TO KEEP EGGS FOR WINTER USE.—Pour a full gallon of boiling water on two quarts of quicklime and half a pound of salt; when cold, mix it into an ounce of cream of tartar. The day following put in the eggs. After the lime has been stirred well into the boiling water, a large part of it will settle at the bottom of the vessel, on which the eggs will remain. Keep them covered with the liquor, and they will keep for two years.
TO BOIL EGGS TO EAT IN THE SHELLS, OR FOR SALADS.—The fresher laid the better; put them into boiling water; if you like the white just set, about two minutes' boiling is long enough; a new-laid egg will take a little longer; if you wish the yolk to be set, it will take three, and to boil it hard for a salad, ten minutes. A new-laid egg will require boiling longer than a stale one, by half a minute.
POACHED EGGS.—The beauty of a poached egg is for the yolk to be seen blushing through the white, which should only be just sufficiently hardened to form a transparent veil for the egg. Have some boiling water in a teakettle; pass as much of it through a clean cloth as will half fill a stewpan; break the egg into a cup, and when the water boils, remove the stewpan from the stove, and gently slip the egg into it; it must stand till the white is set; then put it over a very moderate fire, and as soon as the water boils, the egg is ready; take it up with a slice, and neatly round off the raged edges of the white; send it to table on bread toasted on one side only, with or without butter.
TO POACH EGGS IN THE FRYING-PAN.—Put very little butter, oil, or top-pot into the frying-pan; break the eggs gently into a deep cup, of the size the egg is to be of, sometimes smaller, sometimes larger; with a quick slight turn of the hand, turn the cup over with the egg into the pan, and leave the cup upon it, and continue to turn over the cups till all the eggs are put in; the fire must be very slow. When the first egg has taken, raise the cup a little to ascertain it. They must be done very slowly, otherwise the under part will be overdone. Dress them over parsley, spinach, or on toasted bread.
CUPPED EGGS.—Put a spoonful of very nice high-seasoned brown gravy into each cup; set the cups in a saucepan of boiling water, and, when the gravy heats, drop a fresh egg into each cup; take off the saucepan, and cover it close till the eggs are nicely and tenderly cooked; dredge them with very fine mace, or nutmeg and salt. Serve them in a hot-water plate, covered with a napkin.