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Egg Toast
6 slices toast Butter 6 eggs Salt and pepper Moisten the edges of the toast with hot water and spread it with butter. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs. Poach the yolks in salted water until soft cooked, and place one on each slice of toast, being careful not to break it. Beat the whites until very stiff, spread in circles around the yolks, season with salt and pepper, and brown in the oven. Serve hot.
A 1930s presentation dish: the yolk poached whole and set on toast, ringed with meringued white and browned. The whole thing turns on getting bare yolks into water without rupturing them.
- Separating for bare yolksCrack each egg into a shallow dish, lift the yolk out with a slotted spoon or your cupped hand, and let the white drain into a separate bowl. A yolk with no shell membrane around it tears easily, so work over the pan and slide it in rather than dropping it.
- Poaching the yolksBarely simmering salted water, no rolling boil, and about two to three minutes for a yolk that is set at the edge and still soft in the middle. Longer and it firms up chalky and crumbly.
- Beating the whitesSix whites beat up to a large volume; a pinch of salt and a clean, grease-free bowl matter more than speed. Stop at stiff but still glossy, since overbeaten whites weep water onto the toast.
- Browning temperatureThe book gives no temperature, only 'brown in the oven'; that implies an oven hot enough to colour the white quickly rather than dry it out. Watch it rather than time it, and remember the yolks keep cooking while it browns.
- Why the toast is moistenedThe recipe does not say; damp edges plausibly keep the crust from shattering under the knife and from drying out in the oven. Butter it while still damp.
- Season the whites before bakingUnseasoned meringue tastes flatly of nothing. Salt and pepper mixed in, or scattered on before it goes in the oven, is the only seasoning the dish gets.
- Yield and servingSix slices, so six servings as a light breakfast or supper dish, or three if it is the main plate. The recipe says to serve hot, so plate it straight from the oven.
- Soft yolksA yolk poached two to three minutes does not reach a temperature that pasteurises it. If you are cooking for someone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, cook the yolk through or use pasteurised eggs.