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Stock Scramble
1 cup stock 1/2 onion 1/2 sweet green pepper 6 eggs Salt and red pepper Beat the eggs very thoroughly in a shallow bowl.
Place the stock in the chafing dish together with the onion and pepper, both finely chopped; cover and when hot throw in the eggs and scramble slightly. Season and serve with thin slices of bread and butter.
A chafing-dish supper dish: eggs scrambled in stock rather than butter, which gives a soft, savoury curd closer to a loose custard than to a modern pan scramble. The whole thing takes about five minutes once the stock is hot.
- The hinge: pull it earlyEggs set in liquid carry a great deal of residual heat, and "scramble slightly" is meant literally. Take the pan off the flame while the mixture still looks underdone and glossy, then let it finish on the way to the table.
- A cup of stock is a lotSix eggs to a full cup of liquid gives a very wet result that will not hold a curd well. Reducing the stock to about half a cup first concentrates the flavour and gives something you can actually spoon onto toast.
- "Red pepper" means cayenneIn American books of this period red pepper is ground cayenne, not paprika and not the sweet pepper already in the list. A pinch is enough for six eggs.
- Soften the vegetables firstRaw onion and green pepper dropped into simmering stock for a minute or two stay crunchy and raw-tasting. Sweat them in a little butter in the blazer pan before adding the stock, or simmer the stock with them for five minutes and let it reduce at the same time.
- Which panA chafing dish has a blazer over a flame, sometimes with a water pan beneath. Use the blazer directly over the flame for this, not over water, or the stock will never get hot enough to set the eggs. On a stove, any wide shallow saucepan works.
- Stock quality showsWith no butter, cream or cheese, the stock is the entire seasoning. A well-made chicken or veal stock is the point; a weak or over-salted cube will taste exactly like a weak or over-salted cube.
- YieldSix eggs serves three as a supper dish, four at a stretch with plenty of the bread and butter.
Chafing-dish cookery was popular in the first decades of the twentieth century as one of the few forms of cooking a hostess might operate herself, at the table, in front of guests. It ran on an alcohol lamp, held one shallow pan, and could manage almost nothing that needed long or high heat, which is why its repertoire runs so heavily to eggs, oysters, creamed things and rarebits. Dishes like this were associated with late suppers after the theatre and with rooms that had no kitchen attached. Scrambling eggs in stock instead of butter or cream suits the equipment: stock is already liquid, it heats evenly in a thin pan, and it removes any risk of scorching butter over a flame that cannot be turned down.