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Spanish Eggs
Rub a slice of onion over the inside of the frying-pan; pare a tomato, cut it into bits, put it into the pan with one large tablespoon of butter and cook it five minutes, stirring now and then. Beat six eggs thoroughly and put them into the pan; season with one level teaspoon of salt and one-fourth teaspoon of pepper, and stir constantly until the eggs begin to thicken like scrambled eggs; then pour into a warm dish and serve immediately.
A plain scramble with tomato, from a period when "Spanish" on a menu usually meant tomato, onion and a little pepper. The whole thing takes under ten minutes, and the only real risk is overcooking.
- The hinge: pull them earlyThe eggs should leave the pan while still visibly moist and slightly loose, since they carry on setting in the warm dish. "Begin to thicken" is meant literally here, not as a stage on the way to firm curds.
- Onion, not onionsRubbing a cut slice around the pan leaves only a trace of allium. If you want the onion to register, finely dice a tablespoon or two and soften it in the butter before the tomato goes in.
- Peeling the tomatoParing meant peeling with a knife; a 10-second dip in boiling water slips the skin off far more cleanly. Seed it as well, or the eggs will weep.
- Five minutes on the tomatoThat is enough to drive off some juice but not to make a sauce. If your tomato is watery, give it a few minutes more and let the pan go nearly dry before the eggs go in, otherwise the scramble turns thin and grey.
- Pan and heatUse a nonstick or well-seasoned skillet over medium-low. "Stir constantly" is the whole technique.
- SeasoningA level teaspoon of salt for six eggs is on the generous side by modern taste; three-quarters of a teaspoon may suit better. The recipe specifies only "pepper"; black is the usual assumption.
- YieldSix eggs serves three as a main course at breakfast, or four alongside toast and bacon.
Butterick published this in the era when American cookbooks used "Spanish" as shorthand for a tomato-and-onion treatment — Spanish sauce, Spanish rice, Spanish omelet — though the origins of that usage are murky. The Butterick Publishing Company was a pattern and fashion house, and its cook book was aimed at the same middle-class household that bought its dress patterns: recipes short enough to read at a glance, built from ingredients a grocer stocked year round. The rubbed onion slice is a nice period tell. Fresh tomatoes were seasonal, so a dish like this belonged to late summer, when a single ripe tomato could be spared for breakfast.