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Stretching the Scramble
(1) Mix in 1 tablespoon cold water for each egg, and then for each egg add 1 tablespoon fine bread crumbs, or the same amount of coarse broken fresh bread without crust, or leftover mashed potato. (2) Fry a layer of cold boiled potatoes; slightly beat 2-4 eggs with seasonings and 1 tablespoon cold water for each egg; pour over potatoes and slowly cook until eggs set. Turn upside down onto hot platter. (3) Add leftover fish well flaked, or chopped leftover meat, adding a few tablespoons water or fish or meat broth, and scramble. egg. (4) Add 1 tablespoon drained canned tomatoes for each (5) Add any bit of leftover cooked vegetable-green peas, string beans, lima beans, squash, cucumbers, onions boiled or fried, etc. (6) Serve scrambled eggs with little piles of reheated cooked greens set around them.
I2 EGGS 4 BEETS 1/2 CUPS VINEGAR I 11/2 CUPS WATER
A list of extenders and add-ins for scrambled eggs, written for a camp or cabin kitchen where eggs were precious and leftovers plentiful. The techniques hold up, but a few of the proportions and safety assumptions want restating.
- The hinge: low heatVariation (2) is the only one that specifies slow cooking, but the same applies throughout. Water and starch loosen the curd, but only gentle heat keeps it tender; over a hot fire the added water simply boils off and the eggs turn granular and weeping.
- How far a tablespoon of water goesOne tablespoon per egg adds roughly a third again to the volume of a large egg, and is close to the practical limit. Past that the curd will not hold and the pan runs with liquid.
- Crumbs and potatoFine dry crumbs absorb more than soft fresh bread, so start with slightly less if using dried. Mashed potato should be slack and lump-free before it meets the eggs, or it stays as pockets rather than blending.
- The potato cake in (2)This is a flat omelet rather than a scramble. Use a well-seasoned or nonstick pan of 8 to 10 inches, cook until the top is just barely set, and slide rather than flip if you are not confident inverting it. Two to four eggs feeds one or two.
- Leftover fish and meatBoth should be reheated thoroughly in the pan before the eggs go in, not warmed through by the eggs. Cooked fish and meat that have been chilled need to reach a steaming 165F in their own right.
- Canned tomatoesDrain hard and chop; undrained tomato is a common cause of watery scrambled eggs. A tablespoon per egg is generous, and the acid may soften the curd slightly however well drained.
- DonenessThe instruction here is simply to cook until the eggs set. Modern practice is to pull scrambled eggs while still glossy and slightly loose, as carryover heat finishes them in the seconds it takes to reach the plate.
- ServingReckon two eggs a person for a light meal, three with the potato or vegetable extenders. The vegetable variations in (5) and (6) work best if the vegetable is hot and dry before it meets the egg.