For alot of reasons, I always have a love affair with eggs around Easter time. Easter seemed to come so early this year...that's alright. I will think about eggs for months to come.
So glad you have stopped by for a visit!
Yesterday on my blog, I posted a Thursday Spring-Summer Menu from the old 1926 copy of The ART OF COOKING AND SERVING by SARAH FIELD SPLINT. She was one of McCall Magazine's Food Department Editors.
I'll share with you what she has said about eggs and post the recipe for PUFFY OMELET that she listed for the Thursday Spring-Summer Breakfast meal.
Chapter VIII
Eggs
Eggs are an important source of iron, phosphorous and vitamins, but they are not a complete food in themselves and should be used in combination with other foods which supplement them.
When eggs are used for a breakfast dish--- scrambled, fried, baked, poached or in a omelet---their possibilities are merely begun. With a cream sauce and a few hard cooked eggs one has the makings of an endless range of luncheon and supper dishes. An ingenious cook will add anything to eggs from minched green pepper or pimento to cheese and mushrooms and, presto, with a pretty garnish she has something to be proud of.
A hostess famous for her salads always introduces hard cooked eggs as a finishing touch and as an emergency measure usually keeps one or two on hand ready cooked. Eggs offer any number of possibilities for salads.
In soups, eggs are a bit of culinary wisdom everyone should cultivate. A raw egg added at the last minute, or a chopped hard cooked egg lends both flavor and nourishment to soup.
Crisco is the ideal fat to use in egg dishes of all kinds because of its delicate flavor. For frying, scrambling or making omelets eggs properly cooked in Crisco are apt to be more easily digested than when cooked in a fat which burns easily.
SUCCESS SECRETS
1. For "hard cooked" eggs allow them to stand for twenty to thirty minutes in water kept just below the boiling point. For "soft cooked" eggs allow them to stand from five to eight minutes. Never allow the water in which eggs are cooked to reach the boiling point, as it makes the white tough and leathery.
2. The whites of the eggs beaten until stiff and "folded in," as for omelets and souffles, make the mixture puff up and become light.
3. Include eggs frequently in your menu. They are especially valuable as a body building food because of the protein and mineral matter they contain.
4. Use only strictly fresh eggs for boiling and poaching.
5. Test eggs for freshness: (a) if they rattle when shaken they are stale.
(b) When placed in a glass of water a perfectly fresh egg will sink to the bottom, a half stale one will rise slightly at one end and if very stale it will float.
6. Buys eggs when they are plentiful and cheap, and put them away in water glass solution, or pack them in sawdust against the season when the price is high.
7. Use Crisco, instead of butter, for all egg cookery. Eggs require slow cooking and butter is apt to burn before they are done, making them unsightly and indigestible.
8. Wash dishes in which eggs are cooked first in cold water to loosen the egg, then in hot water.
9. Keep eggs in a cool place, but not in the refridgerator unless in a covered dish, because their porous shells readily absorb odors.
Recipe for PUFFY OMELET
5 egg yolks
1 teaspoon salt
Few grains pepper
Few grains cayenne
5 tablespoons hot water
5 egg whites
1 tablespoon Crisco
Beat egg yolks until thick and add salt, pepper, cayenne and hot water.
Mix well.
Fold in lightly the stiffly beaten whites until thoroughly blended.
Melt Crisco in an iron frying pan or omelet pan.
Pour in the egg mixture and spread evenly.
Cook over a slow fire, moving the pan occasionally so as to distribute the heat evenly.
When a delicate brown underneath put in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.), and bake 10 to 15 minutes or until top is firm.
Fold and serve on a hot platter.
Garnish with parsley.
I learned a thing or two about eggs that I hadn't heard before. Eggs...does the body gooooood!!!
God Bless you and have a nutritious week-end.
~Deanna~
PS
With so much hustle and bustle in this ole world...it can become very easy to get swept away in the busyness that easily manifest in today's home, life, activities, etc. As I was typing this post up, I was thinking that there is a peace present in my life when I just slow the heck down and enjoy what I'm reading and typing about from this 1926 book.
Improper planning and not allowing enough time to get from point A to point B makes a TIRED life. So today I will make a huge attempt to just slow the heck down and allow my nerves to unwind.
Be a good egg and do the same.
