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Cayenne (Tablespoons grated cheese Heat)
4 eggs. 1/2 cup cream. 2 tablespoons grated cheese Heat a small omelet pan, put in butter, and when melted, add cream. Slip in the eggs one at a time, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a few grains of cayenne. When whites are nearly firm, sprinkle with cheese. Finish cooking, and serve on buttered toast. Strain cream over the toast.
The page opens mid-ingredient-list, so the quantities for eggs, butter and cream are missing; what survives is a method for eggs poached in cream and cheese in a skillet, served on toast. Proportions that work are roughly 2 eggs, 1 tablespoon butter and 2 tablespoons cream per serving, with the 2 tablespoons grated cheese the fragment does give.
- The hinge: low heatCream and eggs cooked over anything but a gentle flame will curdle and the whites will toughen before the cheese melts. Keep the pan at a bare shimmer and expect 4 to 6 minutes.
- "Small omelet pan"A small, shallow heavy skillet, on the order of 6 to 8 inches. Period omelet pans were themselves shallow with sloping sides; what matters here is a vessel small enough that the cream pools around the eggs rather than spreading thin and scorching.
- Slip in the eggs one at a timeBreak each egg into a cup first and slide it into the cream so the yolk stays whole. Crowding them in at once means the first is set before the last is in.
- "Whites are nearly firm"This yields a soft, runny yolk, which is the intended result. Anyone who prefers a fully set yolk should cover the pan for the last minute or two rather than raising the heat.
- The cheeseUnspecified in the fragment; a dry grating cheese such as aged cheddar or a hard Italian cheese suits the method. Grate it fine so it melts in the residual heat; a wet young cheese will weep oil into the cream.
- Cayenne"a few grains" is literal, well under an eighth of a teaspoon. The phrase is a common one in turn-of-the-century American egg and cheese recipes, where cayenne functions as a seasoning rather than a heat source.
- Straining the creamPour the pan liquid through a fine sieve over the toast to catch any set curds of white or cheese. Toast the bread and butter it just before serving or the cream will soak it to paste.
- YieldAs written, one or two servings. It does not hold — assemble and serve immediately.
This belongs to a family of dishes the late nineteenth century filed under eggs "in cream," in which eggs are set gently in dairy rather than water or fat. Fannie Farmer's egg chapter in The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book is said to be unusually long by modern standards — dozens of small variations on boiled, poached, shirred, scrambled and creamed eggs — because eggs were the cheap, quick protein of the middle-class kitchen. The buttered toast underneath is doing structural work as much as culinary: it is what turns a few spoonfuls of egg and cream into a plated dish substantial enough for breakfast or a light supper.