Eggs
WHEN we consider that nine eggs are equal in nutritive value to a pound of meat, we realize they are not only capable of forming a most important item in everyday diet, but also an economical food during the season when eggs are cheap. Even when eggs are expensive, it is economy to use only th、 best grade. Eggs a C a B a, Soup Pot; b, Colander; c, Meat Cleaver: d, Meat Board with Handle to Hang By; e, Meat Saw. that cost fifty cents a dozen are cheaper than eggs at twenty-five cents where half of the dozen may be stale or worse. There are a number of household tests of the freshness of eggs. The most reliable is to candle them. Hold the egg in the hand with the fingers wrapped about it and look through it against a bright light; in a perfectly fresh egg, you can see the yolk like a golden ball and the white about it clear as water. Or you may drop an egg into a basin of water; if perfectly fresh, it will sink and rest on its side. If it rolls around standing on its end, it is comparatively fresh; if it floats, you had better discard it unopened. When an egg is perfectly fresh it has a porous, dull surface; if shiny, it is pretty sure to be at least stale. There are three ways in which eggs are generally used for breakfast or luncheon dishes; in soft-boiled condition a as in a poached egg, hard boiled as in a salad, or with the yolk and white separated and beaten to a froth as in an omelet. Eggs are most digestible in the soft-boiled stage, but to many difficult of digestion when hard boiled. They are deficient in fat; therefore we find them served with bacon, with an oil mayonnaise in salad, or with bread and butter. Indeed, their highly concentrated, nutritive properties demand always an accompaniment of some starchy food, such as potatoes or bread.