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Sect. 2.-Miscellaneous Cookery Receipts To Boil Eggs
1120. Boil some water in a small saucepan; put in the eggs carefully with a spoon, taking the time by a clock or watch; boil for two minutes and a half to three and a half, according to the taste of the consumer. The first-mentioned time scarcely turns the white all through, while the last almost hardens the yolk. Three minutes boiling will be preferred by most people, as the whites are then just set, and the yolks a little thickened in consistence. If the weather is very cold, it is better to warm the eggs a little before boiling them, or they are very apt to crack from the sudden expansion by heat.
A three-minute egg is still a three-minute egg, but the eggs themselves have changed size and storage temperature since this was written.
- Egg sizeVictorian hen eggs generally ran smaller than a modern large or extra-large egg, so the same timings give a looser result at today's sizes; a larger egg will need somewhat longer if you want the white fully set.
- Starting temperatureThe advice to warm the eggs in cold weather is aimed at eggs kept in an unheated larder. Refrigerated eggs are colder still. Let them sit out for 15 minutes, or lower them into the water on a spoon as directed and add roughly a minute.
- Why they crackThe crack is generally attributed to the air cell at the blunt end expanding faster than the shell can accommodate. Pricking that end with a pin, or keeping the water at a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil, is often said to reduce it.
- The heat levelWater at a hard boil knocks the eggs against the pan and each other. A steady gentle simmer cooks them at very nearly the same rate with fewer breakages.
- Reading the timesThe recipe's own gradation: two and a half minutes scarcely turns the white all through; three and a half almost hardens the yolk; three minutes leaves the whites just set and the yolks slightly thickened. The description holds, but only if the eggs go into water already at the boil, as written.
- Stopping the cookingEggs carry on cooking in the shell after they leave the pan. Serve them at once, or crack the top immediately, or the three-minute egg becomes a four-minute one on the way to the table.
- Yield and servingThe recipe specifies no quantity. Runny yolks are best avoided by anyone pregnant, very young, elderly or immune-compromised unless the eggs are pasteurised.
The boiled egg needed no recipe so much as a clock, and that is really what this entry is about. Timing a soft-boiled egg to the half minute assumes a household with a reliable watch or a kitchen clock, still not universal in the nineteenth century; earlier cooks are said to have counted paternosters or judged by the water. The book's careful gradation from two and a half to three and a half minutes, with the verdict that three suits most people, reflects the Victorian breakfast table, where eggs in cups appeared alongside toast and cold meats. The warning about cracking in cold weather is a reminder that eggs were kept in a larder or pantry rather than a refrigerator, and that in winter they came to the pan cold.