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Cooking of True Proteids Continued: Eggs: Poached
Poached Eggs, and Eggs Removed from the Shell and Cooked with White and Yolk Distinct and Separate POACHED EGGS ON TOAST Rub over the bottom of the frying pan with a bit of butter, and pour in about a pint of boiling water; add half a teaspoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of vinegar. Let this stand where the water will keep hot, but not boil. Break in two eggs, being careful to strike the shell only enough to crack it without disturbing the yolk. Let stand, until the eggs are set on the bottom, then loosen the egg from the pan, by carefully pushing beneath it a spatula or griddle-cake turner, to avoid too much cooking on the bottom, then let stand until delicately cooked throughout. Have ready two slices of bread, toasted to a golden brown. Wet the edge of each slice in salted, boiling water, set these upon the plates, made warm, dot with bits of butter, and with a skimmer remove the eggs from the pan to the toast. Add a bit of parsley or cress, and if desired a dash of black pepper to each, and place at once upon the table. EGGS POACHED IN CREAM Set a small frying pan containing a scant cup of thin cream into a dish of boiling water. When the cream shows tiny bubbles at the edge, add one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt and break in two fresh eggs. When the white becomes set a little, separate the eggs from the pan with a spatula, and when they are set throughout (this can be told by noting the condition of the eggs when the pan is gently shaken), remove them to two rounds of toast; pour the cream over the whole, and set at once upon the table.
EGGS "POACHED" IN FAT OR FRIED When we remember the low temperature at which the albumin in egg is coagulated, it is evident that the fat in which an egg is to be cooked need not be very hot. Most housekeepers, whether young or old, fry eggs in too hot fat. Fat that sputters, when an egg is broken into it, is much too hot for the purpose. Olive oil, as it does not burn until heated to a very high temperature, is the best possible medium for frying purposes. Care must be exercised in its use, for there is no change in its appearance even when hot enough to brown any article put into it. Fat tried out, at a low degree of heat, from bacon, ham or salt pork, carefully poured from the sediment in the pan, is a particularly good medium for frying eggs. Break the eggs into the fat, and cook in the same manner as when poaching in water. If the fat does not cover the eggs, dip it over them with a tablespoon. If the fat used in this cooking be at the proper temperature and has never been raised to too high a degree of heat, the eggs will be discolored no more than when poached in water. Serve fried eggs with bacon, ham, spinach, etc. Eggs Cooked with White and Yolk Mixed Scrambled. Omelet (French, Puffy) SCRAMBLED EGGS, REFORMED STYLE Turn four tablespoonfuls of milk or thin cream into an agate frying pan, and add half a teaspoonful of salt. Beat four eggs with a silver fork just enough to break the yolk thoroughly. Then turn the egg into the hot milk. Cook over a gentle fire, stirring as the egg thickens, and adding, now and then, a bit of butter, until two tablespoonfuls have been used. When lightly set turn on to a hot serving dish and serve at once.
SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH VARIATIONS Cooked ingredients, as chicken, ham, smoked tongue, sardines or anchovies, chopped or cut in bits, peas, asparagus tips, green or red peppers, parsley (the two latter chopped fine), small cubes of fried bread, and small cubes of hot bacon, may be added to eggs before scrambling. Peppers are usually cooked in butter until softened, before being added to the eggs. GENERAL VARIETIES OF OMELET Of omelets there are two general varieties--French and puffy -- these are distinguished by the manipulation of the eggs, both in beating and in cooking. In the French omelet, the eggs are beaten simply to mix well the whites and yolks, no attempt being made to secure lightness; in the puffy omelet, all the air possible is beaten into the eggs, and the cooking is conducted in a manner to retain the air if possible to the moment of eating. For a particularly tender omelet use a greater number of yolks than of whites. FRENCH OMELET In making a French omelet, much depends on the condition of the pan. The inner surface needs be so smooth that, when the pan is shaken over the fire, the cooked mixture will slide upon it (forming creases where it doubles upon itself), thus letting the uncooked portion down upon the hot surface. A steel pan is preferable, and should be kept for this purpose alone. After using, rinse out thoroughly with hot water, and dry and polish with fine, soft tissue paper. Small omelets are handled more easily than large ones. Beat two eggs and the yolks of two more with a kitchen spoon or silver fork, until a full spoonful can be taken up. Add one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt, three tablespoonfuls of water, and a dash of pepper, if desired. Mix thoroughly, then strain into a bowl. Have a tablespoonful of butter melted in the omelet-pan. Bring this forward to a hot part of the range, let stand a minute, then turn in the egg mixture. Shake the pan back and forth with one hand, and, with a spatula or thin knife in the other, separate the cooked egg from the pan at the edge, so that in shaking, the uncooked egg may at this point run down on to the hot pan. Raise the side of the pan next the handle, in shaking forward, and lower it, when the pan is brought back. When nearly creamy throughout, roll the omelet, let stand a moment to color a little, then turn on to a hot servingdish. A bit of butter, added at the last moment, will aid in giving color to the omelet.
A cluster of egg methods from a two-person cookbook, all built on one principle: eggs set at a low temperature and toughen at a high one. The numbers below are the ones the original leaves to judgment.
- The hinge: water that never boilsHold the poaching water at 180-190F, where the surface trembles and shows only a few bubbles. Egg white begins to coagulate around 145F, so boiling water does nothing but shred the white and rubberize it.
- Pan and vessel namesAn "agate" frying pan is speckled enamel over iron — any nonreactive skillet does. The silver fork and agate pan were probably specified to avoid the discoloration eggs take from iron and tin, though the book does not say so; stainless steel is the modern equivalent.
- Thin creamThin cream of this period is roughly today's light cream, about 18-20 percent fat; half-and-half, at 10-12 percent, is a thinner stand-in. A scant cup for two eggs; keep it below a simmer or it may break as the eggs set.
- "Fat tried out"Rendered fat — bacon, ham or salt pork fat melted slowly and poured off the browned solids. The point about olive oil giving no visual cue as it heats still holds; use a thermometer and keep it near 250-275F, well under smoking.
- The toast trickWetting the edge of the toast in salted boiling water presumably softens the crust so it cuts with a fork under a soft egg; the book gives no reason. It does specify plates made warm.
- "Reformed style" scrambled eggsThe book does not explain the name. What is distinctive is the method: the milk goes in first and the butter goes in gradually as the curd forms. Cook over low heat and pull the pan off while the eggs still look slightly underdone.
- The omelet panPolishing a steel pan with tissue paper after a hot-water rinse — the book prescribes no washing beyond that — is how a seasoned surface was maintained. A well-seasoned carbon steel or a nonstick 8-inch pan achieves the same release.
- YieldEach of these serves two: two eggs poached, four eggs scrambled, and for the French omelet two whole eggs plus the yolks of two more. The extra yolks make a noticeably softer omelet.
This page comes from the era when domestic science was recasting cookery as applied chemistry, and the reasoning shows: the author pauses mid-recipe to explain that albumin coagulates at a low temperature and that most cooks therefore fry eggs in fat far too hot. That argument, drawn from the food-chemistry teaching of the Boston cooking-school tradition, is the same one modern kitchens still make about scrambled eggs and custards. The distinction drawn here between the French omelet cooked fast, rolled and the "puffy" omelet, in which whites are beaten separately and the whole thing finished in the oven, was standard in American books of the period and has largely collapsed since; the puffy omelet survives mostly as the soufflé omelet. The book's small quantities are the point of it: cooking for two was a comparatively new publishing category, aimed at the young couple or the small household without a cook, and the two-egg poach and the deliberately small omelet reflect that.