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Fried Eggs, Turned Over
Lightly butter a small frying pan; carefully break in two fresh eggs. Season with a very light saltspoon salt, a third of a saltspoon white pepper; place the pan on the fire and fry the eggs for two minutes; turn them over by a very rapid turn of the handle of the pan, fry for one minute more; slide on a hot serving dish and keep warm. Proceed to prepare five more pair in a similar way and serve.
A plain over-easy egg, written for a cook turning out six portions in sequence. The only real technique is the flip, done with the pan rather than a spatula.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is the smallest spoon in a Victorian service set, roughly a quarter teaspoon. "A very light saltspoon" of salt and a third of one of white pepper amounts to a pinch of each per two eggs.
- HeatMedium-low is right. The instruction to butter lightly and cook two minutes only works if the pan is not fierce; over high heat the white blisters and browns before the flip.
- The flipThe pan-jerk works with a sloped-sided, well-seasoned or nonstick pan and a whole-arm push-and-pull motion, not a wrist flick. If the eggs are stuck at the two-minute mark they will tear; loosen the edges with a thin spatula first, or simply turn them with the spatula.
- One minute overSixty seconds on the second side sets the top of the white and leaves the yolk runny to jammy. For a firm yolk go to two minutes, but the dish is meant to be soft.
- White pepperSpecified so no black flecks show on the white. It is a presentation choice from a period that cared about it; black pepper will do if you don't mind the specks, though it does not taste quite the same.
- Cooking in batchesTwelve eggs in pairs means six rounds. Wipe the pan and add fresh butter each time, since the residue from the previous pair browns and will speck the next eggs. Hold the finished plates somewhere warm but not hot, around 150F, or the yolks keep cooking.
- YieldSix servings of two eggs each.
The International Cook Book (1906, with later printings) came from Filippini, a chef of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry has the shape of professional kitchen writing rather than domestic instruction: an exact seasoning measure, a stated time on each side, and the assumption that you will repeat the operation five more times for a table of six. The turned fried egg is what an American diner would later call over easy, and the pan-flip described here is standard restaurant practice, faster when a line cook has a dozen eggs to get out. That the book bothers to specify white pepper says as much about the era as the recipe does; a plated egg was expected to look immaculate, and visible black specks counted as a fault.