EGGS
TO BOIL EGGS
When the water boils, allow three and a half minutes for a lightly boiled egg, four minutes for better done, and five minutes for hard-boiled.
POACHED EGGS
Take a pan which is not more than three inches deep, and put in as many muffin-rings as you wish to cook eggs. Pour in boiling water till the rings are half covered, and scatter half a teaspoonful of salt in the water. Let it boil up once, and then draw the pan to the edge of the stove, where the water will not boil again. Take a cup, break one egg in it, and gently slide this into a ring, and so on till all are full. While they are cooking, take some toast and cut it into round pieces with the biscuit-cutter, then butter them. When the eggs have cooked ten minutes, take a slice and slip it under one egg with its ring, and lift the two together on to a piece of toast, and then take off the ring; and so on with all the eggs. Shake a very little salt and pepper over the dish, and put parsley round the edge. Sometimes a little chopped parsley is nice to put over the eggs, too.
POACHED EGGS WITH WHITE SAUCE
Poach what number of eggs you require. Place on rounds of buttered toast. Have ready a nice creamy sauce as follows:
1 tablespoonful of butter; when melted put in 1 oz. of flour. Mix both together, add enough milk to the thickness you require, stirring it all the time. A little cream added greatly improves it; serve with chopped ham, tongue, or parsley sprinkled over the eggs.
SCRAMBLED EGGS
4 eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls of milk.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
Put the eggs in a bowl and stir till they are well mixed; add the milk and salt. Make the frying-pan very hot, and put 1 oz. of butter in it; when it melts, stir it well from side to side, till the bottom of the pan is covered. Put in the eggs, and stir them, scraping them off the bottom of the pan until they begin to get a little firm; then draw the pan to the edge of the stove, and scrape up from the bottom all the time till the whole looks alike, creamy and firm, but not hard. Put them in a hot, covered dish.
SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH PARSLEY
Chop enough parsley to make a teaspoonful, and mince half as much onion. Put the onion in the butter when you heat the pan, and cook the eggs in it; when you are nearly ready to take the eggs off the fire, put in the parsley.
After Margaret had learned how to make these perfectly, she began to mix other things with the eggs.
SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH TOMATO
When Margaret had a few tomatoes she would take them, add a half-teaspoonful of salt, two shakes of pepper, and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and simmer it all on the fire for five minutes; then she would cook half a teaspoonful of minced onion in the butter in the hot frying-pan as before, and turn in the eggs, and when they were beginning to grow firm put in the tomato. This made a very nice breakfast dish.
SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH CHICKEN
Chop fine a cup of cold chicken, or any light-coloured meat, such as veal, and heat it with a tablespoonful of water, a half-teaspoonful of salt, two shakes of pepper, and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Cook a half-teaspoonful of minced onion in the butter you put in the hot frying-pan, and turn in the eggs, and when they set, mix in the chicken.
Sometimes Margaret used tomato, as in the previous recipe, and the chicken in the eggs, when she wanted to make a large dish.
EGGS BALDWIN
Boil 5 or 6 eggs hard. Put them into cold water, then shell them, make a white sauce the same as already described on page 8, with pepper and salt to taste. Remove the yolk from the whites, cut up the whites in slices, and put into the sauce to boil up for a minute. Pass the yolks through a wire sieve, put the sauce and egg mixture into a dish, and decorate the top with the yolk and some chopped parsley.
CREAMED EGGS IN BAKING-DISHES
Cut six hard-boiled eggs into bits, mix with a cup of white sauce, and put in small baking-dishes which you have buttered. Cover over with fine, sifted bread-crumbs, and dot with bits of butter, about four to each dish, and brown in the oven. Stick a bit of parsley in the top of each, and put each dish on a plate, to serve.
BIRDS’ NESTS
Sometimes, when she wanted something very pretty for breakfast, Margaret used this recipe:
Break six eggs, putting the whites together in one large bowl, and the yolks into six cups on the kitchen table. Beat the whites till they are stiff, putting in half a teaspoonful of salt afterwards. Divide the whites, putting them into six patty-pans, or small baking-dishes. Make a little hole or nest in the middle of each, and slip one yolk carefully from the cup into the place. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over them, and put a bit of butter on top, and put the dishes into a pan and set in the oven till the egg-whites are a little brown.
OMELETTE
Making an omelette seems rather a difficult thing for a little girl, but Margaret made hers in a very easy way. Her recipe said:
Break four eggs separately. Beat the whites till they are stiff, and then wash and wipe dry the egg-beater, and beat the yolks till they foam, and then put in half a teaspoonful of salt. Pour the yolks over the whites, and mix gently with a large spoon. Have a frying-pan hot, with a piece of butter melted in it, and spread the butter over the whole surface; pour the eggs on and let them cook for a moment. Then take a kitchen palette-knife and slip under an edge, and look to see if the middle is getting brown, because the colour comes there first. When it is a nice even colour, slip the knife well under, and turn the omelette half over, covering one part with the other, and then slip the whole off on to a hot plate.
The cook had to show Margaret how to manage this the first time, but after that she could do it alone.
OMELETTE WITH MUSHROOMS
Take a few mushrooms or a bottle of champignons, and slice half of them into thin pieces. Make a cup of very rich white sauce, using cream instead of milk, and cook the mushrooms in it for one minute. Make the omelette as before, and cover with the sauce when you turn it over.
EGGS IN CASES
Butter some ramekin cases (china or paper) and put a small piece of butter and a pinch of chopped parsley, pepper and salt, and break an egg carefully into each case; add a tablespoonful of cream and a few browned bread-crumbs. Bake about five minutes.
EGGS WITH CHEESE
6 eggs.
2 full tablespoonfuls Parmesan cheese.
½ teaspoonful salt.
Pinch of red pepper.
Beat the eggs without separating till light and foamy, and then add the cheese, salt, and pepper. Put a tablespoonful of butter in the frying-pan, and when it is hot put in the eggs, and stir till smooth and firm. Serve on small pieces of buttered toast.
Parmesan cheese is very nice to use in cooking; it comes in bottles, all ready grated to use.
FRIED EGGS AND BACON
Take some bacon and put in a hot frying-pan, and cook till it crisps. Then lift it out on a hot dish and put in the oven. Break six eggs in separate cups, and slide them carefully into the fat left in the pan, and let them cook till they are rather firm and the bottom is brown. Then take a strainer and take them out carefully, and put in the middle of the dish, and arrange the bacon all around, with parsley on the edge.
HAM AND EGGS, MOULDED
Take small, deep tins, such as are used for timbales, and butter them. Make one cup of white sauce; take a cup of cold boiled ham which has been put through the mincing-machine, and mix with a tablespoonful of white sauce and one egg, slightly beaten. Press this like a lining into the tins, and then gently drop a raw egg in the centre of each. Stand them in a pan of boiling water in the oven till the eggs are firm—about ten minutes—and turn out on a round dish. Put round them the rest of the white sauce. You can stand the little moulds on circles of toast if you wish.
This recipe was given Margaret by her Pretty Aunt, who got it at the cookery-school; it sounded harder than it really was, and after trying it once Margaret often used it.
SCOTCH EGGS
3 hard-boiled eggs.
½ lb. of sausages.
1 raw egg.
Bread-crumbs.
Shell the eggs and put them in cold water for a few minutes, then take out and dry them. Roll them out in flour, then coat each over with sausage meat, keeping the shape. Next break an egg on a plate, brush the eggs over with the raw egg and roll them in bread-crumbs, and fry in the hot fat till a golden brown. To be served on fried bread.
DEVILLED EGGS
Fry four eggs lightly, then trim them neatly with a round cutter and dish them up. Pour over them the following, put together in a stewpan: 1 oz. of butter, 1 tablespoonful cream, 1 teaspoonful of mustard, 1 teaspoonful of flour, 1 tablespoonful chutney, 1 teaspoonful Worcester sauce, 4 tablespoonfuls stock. Stir till it comes thick, and pour over the eggs.