EGGS.
Boiled Eggs.—Be sure and select fresh eggs for boiling, never more than a week old. Have the water just boiling; if boiling fiercely when the eggs are put in, it will crack the shell. Three minutes will boil an egg soft; five minutes will be necessary if you like them hard, and ten or twelve minutes if needed for salad; in the latter case they should be thrown into cold water the instant they are taken from the boiling water, else the white will be dark colored or clouded. When perfectly new, an egg requires about half a minute longer boiling than if four or five days old.
Fried Eggs.—The fat left after frying ham, or that which is left in the bake-pan after browning a ham, is better for frying eggs than lard or butter. See that it is boiling hot, but not discolored, and drop the eggs in one at a time. Let them cook half a minute, then dip up some of the boiling fat from the pan, and pour over them. Continue to do this till they are done, and it will not be necessary to turn them over, which endangers breaking the yelk. Two and a half minutes should cook them sufficiently. When dropping them in, hold the cup into which you break each one close to the pan, and let the egg slip in as easily as possible, so that it will not spread in a ragged surface over the pan.
Poached Eggs.—While boiling a pint of milk, beat six eggs to a froth. Just before the milk begins to boil, add half a table-spoonful of butter and a teaspoonful of salt, and stir into it; then pour in the eggs, stir without ceasing, but gently, till it thickens,—not more than two minutes. Take it from the stove or range, and continue to stir half a minute or so, and then pour it over two or three thin slices of toasted bread which has been spread with butter, and all prepared in a deep dish before the eggs are put into the milk. This is very nice for breakfast.
Hard Scrabbled.—Put two teaspoonfuls of butter into a frying-pan; beat six eggs; season with pepper and salt. When the butter is very hot, but not scorched, put in the eggs; stir until it thickens, and serve hot.
Fricasseed Eggs, or Egg Baskets.—Boil hard half a dozen eggs or more, according to the size of your family. When done, throw into cold water immediately. (This should always be done with hard-boiled eggs, else the yelk will turn black.) Cut the eggs in half after taking from the cold water. Rub the yelks in a marble or wedgewood mortar, or with a silver or wooden spoon, with some melted butter, pepper, and salt, to a smooth paste; and, if you know it will be agreeable to all, add a very little made mustard. Pound the finely minced meat of a cold fowl, or grind some cold tongue or ham, and having made it smooth, mix with the egg-paste, moistening as you proceed with a little gravy, or, if you have none to spare, with melted butter. Cut a thin slice from the bottom of the white of the egg, so that it will stand, and fill each of the hard whites with this paste. Place close together on a flat dish, and pour over the gravy left from the roast fowl yesterday, heated boiling hot, into which a few spoonfuls of cream or rich milk have been stirred. Cover closely with a hot cover, and let them stand a few minutes before sending to table. If liked, a little parsley, chopped fine, may be added, to the taste.
Excellent for breakfast when eggs are plenty.
Egg Toast.—Put some milk to boil in a farina-kettle; when it comes to a full boil, take from over the fire and break in your eggs; let them stand in the hot milk from eight to ten minutes, but not over the fire. Steam a light biscuit, or, if you prefer, some Graham bread till soft, or dip it into boiling milk and lay the egg on it, sprinkling over a little salt and pepper. If desired, after the biscuit is steamed or moistened in hot milk, you can spread a little butter over it before the egg is put on it. This is a pretty breakfast dish, and much more healthy than when the eggs are boiled, fried, or made into an omelet, as the albumen (or white of the egg), being only slightly cooked, is much more digestible. If careful not to scorch it, it is better to boil in an iron kettle rather than the farina-kettle, as iron will retain the heat longer than tin when taken from the fire. Cooked in boiling water rather than milk, eggs are said to be even more digestible, but they are not so palatable.
Scrambled Eggs.—Put into a spider enough butter just to oil the bottom; set it on the stove. Break the eggs into a dish, taking care not to break the yelks. As soon as the spider is heated, slip in the eggs, adding a piece of butter as large as a walnut for twelve eggs; season with very little salt and pepper. When the eggs harden a little, stir the eggs from the bottom of the spider until cooked to suit. The yelks and whites should be separate, though stirred together; not mixed, like beaten eggs.
Scrambled Eggs.—Melt a table-spoonful of butter in a saucepan; beat the yelks of six eggs a few minutes; then add to them six table-spoonfuls of milk and a teaspoonful of salt, beat a little longer, and pour them into the melted butter. When they thicken slightly, pour in the whites unbeaten, and mix them with the yelks carefully with a fork, and serve on pieces of toast in a hot dish, or if preferred omit the bread. The whites should not be beaten in hard, only stirred with the fork enough to mix in slightly with the rest.
Dropped Eggs.—Have ready a saucepan of boiling water. Throw in a little salt. Break fresh eggs into a cup, one by one, and gently drop each into the water so as not to break the yelk or have the white spread much. Dip the boiling water over the yelk with a large spoon until the white sets; then with an egg-slice take each egg out separately upon buttered toast. Dress the dish with sprigs of parsley; sprinkle over a little salt if not seasoned sufficiently by the salted water. It is safer to cook one egg at a time, keeping the dish covered into which they are placed after being cooked, or where it will keep hot.
Cottage Cheese.—Take half sour milk, when well thickened, before it has been stirred, and half buttermilk, at least twenty-four hours old; set the dishes containing the milk and buttermilk separately over kettles of hot water till the clear whey just begins to rise to the top. Do not let it get too hot, or the cheese will be hard and tasteless. When the whey has risen, pour both into a strainer-cloth or bag; tie it at the top, and hang it up to drain. If prepared for draining in the morning, by the middle of the afternoon it will be sufficiently free from whey. Then turn it out of the strainer and crumble all up fine; throw in a little salt and black pepper, rub in a table-spoonful of butter, and moisten with milk till soft enough to make into small pats or rolls for tea. If you have cream to wet it up with, use no butter. If you like it quite soft, add more milk or cream, and put the cheese into a deep dish, without attempting to make into balls.
Cheese Toast.—Without great care, there is danger of much waste after a rich cheese is cut, and part sent to the table daily. If servants are allowed to cut it, waste would seem inevitable; but if the mistress looks after the cheese, there are many nice relishes to be made from the crumbs and dried pieces.
Take five table-spoonfuls of rich cheese, grated (the “crumbles” and dry bits are as good as if cut for this purpose from the cheese), mix with it the yelk of one egg, four ounces of grated bread, and two table-spoonfuls of butter. Beat it all in a mortar,—a marble one if you have it,—adding a dessert-spoonful of mustard and a little salt and pepper. Toast some slices of bread, lay the paste upon them quite thick; put it into the oven a few minutes and send to the table hot.