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Eggs

THE only complete food afforded by the animal kingdom is the egg: containing, as it does, all the alimentary substances required for the support, and maintenance of animal life. For their plentiful store of varied sustenance Eggs, in the hands of the cook, and the doctor, may be well described as veritable "Treasure houses wherein lie, Locked by angels' alchemy, Milk and hair, and blood, and bone."

The early Christians took the egg as a symbol of their hope as to the body's resurrection. Broadly speaking, the domestic fowl's egg consists of yolk and white as edible parts, within the hard shell made up chiefly of carbonate of lime. When compared with moderately lean meat the egg contains two-thirds as much primary food (proteid), twice as much fatty substance, twice as much ash, and about an equal quantity of water. The proteid includes what chemists call nuclein, which affords phosphorus, as a nerve renovator, in organic combinations, some thereof being united to iron; but this is not in the Egg a source of uric acid, else eggs would be improper for gouty persons. Nevertheless, Dr. Haig (whose personal experiences are in several respects exceptional), maintains that Eggs do actually cause an increased excretion of uric acid. He says "I gradually eliminated from my diet all articles which contained even the smallest quantity of egg, having obtained very distinct evidence that these, when taken every day, decidedly increased with me the excretion of uric acid." Dr. Hutchison supposes, "the white of Eggs to be unobjectionable food for growing boys, but the yolk, though nearly a complete form of food (except for starches, which may be readily superadded by bread and butter), comprises something akin to the uric acid in meat. If it should be suspected that at any time the urine contains albumen, such as white of egg, then a simple bedside test which is sufficiently reliable may be easily employed. Four or five drops of the urine, as passed on first rising, should be put into a glass of clear hot water, when, if any albumen is present, it will be indicated by an opalescence. If the glass is held against a dark background, this opalescence will be very visible, and will be seen to spread through the water like a cloud of smoke. Phosphates in the urine will produce a similar appearance; but on adding a little white vinegar, or acetic acid, the cloud will then immediately disappear; not so, however, if albumen be its cause. An average fowl's egg contains about one hundred grains of proteid food: as much of this, together with fat, as five ounces of new milk, but minus the sugar of milk. It is also reckoned to be the equivalent of rather under an ounce and a half of fat meat. The raw egg is somewhat laxative. Egg white is a capital substitute for raw meat juice. It consists of dissolved proteid enclosed within many thousands of cells; when this egg white is beaten up the cell walls are ruptured, and the proteid foodmatter escapes. Some twelve per cent of egg albumin is present in the egg white, this being in no way inferior as regards nutritive value to the proteids of meat, save as lacking its vital force. One egg yields rather more than an ounce of white; and if to this be added twice its volume of cold water, and the whole quantity be then strained through muslin, there will be obtained three ounces of a clear solution containing as much proteid as an average specimen of commercial beef-juice." All that then remains to be done is to stir into the same a little Liebig's extract dissolved in a teaspoonful, or so, of warm water.

Animal albumin is thus to be got from the white of eggs; it may also be obtained from the serum (or thin liquid) of the blood, or from the juices of uncooked meat. Eighty-four dozen eggs produce from one to two gallons of the white, and this yields fourteen per cent of commercial albumin, while the blood of five oxen will supply about two pounds. The albumin is prepared for commercial purposes in a dry state. Dr. Carpenter showed that during hard work on the part of a labourer, a larger supply than usual of albuminoid food is necessary. In chronic Bright's disease, with passage of albumin from the kidneys in the urine, for the majority of cases the best food is that advised for gout, i.e., a diet only moderately rich in proteid, and that chiefly derived from vegetable sources, and from which diet soups, and all preparations containing the extractives of meat are excluded. The egg yolk contains lecithin, which embodies natural phosphorus in its most assimilable form, and which will serve to admirably recruit exhausted nerve structures through their leading centres when lacking vital energy. A confection of this lecithin principle is prepared by chemists for the use of children. Apples likewise contain similar lecithin, as a phosphorated compound, such as exists naturally in nerve tissues, also in the blood, in fish sperm, and in certain of the cereals, as wheat and maize. When supplied in the yolk of eggs it stimulates the appetite, and leads quickly to an increase of bodily weight. The Medical Record tells passim that from the University of Chicago there has been issued a recipe for bringing about bodily bigness; and that the age of the race of giants is about to begin again. Henceforward there will be no pigmies, because of a wonderful food-substance which makes men and animals grow fast, and large. This new food is lecithin. Dr. Hatai has experimented with it on white rats, and by feeding them with such nutriment made them grow sixty per cent faster than they grow ordinarily, the same being done even under atmospheric conditions and general surroundings which were unfavourable. Scientists say that lecithin will have a similar effect on human beings. The Professor named above finds that the growth induced thereby is normal, and embraces all parts, including bigness of heart, and of body, as well as of head. Furthermore distinct traces of arsenic are found by the chemist to be present in eggs. 66 A sagacious maxim teaches that eggs (should be) of an hour, fish of ten, bread of a day, wine of a year, a woman of fifteen, and a friend of thirty."

In an egg laid only a few hours before, the white is milky, which circumstance sometimes leads to such egg being erroneously considered stale. When an egg has been newly laid it is always damp, and observation shows that the longer it remains wet, or is kept thus, by so much does it remain fresh; obviously, therefore, eggs for preservation should be packed wet. The fats of egg yolk differ chemically from ordinary fats, they also contain a large measure of phosphorus, which is easy of assimilation. But the absence of other carbohydrates (starch, sugar, etc.) prevents eggs from being in any sense a complete food. It would moreover require twenty of them daily to supply even the amount of proteid necessary for a healthy man. The egg shell is mainly carbonate of lime; that of the ostrich's egg is so thick, and hard, that it may seriously wound a man if the egg becomes rotten and explodes by reason of its compressed gases produced by decomposition. "Dumptius in muro sedet teres, atque rotundus, Humptius, heu! cecidit; magna ruina fuit.

Non homines, non regis equi-miserabile dictu!

Te possunt sociis reddere, Dumpti, tuis."

In a boiled egg no air can come into contact with its nutriment until the same is broken for eating, which is an antiseptic security. Eggs are specially rich in fat, and therefore they satisfy the stomach. The ovo-lecithin constituent is chemically the distearoglycero-phosphate of choline, and embodies phosphorus in its most readily assimilable form, as found in nature; it is admirably calculated to recruit exhausted nerve centres, and to renovate from nerve fag. Concentrated tablets thereof are now made reliably by the manufacturing chemist. The yolk fats differ chemically from ordinary fats, being in reality phosphatides; they exist as palmitin, stearin, and olein, just as in butter. A subcutaneous administration of egg yolk has recently been practised for cases of defective nutrition in infants, and as a substitute for lecithin. The injection, prepared by mixing the yolk of an egg with one-third of its weight of a saline solution, is made into one of the buttocks, and gentle massage is employed afterwards. The general nutrition, and the quality of the blood, are stated to improve more rapidly under this treatment than under lecithin taken as food.

For egg and sherry as a cordial of prompt use, with ready support, beat up an egg in a cup with a fork till it froths, add a lump of white sugar first dissolved in two tablespoonfuls of water, mix well, then pour in a wineglassful of dry sherry, and serve before it becomes flat; or half the quantity of pale brandy may be used in place of the sherry.

The proper cooking degree of heat for boiling a fowl's egg is only one hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit, or fifty-two degrees below boiling point. If two eggs are taken, one of which is kept in water at a temperature of one hundred and seventy-five degrees for ten or fifteen minutes, and the other for an equal length of time in boiling water, it will be found at the end of the experiment that the contents of each egg are solid throughout, but that in the case of the former they consist of a tender jelly, whereas in the boiled egg they are dense, and almost leathery. For delicate persons of all ages, the following preparation, which will contain egg shells in solution, has been found most singularly useful. Take six fresh eggs, six lemons, half a pound of castor sugar, and half a pint of white rum. Put the eggs in their shells inside a jar, without injuring the shells, peel the lemons, and, after removing their pith, squeeze the fresh juice over the eggs, then lay above them the rind and the pulp. Cover the jar lightly, and put it in a cool place for seven days, not forgetting to shake it well on each day. At the end of that time strain through muslin, when it will be found that the lemon juice has dissolved the eggshells. Add the sugar, and the rum; then bottle and cork it tightly. A wineglassful taken each morning before breakfast is the full dose, but at first it may be desirable to give only half this quantity. Again, for the cure of certain weaknesses in women, egg shells when properly prepared are highly lauded in America. The shells are first broken up in vacuo, and then finely powdered in a mortar together with twothirds of finely powdered sugar of milk. Dr. Edson tells of seventy consecutive cases treated thereby without a single failure.

An "egg foam" which can be quickly prepared, as in America, is particularly suitable for the passing needs of invalids: Separate one egg, keeping the yolk unbroken in half the shell, whilst beating all the white to a stiff froth. Heap this latter in a dainty little bowl, or egg cup, and make a small well in the centre, into which drop the yolk. Then stand the whole in a saucepan containing a little boiling water, cover the saucepan, and cook for one minute. Serve in the bowl, with a tiny bit of butter, and a few grains of salt. The Germans call frothed white of egg "snow." This froth is sweetened and scalded in milk, so as to become set. It then serves as the solid part of a refection whereat the liquid part is milk (perhaps with egg yolk). Such a dish, to be eaten with a spoon, is very refreshing at any time of the year, but particularly in summer, if it be well cooled. It is also a very excellent form of nourishment for persons who are suffering from one or another throat affection, or who have undergone some operation in the mouth or throat, and who cannot chew, or pulp with the tongue, but can yet drink the soft custard. A raw egg is not so easily assimilated after being swallowed as is one lightly boiled. The natural principles thereof are albumin, vitellin, lecithin, and nuclein. The egg albumin differs from that contained in the liquid serum of our blood as to certain physical properties, though closely allied to this. If the white of a newly laid egg be applied to a sore burn, or scald, it will keep out the air, and will do much to relieve the pain. Powdered egg shells will subdue acid indigestion from fermenting sour food in the stomach. On the assumption that ten milligrammes of iron are required daily by the average human body, then seven and a half eggs would 20 suffice for supplying this quantity, therefore egg yolk is to be regarded as a useful food for bloodless persons.

Dr. Hutchison thinks that as a matter of fact a raw egg seems scarcely digested in the stomach at all, but to be passed out therefrom to a large extent unchanged, being perhaps such a bland nutriment as not to excite the secretion of gastric juice, nor to stimulate the churning movements of the stomach. The absorption of lightly cooked eggs within the intestines appears to be very complete, leaving only a very small residue. When a person of delicate digestion is served with fried bacon and eggs, the latter should be poached separately, and then sent to table with the boiled, or fried bacon, or ham, on the same dish; there is reason in roasting eggs." A fried egg, by reason of the melted fat coating the egg, and hindering the contact of the gastric juice in the stomach, remains imperfectly digested, and burdensome. 66 The omelette, formerly "aume lette d' œufs," is a pancake made of eggs, so called from a supposed phrase "œufs melés." It consists of eggs beaten lightly, with the addition of milk, salt, and sometimes a little flour, being browned in a buttered pan. Sometimes the omelette is prepared with cheese, ham, parsley, fish, jelly, or other additions. A suggestive French proverb runs thus: "On ne fait les omelettes sans caisser des œufs," - "Omelettes are not to be made without breaking eggs." A baked egg is good eating, and easy of achievement. Break a new-laid egg on to a thickly-buttered plate, strew it with pepper, and salt, and cook slightly in a moderate oven. It must be eaten exceedingly hot from the same plate, which may be attractively surrounded by a narrow frill of crinkled tissue paper. Eggs to be poached should be a couple of days old; if just laid they are so milky inside that the cook, take all the care she can, will fail to secure therewith the praise of being a prime poacher. On the other hand the eggs must be sufficiently fresh, or success will be equally impossible. The egg-yolk contains certain organic substances in union with sugar, which are gelactosides. Egg lecithin, when extracted by the chemist, has been found to act curatively by its special phosphorus in cases where fresh raw eggs failed to produce any remedial effects. When given medicinally this stimulates the appetite, and leads, as aforesaid, to an increase of weight, constituting an excellent element of food whenever phosphoric treatment is found to be desirable; as in senile debility, general weakness, phosphatic urine, and similar conditions of exhausted energies, bodily, or mental. Also "Condensed Egg" is now made by a process of removing the contents from the shell, and evaporating all excess of moisture, then pure sugar is added as a preservative. "There is no mystery," says the Lancet, "about this preparation. It consists simply of fresh eggs and refined sugar." Such "Condensed Eggs" are put up in jars hermetically sealed, and being perfectly sterilized, they will keep good for any length of time. No coagulation is caused in the process. For "Egg-white water," in fever and diarrhea, diffuse the whites of two eggs through a pint and a half of cold water, sweeten to taste, and add a little cognac, or other liqueur, if deemed advisable. For Egg-lemonade, shake together in a bottle the white of an egg, a tumblerful of cold water, the juice of half a lemon, and a teaspoonful of white sugar.

The Wood-pigeon had called Alice (in Wonderland) a serpent, because of her long neck. When questioned further Alice said very truthfully, "I have tasted eggs, certainly, but then little girls eat eggs, quite as much as serpents do, you know." "I don't believe it," said the Wood-pigeon, "but if they do, then they're a kind of serpent! that's all I can say." 66 Again, "I should like to buy an egg, please," said Alice (Through the Looking Glass) timidly to the old Sheep, in the little dark shop. "How do you sell them?" Fivepence farthing for one, twopence for two," the sheep replied. "Then two are cheaper than one," said Alice in a surprised tone. Only you must eat them both if you buy two," said the Sheep. 66 Eggs, are, according to Dr. King Chambers, highly nutritious sustenance in fevers, and acute exhausting illnesses, when taken raw, and diluted with water (or milk?), being thus rapidly absorbed ; but if delayed within the digestive canal so as to become putrid, the products of their decomposition are peculiarly injurious; the sulphuretted hydrogen and the ammonia evolved are posionous to the intestines. An egg should not be positively boiled, but, so to say, coddled, or put into boiling water, covered over, and allowed to stand (near the hob) for five minutes; at the end of which time it will be well and evenly cooked all through. Again, for another "Egg Silky," whisk the yolk only, or the whole egg thoroughly, and grate a little nutmeg over it; take a good teaspoonful of sugar, and stir well together; pour in gradually about half a tumblerful of boiling water, and lastly add from one to two tablespoonfuls of whisky. This is excellent for a catarrhal chill. The eggs of those birds whose young are hatched without feathers, for example, plovers, exhibit when boiled a translucent albuminous white, which is not opaque like that of the fowl's egg under similar conditions. Moreover, the proportion of yellow yolk in the eggs of wild birds is considerably larger than in those of domesticated ones, adding thereby to the ratio of nutritive elements. But what are usually sold by poulterers as plover's eggs are those of the common lapwing (Vanellus cristatus). The Plover (Charadius) is thought to have derived its name from the Latin pluvia, rain, because of its fondness for being on the wing in rainy weather. Not that every Plover's egg that comes now into the market would have become a Plover in due course if allowed to be hatched out. "All that glitters is not gold," and every nice-looking, dark speckled egg that reposes in a mossy basket, and is sold for ninepence, or a shilling, in the West-end of London, has not owned a Plover for its mother. The dwellers round the Norfolk Broads could, and they would, tell something about these so-called Plover's eggs. Furriers," said Dr. King Chambers, " are in the habit of passing off tabby cats' skins as Japanese lynx, and hundreds of the best 'Plover's eggs' are laid by gulls on the East coast." Sir Lewis Watson, Baron of Rockingham, when at his newly purchased manor of Wilsford, Lincolnshire (1641), received the following delightful letter from his wife--" " To my loueing husband Sir Lewis Watson, at Wilsford, "Sweetheart, I thanke you for your Plouar, the which are very great daynties to us indeede--for the sweet sauce which is your kindnes in sending them, and will procure us doctar diet, and doctar meoriman (merryman) at the eating of them. Writing to you so lately I have no more to say now, but that I will pray for your good helth, and remayne, your ever loueing wife, Eleanor Watson. Rockingham, November 23. I have given bearer only 1s." 66 It is an established fact that patients have been cured of obstinate obstructive jaundice by taking a raw egg on one or more mornings while fasting. Dr. Paris tells us that a specially ardent oil may be extracted from the yolks alone of hardboiled eggs when roasted piecemeal in a frying pan until this oil begins to exude, and then pressed hard. Old eggs furnish the oil most abundantly, and it undoubtedly acts as a very useful medicament for indolent liver. The yolk consists in part of a variety of albumin, and therefore coagulates when heated, just as the white does, though in a less degree. But if the dry hard yolk is crushed, and digested in alcohol, it then becomes colourless in itself, whilst the spirit dissolves out a bright yellow oil, which forms about two-thirds of the weight of the yolk in its perfectly dry state. Thus the yolk, like flesh, and fish, is shown to consist of fat intermixed with a substance which closely resembles the gluten of plants. What is termed a Bombay oyster is almost as delicious as the real bivalve, and is easily made: Into two teaspoonfuls of vinegar, with a pinch of pepper, and salt added thereto, break an egg, keeping its contents whole; add a third teaspoonful of vinegar, and the oyster is complete. Egg shells (particularly when the eggs have been subjected to glasswater for preservation), are found, if given in powder, helpful in cataract of the eyes, whether lenticular, or capsular; this is partly because of the sulphur which is present; likewise any sort of garlic is to be equally commended in such cases for the same reason. Though it may not be a sensible thing (Epicure, January, 1902), to teach one's grandmother how to suck eggs, yet it is quite possible to instruct that omniscient old lady how to successfully preserve them; the surest method being to wet-pack them on the day they are laid, thus keeping them damp and fresh. Custard powders, so called, are sold as a substitute for eggs, but consist as to the majority chiefly of starch, to which a yellow colour is imparted by admixture with some vegetable dye, for instance, turmeric. Their nutritive value is not in any way equal to that of a genuine custard made with yolk of egg. In England it is customary to serve eggs in their shells, and it is considered bad form to extract the contents from the shells broken open at table; but in America this latter method is general, and certainly more convenient to an invalid. Sir Morell Mackenzie has recorded the striking circumstances which occurred in the family of a distinguished literary man, members of the said family throughout four generations being made seriously ill by eating an egg, or even a small portion of one, whether knowingly, or inadvertently; the fresher the egg, the worse the consequences! At all times eggs laid by fowls fed on garbage, decaying meat, and other such noxious food, are not fit to be eaten. The hen's egg is a good illustration of the fact that albuminous, or proteid food, is earlier in use for life development than starch foods. The body of the chick is formed (by warmth alone) from the yellow yolk; the white of the egg is almost pure albumin and water; whilst around all is the impenetrable shell, part of which has to be dissolved from within to form the bones. Albumin coagulates at a temperature of fifty-two degrees less than that of boiling water, so that eggs and food dishes made therewith, should be cooked according to this rule; otherwise the albuminous parts will harden on until leathery and indigestible. The albumin of egg yolk is vitelin, which coagulates firmly at a lower temperature than the white, being supposed also to contain some casein.

Eggs fried in fat become inaccessible to the gastric juice within the stomach, and are therefore tardy of digestion; to wit, in the omelette, and the pancake when made without flour, but lemon juice sprinkled over either of these is helpful. An omelette differs from a pancake in not being thin, or browned, and in not being baked on both sides. It does not readily assimilate with sweet principles, except when fine fruit jellies are used instead of jams, or stewed fruit. Omelettes with coarse jams, simulating fine confitures, and savoury omelettes with all the whites of the eggs put into them, are inferior products of culinary skill. Former cookery books up to 1840 prefer the omission of half of the egg whites, because the preponderance of the yolks makes an omelette more tasty, more loose in its substance, and more tender. Indeed, Dr. Kitchener (Cook's Oracle) deems this suppression of half the whites so important that without it no omelette can be kept from proving hard. Scrambled or stirred eggs are a kind of spoiled omelette. Mary Smith in her Complete Housekeeper (1772) gives an omelette as a "Hamlet," also Sauce Robert, as "Roe-boat Sauce," and Queen's Soup as Soupe a la Rain." Thackeray when he invited schoolboys to dinner always gave them beefsteak, and an apricot omelette; generally as a prelude before taking them to see a pantomime. 66 Fresh eggs, if coated by dipping in, or brushing over with water-glass (a dissolved silicate of soda in hot water, called also "mineral lime"), can be preserved almost indefinitely by the hard impenetrable protective glaze which is thus made to surround them. "This water-glass," says the Lancet, " is also a powerful antiseptic." Eggs treated thus will preserve their fresh milky taste for six months, and remain undistinguishable from eggs taken straight out of the nest. Ordinary egg shells, when powdered, are remedial against goitre, or enlarged throat gland, which entails a general deterioration of the whole bodily system, nutritive and structural, (myxedema, as this is called). Mix together three parts of powdered white sugar-candy, one part of finely powdered egg-shells (first dried in the oven), and two parts of burnt sponge. Then let six or eight grains of the mixed powder (kept dry in a well-corked bottle) be taken in a dessertspoonful of water, or milk, at bedtime for a week together, and every alternate week throughout three months.