How to Cook Vegetarian Dishes using Eggs - A Selection of Old-Time Recipes

By S. Beaty-Pownall

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Oct 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473355620

Book preview

EGGS.

IT may be news to some people that there are at least four ways of boiling eggs, to say nothing of roasting them, concerning which readers of Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley will remember the description of poor Davie Gellatly preparing them thus for the old Laird of Bradwardine.

1. Put the eggs (which must be fresh, and should be new laid) on in plenty of absolutely boiling water, and from the time the water reboils after immersion, keep them boiling for three minutes if small, or three and a half minutes if large. It is well, however, to observe that some people might like a trifle longer time for the cooking.

2. Steam the eggs for four minutes or so in a steamer, as if they were potatoes.

3. Put the eggs on in a stewpan with plenty of boiling water, cover the pan down at once, draw it off the fire to the side of the stove, and let the eggs cook in this way for six minutes. Eggs cooked thus can be left uncovered for ten minutes or so in the water without hardening. This our grandmothers called coddling eggs.

4. Put the eggs into a pan of cold water, on a sharp fire, and when the water reaches full boiling point, the eggs will be sufficiently cooked for most people. Done in this way the white is more creamy, and mixes better with the yolk than when cooked by the ordinary process. Nurses, however, and other authorities pronounce eggs cooked by the third or coddling process to be the lightest, and most digestible for children and invalids.

Hard-boiled Eggs.—Put the eggs on in boiling water, and let them boil hard for eight to ten minutes exactly, for if allowed to cook longer the white toughens to leather and acquires an unpleasant odour, and the yolk loses its bright, clear, golden colour. When cooked, lift them out carefully with a slice, and slip them into a basin of cold water; after which, when perfectly cold, shell them carefully, and use as required.

Eggs Poached in their Shells; or, Œufs Mollets,—For these the eggs must be perfectly fresh. Place them in a stewpan of boiling water, and let them simmer gently but steadily for five minutes; then lift them out carefully with a slice, slip them gently into a basin of cold water, and leave them there for full ten minutes. Now shell them very carefully and return them to the cold water till wanted, as this preserves their colour. To reheat them, put them either into slightly salted, hot (but not boiling) water or into hot, white stock.

Eggs Fried.—Put half a gill of good oil into a frying pan, and as soon as this boils break an egg into a teacup, and slip it into the pan, tilting the pan gently to round the egg. Fold the white over the yolk to cover the latter completely. When cooked, lift out the egg gently, and set it on a clean cloth to drain, and proceed to cook another egg in the same way, repeating the process till you have cooked a sufficient number.

Egg Balls.—These can be either boiled or fried, the process being the same whether they are boiled in water or fried in fat. Have ready a deep pan three parts full of boiling water or any frying fat to taste, and stir it with a long wooden spoon or skewer till it acquires a circular,