“Give me half-a-dozen eggs, a few spoonfuls of gravy and as much cream, with a spoonful of butter and a handful of bread crumbs, and I can get up a good breakfast or luncheon,” said a housekeeper to me once, in a modest boastfulness that became her well, in my eyes.

For I had sat often at her elegant, but frugal board, and I knew she spoke the truth.

“Elegant and frugal!” I shall have more hope of American housewives when they learn to have faith in this combination of adjectives. Nothing has moved me more strongly to the preparation of this work than the desire to convert them to the belief that the two are not incompatible or inharmonious. Under no head can practice in the endeavor to conform these, the one to the other, be more easily and successfully pursued than under that which begins this section.

Eggs at sixty cents per dozen (and they are seldom higher than this price) are the cheapest food for the breakfast or lunch-table of a private family. They are nutritious, popular, and never (if we except the cases of omelettes, thickened with uncooked flour, and fried eggs, drenched with fat) an unelegant or homely dish.

Eggs Sur le Plat. Maltese cross

6 eggs.

1 table-spoonful of butter or nice dripping.

Pepper and salt to taste.

Melt the butter on a stone-china, or tin plate, or shallow baking-dish. Break the eggs carefully into this; dust lightly with pepper and salt, and put in a moderate oven until the whites are well “set.”

Serve in the dish in which they were baked.

Toasted Eggs.

Cover the bottom of an earthenware or stone-china dish with rounds of delicately toasted bread. Or, what is even better, with rounds of stale bread dipped in beaten egg and fried quickly in butter or nice dripping, to a golden-brown. Break an egg carefully upon each, and set the dish immediately in front of, and on a level with a glowing fire. Toast over this as many slices of fat corned pork or ham as there are eggs in the dish, holding the meat so that it will fry very quickly, and all the dripping fall upon the eggs. When these are well “set,” and a crust begins to form upon the top of each, they are done. Turn the dish several times while toasting the meat, that the eggs may be equally cooked.

Do not send the fried pork to table, but pepper the eggs lightly and remove with the toast, to the dish in which they are to go to the table, with a cake-turner or flat ladle, taking care not to break them.

Baked Eggs. (No. 1.) Maltese cross

6 eggs.

4 tablespoonfuls good gravy—veal, beef or poultry. The latter is particularly nice.

1 handful bread-crumbs.

6 rounds buttered toast or fried bread.

Put the gravy into a shallow baking-dish. Break the eggs into this, pepper and salt them, and strew the bread-crumbs over them. Bake for five minutes in a quick oven. Take up the eggs carefully, one by one, and lay upon the toast which must be arranged on a hot, flat dish. Add a little cream, and, if you like, some very finely-chopped parsley and onion, to the gravy left in the baking-dish, and turn it into a saucepan. Boil up once quickly, and pour over the eggs.

Baked Eggs. (No. 2.) Maltese cross

6 eggs.

1 cup of chicken, game, or veal gravy.

1 teaspoonful mixed parsley and onion, chopped fine.

1 handful very fine bread-crumbs.

Pepper and salt to taste.

Pour enough gravy into a neat baking-dish to cover the bottom well, and mix with the rest the parsley and onion. Set the dish in the oven until the gravy begins to hiss and bubble, when break the eggs into it, so that they do not crowd one another. Strew bread-crumbs thickly over them, pepper and salt, and return to the oven for three minutes longer. Then pour the rest of the gravy, which should be hot, over the whole. More bread-crumbs, as fine as dust, and bake until the eggs are “set.”

Send to table in the baking-dish.

This dish will be found very savory.

Fricasseed Eggs. Maltese cross

6 hard-boiled eggs. When cold, slice with a sharp knife, taking care not to break the yolk.

1 cup good broth, well seasoned with pepper, salt, parsley and a suspicion of onion.

Some rounds stale bread, fried to a light-brown in butter or nice dripping.

Put the broth on the fire in a saucepan with the seasoning and let it come to a boil. Rub the slices of egg with melted butter, then roll them in flour. Lay them gently in the gravy and let this become smoking hot upon the side of the range, but do not let it actually boil, lest the eggs should break. They should lie thus in the gravy for at least five minutes. Have ready, upon a platter, the fried bread. Lay the sliced egg evenly upon this, pour the gravy over all, and serve hot.

Egg Cutlets. Maltese cross

6 hard-boiled eggs.

1 raw egg well-beaten.

1 handful very fine, dry bread-crumbs.

Pepper and salt, and a little parsley minced fine.

3 table-spoonfuls butter or dripping.

1 cup broth, or drawn butter, in which a raw egg has been beaten.

Cut the boiled eggs when perfectly cold, into rather thick slices with a sharp, thin knife; dip each slice into the beaten egg; roll in the bread-crumbs which should be seasoned with pepper, salt and minced parsley. Fry them to a light-brown in the butter or dripping, turning each piece as it is done on the under side. Do not let them lie in the frying-pan an instant after they are cooked. Drain free from fat before laying them on a hot dish. Pour the gravy, boiling hot, over the eggs, and send to table.

Stirred Eggs. Maltese cross

6 eggs.

3 table-spoonfuls of gravy—that made from poultry is best.

Enough fried toast, from which the crust has been pared, to cover the bottom of a flat dish.

A very little anchovy paste.

1 table-spoonful of butter.

Melt the butter in a frying-pan, and when hot, break into this the eggs. Stir in the gravy, pepper and salt to taste, and continue to stir very quickly, and well up from the bottom, for about two minutes, or until the whole is a soft, yellow mass. Have ready in a flat dish the fried toast, spread thinly with anchovy paste.

Heap the stirred egg upon this, and serve before it has time to harden.

Scalloped Eggs (Raw). Maltese cross

6 eggs.

4 or 5 table-spoonfuls of ground or minced ham.

A little chopped parsley.

A very little minced onion.

2 great spoonfuls of cream, and 1 of melted butter.

Salt and pepper to taste.

½ cup of bread crumbs moistened with milk and a spoonful of melted butter.

Line the bottom of a small deep dish, well-buttered, with the soaked bread-crumbs; put upon these a layer of chopped ham, seasoned with the onion and parsley. Set these in the oven, closely covered, until they are smoking hot. Meanwhile, beat up the eggs to a stiff froth, season with pepper and salt, stir in the cream and a spoonful of melted butter, and pour evenly upon the layer of ham. Put the dish, uncovered, back into the oven, and bake five minutes, or until the eggs are “set.”

Scalloped Eggs (Hard-boiled). Maltese cross

6 eggs boiled, and when cold, cut into thin slices.

1 cupful fine bread-crumbs, well moistened with a little good gravy and a little milk or cream.

½ cup thick drawn butter, into which has been beaten the yolk of an egg.

1 small cupful minced ham, tongue, poultry, or cold halibut, salmon, or cod.

Pepper and salt to taste.

Put a layer of moistened crumbs in the bottom of a buttered baking-dish. On this lay the sliced eggs, each piece of which must have been dipped in the thick drawn butter. Sprinkle the ground meat over these, cover with another layer of bread-crumbs, and proceed in like manner, until the egg is all used up. Sift on the top a good layer of dry bread-crumbs. Cover the dish with an inverted plate, until the contents are heated through, then remove the plate, and brown the top upon the upper grating of the oven.

Whirled Eggs.

6 eggs.

1 quart of boiling water.

Some thin slices of buttered toast.

Pepper and salt to taste.

A table-spoonful of butter.

Put the water, slightly salted, in a saucepan over the fire, and keep it at a fast boil. Stir with a wooden spoon or ladle in one direction until it whirls rapidly. Break the eggs, one at a time, into a cup, and drop each carefully into the centre, or vortex of the boiling whirlpool, which must be kept in rapid motion until the egg is a soft, round ball. Take it out carefully with a perforated spoon, and put it on a slice of buttered toast laid upon a hot dish. Put a bit of butter on the top. Set the dish in the oven to keep it warm, and proceed in the same way with each egg, having but one at a time in the saucepan. When all are done, dust lightly with salt and pepper, and send up hot.

Poached Eggs À la Bonne Femme. Maltese cross

6 eggs.

1 teaspoonful of vinegar.

½ cup nice veal or chicken broth.

Salt and pepper to taste.

½ cup butter or dripping.

Rounds of stale bread, and the beaten yolks of two raw eggs.

Prepare the bread first by cutting it into rather large rounds, and, with a smaller cutter, marking an inner round on each, leaving a narrow rim or wall on the outside. Excavate this cautiously, not to break the bottom of the cup thus indicated, which should be three-quarters of an inch deep. Dip each round thus prepared in the beaten egg, and fry quickly to a yellow-brown in hot butter or dripping. Put in order upon a flat dish, and set in the open oven while you poach the eggs.

Pour about a quart of boiling water into a deep saucepan. Salt slightly, and add the vinegar. Break the eggs into a saucer, one at a time, and, when the water is at a hard boil, slide them singly into the saucepan. If the yolk be broken in putting it in, the effect of the dish is spoiled. When the whites begin to curdle around the edges, lessen the heat, and cook slowly until they are firm enough to bear removal. Take them out with a perforated skimmer, trim each dexterously into a neat round, and lay within the bread-cup described above. When all are in their places, pour over them the gravy, which should be well seasoned and boiling hot.

Eggs Poached with Mushrooms. Maltese cross

6 eggs.

1 tea-cupful of cold chicken or other fowl, minced fine.

2 table-spoonfuls of butter.

About a cupful of good gravy,—veal or poultry.

2 dozen mushrooms of fair size, sliced.

Some rounds of fried bread.

1 raw egg beaten light.

Mince the cold meat very fine and work into it the butter, with the beaten egg. Season with pepper and salt, and stir it over the fire in a saucepan until it is smoking-hot. Poach the eggs as in preceding receipt, and trim off the ragged edges. The fried bread must be arranged upon a hot, flat dish, the mince of chicken on this, and the eggs upon the chicken. Have ready in another saucepan the sliced mushrooms and gravy. If you use the French champignons—canned—they should have simmered in the gravy fifteen minutes. If fresh ones, you should have parboiled them in clean water as long, before they are sliced into the gravy, and stewed ten minutes in it. The gravy must be savory, rich and rather highly seasoned. Pour it very hot upon the eggs.

If you will try this receipt, and that for “Eggs À la bonne femme” for yourself, your family and your guests will be grateful to you, and you to the writer.

Anchovy Toast with Eggs.

6 eggs.

1 cupful drawn butter—drawn in milk.

Some rounds of stale bread, toasted and buttered.

A little anchovy paste.

Pepper and salt to taste.

Spread the buttered toast thinly with anchovy paste, and with this cover the bottom of a flat dish. Heat the drawn butter to boiling in a tin vessel set in another of hot water, and stir into this the eggs beaten very light. Season to taste, and heat—stirring all the time—until they form a thick sauce, but do not let them boil. Pour over the toast, and send to table very hot.

Forcemeat Eggs. Maltese cross

6 eggs boiled hard.

1 cupful minced chicken, veal, ham or tongue.

1 cupful of rich gravy.

½ cupful bread-crumbs.

2 tea-spoonfuls mixed parsley, onion, summer savory or sweet marjoram, chopped fine.

Juice of half a lemon.

1 raw egg beaten light.

While the eggs are boiling, make the forcemeat by mixing the minced meat, bread-crumbs, herbs, pepper and salt together, and working well into this the beaten raw egg. When the eggs are boiled hard, drop for a minute into cold water to loosen the shells. Break these away carefully. With a sharp knife divide each egg into halves; cut a piece of the white off at each end (that they may stand firmly when dished), and coat them thickly with the forcemeat. Brown them by setting them in a tin plate on the upper grating of a very hot oven, and heap neatly upon a hot dish. Pour the boiling gravy, in which a little lemon-juice has been squeezed at the last, over them.

A Hen’s Nest. Maltese cross

6 or 8 eggs boiled hard.

1 cup minced chicken, or other fowl, ham, tongue, or, if more convenient, any cold firm fish.

1 cup of drawn butter into which have been stirred two or three table-spoonfuls of good gravy and a tea-spoonful of chopped parsley.

When the eggs are quite cold and firm, cut the whites from the yolks in long thin strips, or shavings, and set them aside to warm in a very gentle oven, buttering them, now and then, while you prepare the rest.

Pound the minced meat or fish very fine in a Wedgewood mortar, mixing in, as you go on, the yolks of the eggs, the parsley, and pepper and salt to taste. When all are reduced to a smooth paste, mould with your hands into small, egg-shaped balls. Heap in the centre of a dish, arrange the shred eggs around them, in imitation of a nest, and pour over all the hot sauce.

A simple and delightful relish.

Omelettes.

For omelettes of various kinds, please see “Common Sense in the Household, No. 1,” page 259.

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