 minutes, cool in water, remove shells, separate yolks and whites. Make a cream sauce of the cream, flour, butter, one-half teaspoon salt, one-quarter teaspoon paprika; add the whites of eggs put through a potato ricer. Split the biscuits, sprinkle with celery salt, dust with paprika and toast a light brown, in oven; remove to warm platter, dress with the sauce and cover the top with the yolks of the eggs put through a potato ricer. Garnish with finely minced parsley.
4. Eggs a la Caracas
Two ounces smoked dried beef, one cup tomatoes, one-quarter cup grated cheese, few drops onion juice, few grains cinnamon, few grains cayenne, two tablespoons butter, three eggs (well beaten). Pick over beef and chop fine, add tomatoes, cheese, onion juice, cinnamon and cayenne. Melt butter, add mixture, and when heated, add eggs. Cook until eggs are of creamy consistency, stirring and scraping from bottom of pan.
5. Egg sandwiches
Boil eggs hard and when cold chop fine. Mix with salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar to taste and spread. One egg makes two sandwiches the size of the loaf. The whites can be omitted if desired.
6. Spanish eggs recipe
One cup lean cooked ham (chopped very fine), five hard-boiled eggs. Cook one-third cup stale bread crumbs in one-third cup milk to a smooth paste; mix it with the ham; add one-half teaspoon mixed mustard, one-half saltspoon cayenne pepper and one raw egg. Mix well. Remove shells from the hard-boiled eggs and cover them with the mixture. Fry in hot fat two minutes. Drain and serve hot or cold. Cut them lengthwise and arrange on a bed of fine parsley. The contrast between the green, red and yellow gives a pretty effect.
7. Chef’s best boiled eggs
Select fresh eggs (not limed); allow two quarts water to a dozen eggs. See that the eggs are of moderate temperature before the boiling water is poured on them. When this is done, set on the back of the range or on overhanging shelf nearby. Cover and leave for about 15 minutes. This process is the best known for cooking eggs evenly, because they become heated through before any part begins to harden. – From A C Jochmus, Pacific Grove
8. Eggs Mexicana
Put two tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Add four tablespoons of finely chopped onion and shake until the onion is soft, but not brown. Then add four Spanish peppers cut in strips, a dash of red pepper and a half pint of tomatoes; the tomatoes should be in rather solid pieces. Add a seasoning of pepper and salt. Let this cook slowly while you shir the desired quantity of eggs. When the eggs are ready to serve, put two tablespoons of this sauce at each side of the dish, and send at once to the table.
9. Eggs baked in tomato sauce
Make a tomato sauce. Pour one-half in the bottom of a baking dish or granite platter, break in from four to six fresh eggs, cover with the other half of the sauce, dust the top with grated cheese, and bake in a moderate oven until “set,” about fifteen or twenty minutes. Serve for supper in the place of meat.
10. Eggs a la Martin
Make a half pint of cream sauce. Put half of it in the bottom of a baking dish or into the bottom of ramekin dishes or individual cups. Break fresh eggs on top of the cream sauce, dust with a little salt and pepper, pour over the remaining cream sauce, sprinkle the top with grated cheese, and bake in a moderate oven until the cheese is browned and eggs are “set.” Serve in the dish or dishes in which they are cooked.
11. Eggs with Nut-Brown Butter
These eggs may be shirred or poached and served on toast. Put two tablespoons of butter in a saute or frying pan. As soon as it begins to heat, break into it the eggs and cook slightly until the yolks are “set;” dish them at once on toast or thin slices of broiled ham. Put two more tablespoons of butter in the pan, let it brown, and add two tablespoons of vinegar; boil it up once and pour over the eggs.
12. Egg Timbales
Butter small timbale molds or custard cups, dust the bottoms and sides with chopped tongue and finely chopped mushrooms. Break into each mold one fresh egg. Stand the mold in a baking pan half filled with boiling water, and cook in the oven, until the eggs are “set.” Have ready nicely toasted rounds of bread, one for each cup, and a well-made tomato or cream sauce. Loosen the eggs from the cups with a knife, turn each out onto a round of toast, arrange neatly on a heated platter, fill the bottom of the platter with cream or tomato sauce, garnish the dish with nicely seasoned green peas and serve at once.
13. Eggs Coquelicot
Grease small custard or timbale cups and put inside of each a cooked Spanish pepper. Drop in the pepper one egg. Dust it lightly with salt, stand the cups in a pan of boiling water and cook in the oven until the eggs are “set.” Toast one round of bread for each cup and make a half pint of cream sauce. When the eggs are “set,” fill the bottom of the serving platter with cream sauce, loosen the peppers from the cups and turn them out on the rounds of toast. Stand them in the cream sauce, dust on top of each a little chopped parsley and send to the table.
14. Eggs Suzette
Bake as many potatoes as you have persons to serve. When done, cut off the sides, scoop out a portion of the potato, leaving a wall about a half inch thick. Mash the scooped-out portion, add to it a little hot milk, salt and pepper, and put it into a pastry bag. Put a little salt, pepper and butter into each potato and break in a fresh egg. Press the potato from the pastry bag through a star tube around the edge of the potato, forming a border. Stand these in a baking pan and bake until the eggs are “set.” Put a tablespoonful of cream sauce in the center of each, and send to the table.
15. Birds’ Nests
Separate the eggs, allowing one to each person. Beat the whites to a stiff froth. Heap them into individual dishes, make a nest, or hole, in the center. Drop into this a whole yolk. Stand the dish in a pan of water, cover, and cook in the oven about two or three minutes. Dust lightly with salt and pepper, put a tiny bit of butter in the center of each, and send at once to the table. This is one of the most sightly of all egg dishes.
16. Eggs en Cocotte
Chop fine one good-sized onion. Cook it, over hot water, in two level tablespoons of butter. When the onion is soft add a quarter of a can of mushrooms, chopped fine, two level tablespoons of flour and one cupful of stock. Stir until boiling. Add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a half teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of pepper. Put a tablespoonful of this sauce in the bottom of individual cups. Break into each cup one egg. Pour over the remaining mixture. Stand the cups in a pan of hot water and bake in a moderate oven about five minutes.
17. Eggs Virginia
Grate six ears of corn. Add half cupful of milk, a half cupful of flour and two eggs, beaten separately, and a half teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper. Drop the mixture in large tablespoons in hot fat. When brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. Drain and arrange neatly on a large platter. Put a poached egg on the top of each cake, cover with cream sauce and send to the table. This dish, with green peas, makes quite a complete meal.
18. Japanese eggs
Carefully boil one cup of rice, drain dry. Make a half pint of cream sauce, add to it a teaspoonful of grated onion and a teaspoon of chopped celery. Poach the desired number of eggs. Put the rice in the center of a platter, cover it with the eggs, pour over the sauce. Dust the dish with parsley, and send at once to the table. The edge of this dish may be garnished with broiled sardines or carefully broiled smoked salmon.
Allow one egg to each person that is to be served. Cut either a dry or a Virginia ham into very thin slices; allow one thin square to each person. Toast squares of bread, remove the crust. Broil the ham quickly; put each square of ham on a square of toast, put on top a poached egg, dust lightly with pepper and send to the table.
19. Poached eggs on fried tomatoes
Cut solid tomatoes into slices a quarter of an inch thick, dust them with salt and pepper, dip them in egg beaten with a tablespoonful of water, roll them thickly with bread crumbs, dip them again in the egg, dust again with bread crumbs, and fry in deep hot fat. Drain on brown paper, dish on a heated platter, put a poached egg in the center of each slice, dust with salt and pepper, put a tablespoonful of tomato sauce over each egg and send at once to the table. Cream sauce may be used in the place of tomato sauce.
20. Eggs with chestnuts
This is an exceedingly nice dish to serve in the Fall when chestnuts are fresh. Shell a quart of chestnuts, blanch them, then boil them until tender; drain and press through a colander. Add a half cupful of hot milk, a tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of pepper. Beat until light and stand over a kettle of hot water while you poach six or eight eggs. Dish the chestnut puree in a small platter, cover the poached eggs over the top, dust them with salt, pepper and chopped parsley.
21. Eggs a la Rorer
Toast rounds of bread, one for each person. Butter them. Heat, in boiling water, the choke of a French artichoke, one for each slice of bread. Make sauce Hollandaise, and put one artichoke bottom on each slice of bread on a – heated platter. Put in the center a poached egg and pour over the sauce Hollandaise. Garnish the dish with nicely cooked French or fresh green peas.
22. Eggs Benedict
Separate two eggs. Break the yolks, add a cupful of milk, a half teaspoonful of salt, one and a half cupfuls of flour and a tablespoonful of melted butter. Beat well, add two level teaspoonfuls of baking powder and fold in the well-beaten whites. Bake on a griddle in large muffin rings. Broil thin slices of ham. Make a sauce Hollandaise. Chop a truffle. Poach the required number of eggs. Dish the muffins, put a square of ham on each, then a poached egg and cover each egg nicely with sauce Hollandaise. Dust with truffle and serve at once.
23. Eggs Creole
Put two tablespoons of butter and four of chopped onions into a saucepan, cook until the onion is soft, but not brown. Then add four peeled fresh tomatoes that have been cut into pieces, and three finely chopped green peppers. Cook this fifteen minutes, and add a level teaspoonful of salt. Have the eggs hard-boiled, and cut into slices. Put them into a baking dish, pour over the sauce, reheat in the oven, and serve with a dish of boiled rice.
24. Curried eggs
Peel, and cut into slices, three large onions. Put them in a saucepan with two tablespoons of butter. Stand over hot water and cook until the onions are soft. Add a teaspoonful of curry powder, a clove of garlic mashed, a saltspoonful of ground ginger, a half teaspoonful of salt and a tablespoonful of flour; mix thoroughly and add a half pint of water. Stir until boiling. Have ready six hard-boiled eggs, cut them into slices, arrange them over a dish of carefully boiled rice, on a hot platter, strain over the sauce, and send at once to the table. This dish is made more attractive by a garnish with sweet Spanish peppers, cut into strips.
25. Eggs Beauregard
Hard-boil five eggs. Separate the whites from the yolks. Put the yolks through a sieve. Put the whites either through a vegetable press, or chop them very fine. Make a half pint of cream sauce, season it and add the whites. Have ready a sufficient amount of toast, carefully buttered. Put this on a heated platter, cover over the cream sauce and the whites, dust the tops with the yolks, then with salt and pepper. Garnish the edge of the dish with finely chopped parsley, and send at once to the table.
26. Eggs Lafayette
Hard-boil six eggs, chop them, but not fine. Make a half pint of curry sauce. Put the chopped eggs over a bed of carefully boiled rice, cover with the curry sauce, garnish with strips of Spanish pepper and serve. This dish may be changed by using tomato sauce in place of the curry sauce.
27. Eggs Jefferson
Select the desired number of good-sized tomatoes, allowing one to each person. Cut off the blossom end, scoop out the seeds, stand the tomatoes in a baking pan in the oven until they are partly cooked. Put a half teaspoonful of butter and a dusting of salt and pepper into the bottom of each, and break in one egg. Put these back in the oven until the eggs are “set.” Have ready a round of toasted bread for each tomato, stand the tomato in the center of the bread, fill the bottom of the dish with cream sauce, and send to the table.
28. Eggs Washington
Add a half pint of crab meat to a half pint of cream sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Have ready either bread pates or pates made from puff paste. Put a tablespoonful of the crab mixture in the bottom of each. Break in an egg. Stand in the oven until the egg is “set.” Or you may poach the eggs and slide them into the pate. Pour over the remaining quantity of crab- meat sauce, and send at once to the table.
29. Eggs au Gratin
Make a pint of cream sauce. Hard-boil six eggs. Cut them into slices. Put them in the baking dish and cover with the cream sauce. Dust thickly with cheese, and brown quickly in the oven.
30. Deviled eggs
Hard-boil twelve eggs. Remove the shells. Cut the eggs into halves, crosswise. Take out the yolks without breaking the whites. Press the yolks through a sieve. Add four tablespoons of finely chopped chicken, tongue or ham. Add a half teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of pepper and two tablespoons of melted butter. Rub the mixture. Form it into balls the size of the yolks and put them into the places in the whites from which the yolks were taken. Put two halves together, roll them in tissue paper that has been fringed at the ends, giving each a twist. If these balls are made the size of the yolk, and put back into the whites, they may be placed on a platter, heated, and served on toast, with cream sauce; then they are very much like the eggs Bernhardt.
31. Eggs a la Dauphin
Remove the shells from six hard-boiled eggs, cut them into halves, lengthwise, take out the yolks, press them through a sieve. Add four level tablespoons of melted butter, and half a teaspoonful of salt, a grating of nutmeg and two tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Add half a cupful of cream to a half cupful of sifted breadcrumbs. Mix this with the yolks, rub until smooth, then add one well-beaten egg and the yolk of one egg. Cover the bottom of the baking dish with the mixture forming it in a pyramid and cover with the chopped whites. Have ready two extra hard-boiled eggs, take out the yolks, press them through a sieve, all over the top. Garnish the edges of the dish with triangular pieces of toasted bread, cover the whole with cream sauce, brown in the oven, and serve at once.
32. Eggs Brouille
Beat four eggs. Add to them four tablespoons of stock, four tablespoons of cream, a saltspoonful of salt and half a saltspoonful of pepper. Turn them into a saucepan, stand in a pan of hot water, stir with an egg-beater until they are thick and jelly-like Turn at once into a heated dish, garnish with toast and send to the table.
33. Egg Flip
This dish is exceedingly nice for a child or an invalid. Separate one egg, beat the white to a stiff froth, add the yolk and beat again. Heap this in a pretty saucer, dust lightly with powdered sugar, put in the center a teaspoonful of brandy, and serve at once. Sherry or Madeira may be substituted for the brandy.
34. Omelet with asparagus tips
Make a plain omelet from six eggs, have ready a half pint of cream sauce, and either a can or a bundle of cooked asparagus. Cut off the tips, preserving the lower portions for another dish. When the omelet is turned onto the heated platter, put the asparagus tips at the ends, cover them with cream sauce, pour the rest of the cream sauce in the platter, not over the omelet.
35. Omelet with green peas
Make a six-egg omelet. Have ready one pint of cooked peas, or a can of peas, seasoned with salt, pepper and butter. Just before folding the omelet put a tablespoonful of peas in the center, fold, and turn out on a heated platter. Pour the remaining quantity of peas around the omelet, and send at once to the table. If you like, you may pour over, also, a half pint of cream sauce.
36. Havana omelet
Put two tablespoons of butter and two chopped onions over hot water until the onion is soft and thoroughly cooked. Peel four tomatoes, cut them into halves and press out the seeds. Then cut each half into quarters, add four Spanish peppers cut in strips, a level teaspoonful of salt and a dash of red pepper. Cook until the tomato is soft. Make a six-egg omelet. Turn it onto a heated platter, put the tomato mixture at the ends, and send at once to the table.
37. Spanish omelet
Beat six eggs. Add six tablespoons of water. Add a saltspoonful of pepper, a tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley, a teaspoonful of onion juice. Put six thin slices of bacon in the omelet pan. Cook slowly until all the fat is tried out. Remove the bacon, add a tablespoonful of chopped onion. Cook until the onion is slightly brown, turn in the eggs and finish the same as a plain omelet. Turn onto a heated platter, garnish with red and green peppers, and, if you like, put two tablespoons of stewed tomatoes at each end of the omelet.
38. Omelet with rum
Make a plain omelet with six eggs, turn it on a heated platter. Dust it with powdered sugar, and score it across the top with a red-hot poker. Dip four lumps of sugar into Jamaica rum and put them on the platter. Put over the omelet four tablespoons of rum; touch a lighted match to the rum, and carry the omelet to the table, burning. Baste it with the burning rum until the alcohol is entirely burned off.
39. Omelet Jardiniere
Chop sufficient chives to make a tablespoonful. Add a tablespoonful of parsley, a tablespoonful of finely chopped onion, and, if you have it, a little of the green tops of celery. Mix this with six eggs, add six tablespoons of water and beat. Make the same as a plain omelet.
40. Omelet O’Brien
Put two tablespoons of butter in a saucepan with four tablespoons of chopped onion. Cook until the onion is tender. Then add four chopped Spanish peppers, two tablespoons of thick tomato, or one whole raw tomato cut into bits, four sliced cooked okra, a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper. Let these cook twenty minutes. Make a six-egg plain omelet, using bacon fat instead of butter for the cooking. Remove the slices of bacon before they are too hard, as they must be used for a garnish. Turn the omelet onto a heated platter, pour around it the pepper mixture, garnish with the bacon, and send to the table. Canned mushrooms may be added, if desired.
41. Omelet a la Washington
Put three eggs into a bowl, and three into another bowl. Add three tablespoons of water to each, and beat. Have two omelet pans, in which you have melted butter. Grate an apple into one bowl, and into the other put a little salt and pepper. Stand two tablespoons of jelly in a dish over hot water while you cook the omelets. Proceed as for plain omelet. The one to which you have added the apple, turn out on a plate. Before folding the other, put in the center the softened currant jelly, then fold it and turn it out by the side of the other omelet. Dust both with powdered sugar, and send at once to the table. Serve a portion of each.
