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Baked Eggs
Mrs. F. J. Wright.
Grease as many muffin pans as you have eggs to bake, using butter. Add 1 T cream to each pan and break an egg into each. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake in a moderate oven until eggs are set as desired, usually about ten minutes. Mrs. Dorothy Boyd.
A one-line luncheon dish that still works exactly as written; the only real variables are pan size and how firm you want the yolk.
- "1 T"One tablespoon of cream per egg. Church cook books of this era abbreviated freely: T is tablespoon, t is teaspoon.
- Moderate ovenGenerally taken as somewhere around 350-375F. In a wood or early gas range "moderate" was the middle of the oven's working range; the recipe's ten minutes is about right for set whites and a soft yolk, slightly less in a shallow cup.
- Muffin pansPeriod muffin and gem pans were often smaller and shallower than a modern tin, though sizes varied. In a deep modern cup the egg sits lower and more shielded, so it may cook a little slower; check at 10 minutes and go by the white.
- Grease generouslyButter every cup you use, including the sides above the egg, or the set white welds to the tin. Silicone or paper liners work but slow the cooking further.
- Judging donenessThe white should be opaque with no clear liquid at the edge; the yolk continues to firm from residual heat after the pan leaves the oven, so pull them a shade underdone.
- Even heatIf you like, use the smallest tin that holds your eggs, or add a tablespoon of water to any spare cups.
- Yield and servingOne or two eggs per person. Loosen with a thin knife or small offset spatula and slide onto buttered toast; they cool fast, so serve straight from the oven.
Baked or "shirred" eggs were common luncheon fare in American households at the turn of the century, and a muffin-pan version may be read as a frugal stand-in for the individual ramekin or cocotte found in more elaborate cook books. A tin like this does let one oven turn out a dozen portions at once, with no last-minute skillet work. The stray double attribution here — Mrs. F. J. Wright's name above the method, Mrs. Dorothy Boyd's below it — is the kind of slip that occurs in compiled community cook books, where recipes were gathered on slips of paper and set in type with whatever names were attached, sometimes with a heading left over from the previous entry.