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Adam and Eve on a Raft
Round of bread 2 eggs Butter or lard Salt and pepper to taste Cut a large round of bread, and fry it in hot butter or lard until a golden brown. Then place it on a hot platter, and keep warm. Poach the eggs carefully, season to taste and lay side by side on the bread.
A fried bread round with two poached eggs on top — the whole thing hinges on the bread being crisp and the yolks still soft when they meet.
- The breadThe recipe specifies only "a large round." A thick slice (something like ¾ inch) from a firm loaf works best, trimmed to a circle with a cup or biscuit cutter if you like; anything thin or very soft will not hold two eggs without going greasy.
- Frying fatButter's milk solids can colour and catch before the bread is fully crisp; keeping the heat moderate helps, and some cooks cut the butter with a little neutral oil. Lard, as the recipe allows, is more forgiving. Press the bread flat in the pan so it colours evenly.
- Poaching waterThe recipe assumes you know the method: water barely trembling, around 180–190°F, with a splash of vinegar. A rolling boil shreds the whites. Fresh eggs hold their shape far better than old ones.
- Egg timingThree minutes gives a set white and a liquid yolk; four gives a jammy one. Lift with a slotted spoon and blot on a towel, or the poaching water will soak the fried bread you just worked to crisp.
- SeasoningThe recipe says "season to taste"; salt the eggs after poaching rather than the water, and pepper can go on at the table.
- YieldOne serving. Scale by the round, not the panful; fried bread does not hold well and should go from pan to plate.
The name is American diner slang, the same shorthand family as "wreck 'em" for scrambled and "cow juice" for milk: Adam and Eve are the two eggs and the raft is the toast, and the phrase is generally traced to short-order counters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when a caller's patter kept orders moving through a crowded kitchen. Its appearance in print says more about the appeal of the slang than the cooking — printing a plain breakfast under a joke name turned it into a novelty worth serving to company.