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Eggs, Scrambled, with Ham
Melt three ounces of butter in a stewpan over the fire. Break into it six eggs separately, add a tea-cupful of milk, a sprinkling of salt, and a pinch of pepper. Whisk very briskly until the eggs begin to set. Add three ounces of cooked ham or tongue cut into thin slices, and divided into half-inch squares. Stir well, and turn out on a very hot dish. Garnish with fried croutons, and serve at once. A little tomato sauce poured round them is an improvement. Probable cost, 1s. 3d.
A late-Victorian buttered-egg dish, generous with both butter and milk by modern habit. The technique is sound; the heat management is left entirely to the cook.
- The hinge: low heat, pulled earlyThree ounces of butter and a teacupful of milk buy you a margin of error, but not much. Cook over gentle heat and turn the eggs out while they still look slightly underdone, since they carry on setting on the hot dish.
- A teacupfulIn British cookery books of this period a teacupful is usually taken as about a quarter of a pint, some 5 fl oz or roughly two-thirds of a US cup, though the measure was not standardised. That is a lot of liquid for six eggs and will give a loose, sauce-like result; 2-3 tablespoons is closer to modern practice.
- StewpanA straight-sided metal pan with a lid, used on the open range. Any heavy-bottomed saucepan or non-stick pan works; thin aluminium will scorch the eggs before the middle sets.
- Three ounces of butterAbout 85 g, which is a quarter-pound block minus a knob. Half that is plenty in a modern pan, and the eggs will still be rich.
- TongueCooked ox tongue, pressed and sold cold by the slice, was a standard larder item and is now a specialist purchase. Cooked ham, or any firm cured meat cut into half-inch squares, gives the same effect.
- Add the meat lateThe ham goes in once the eggs are already thickening, so it warms through rather than weeping salt and water into the mixture. Diced cold ham straight from the fridge will drop the pan temperature; let it sit out or warm it briefly first.
- CroutonsSmall cubes or triangles of bread fried in butter or clarified fat until crisp. Best made before you start the eggs, which need constant attention once they are in the pan.
- Yield and costSix eggs serve three as a breakfast or supper dish, two if it is the whole meal. The "probable cost, 1s. 3d." is the book's standard price note for the household accounts, not an instruction.
Cassell's belongs to the era when scrambled eggs were still often called buttered eggs, and when the breakfast and supper tables of a middle-class household frequently made use of cold cooked meats. Ham and pressed ox tongue were commonly bought ready-cooked or boiled at home in quantity, and a dish like this one is one way of giving the remains a second appearance. Pouring the tomato sauce round rather than over, and setting the fried croutons about a soft dish, is in keeping with Victorian presentation of dishes that would otherwise look shapeless on the plate. The quantities of butter and milk here give a soft, almost sauced result rather than the firm curds common in Britain and America today.