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Tom Thumbs
Salt and pepper to taste Chopped parsley Chopped chives Milk Grated cheese Bread crumbs Take some ramekins, butter them and break two eggs into each; season with salt, pepper, parsley and chives; add four tablespoonfuls of milk, cover with grated cheese and a few bread crumbs, and bake until ready. Serve hot.
A YARD OF FLANNEL, OR EGG FLIP I quart (4 cups) ale 4 yolks of eggs 2 whites of eggs 4 ozs. (1/2 cup) brown sugar 1/2 teaspoonful grated nutmeg 1/2 teaspoonful powdered ginger 1 wineglassful brandy or rum Put the ale in a saucepan on the fire and bring almost to boiling point. In the meantime beat up the eggs with the sugar, nutmeg and ginger, then add the rum or brandy. Pour on the ale by degrees, beating the mixture up so as to prevent from curdling; next pour it backwards and forwards repeatedly from pitcher to pitcher, raising the hand to as great a height as possible which process produces the smoothness and frothing essential to the good quality of the flip. This mixture is excellent for a cold and it received its name from its fleecy appearance.
Two unrelated dishes have run together on this page: baked eggs in ramekins, and a hot spiced ale flip. Both are quick, and both hinge on controlling heat around eggs.
- Oven and time for the ramekins"Bake until ready" means until the whites are set and the yolks still soft; the book names no oven heat. A moderate oven, around 350F, and roughly 12-20 minutes depending on how much milk goes in; the cheese and crumbs will colour towards the end. Pull them a shade underdone, since they carry on cooking in the hot dish.
- Four tablespoons of milk is a lotRead as four tablespoons per ramekin (the instructions run dish by dish, though the text does not spell it out), that is a quarter cup, enough to loosen two eggs into something closer to a baked custard. If you want the classic set egg with a runny yolk, two tablespoons is nearer the mark.
- A water bath helpsStanding the ramekins in a roasting tin of hot water keeps the whites tender and stops the bottoms from rubberising before the tops set.
- YieldOne ramekin of two eggs per person; the recipe scales by the dish. The flip comes to about five cups of liquid before frothing, enough for four to six glasses.
- A wineglassfulIn turn-of-the-century usage this is roughly 2 fl oz, a quarter cup, not a modern stemmed glass. Judge it against a quart of ale.
- Don't boil the ale"Almost to boiling point" is the whole instruction. Ale at a rolling boil poured onto beaten yolks will scramble them no matter how fast you whisk; take it off at the first shiver of steam and add it in a thin stream.
- The pouringTwo heatproof pitchers, poured from height, aerate the drink and cool it evenly. Do this over the sink the first time. The froth is the point of the name.
- The eggs stay lightly cookedTempering yolks with hot ale does not reliably bring them to a pasteurising temperature, and two whites go in raw. Use pasteurised eggs if serving anyone elderly, pregnant, very young or immune-compromised.
- Ale choiceA soft English-style brown or mild ale suits this; a heavily hopped modern IPA turns bitter and metallic against the sugar and nutmeg.
"A yard of flannel" is an old tavern name for hot spiced ale thickened with egg, and the recipe repeats the traditional explanation itself: the drink is named for its soft, fleecy nap of froth. Flips of this kind were made long before this book, originally by plunging a red-hot iron loggerhead into the tankard so the sugar caught and the ale foamed. Its reputation as a remedy for a cold belongs to a period when hot alcohol, sugar and spice were standard household medicine. The baked eggs, meanwhile, sit squarely in the era's fashion for individual ramekins, which reached English and American kitchens from French service and gave a cook a way to send out something hot, small and slightly dressed up without carving anything. The nickname "Tom Thumbs" seems to be no more than a comment on the size.