FoodNetArchive

The household cook book

1902

Page 141 · 2 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1902. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
COLORING AND DYEING EGGS.— Eggs can be easily dyed for Easter, etc. The aniline dyes are useful for the purpose. A simple plan is to place the eggs in colored water and boil them in it. Mot- toes, monograms, etc., may be produced as follows: Draw upon the shell with simple oil and a camel's hair brush, whatever name or de- vice it is wished to display; then place it in the coloring liquid and the portions touched with oil will remain white, while the remainder will be dyed. In a similar way the ground may be left white while the designs are colored. Wrapping them in calico which is brightly colored, and then boiling them in lye, will also color them. Eggs can be colored brown by boiling them in strong coffee, and yellow with onion peeling Cochineal will color them any shade from crim- son to pink, according to the quantity used. Logwood chips will color them any shade from port wine to black, by varying the quantity used. They can be made like gold or silver by coating them with painters' size (after boiling them hard) and then rolling them in a plate containing gold or silver dust, such as bookbinders use, until they are entirely covered, or a name or other device may be put on in this way. A little butter or oil rubbed over the egg when it is sufficiently cool to handle, after being boiled, gives it a nice bright look. BAKED EGGS. — Cut nice toast into squares. Take eggs out of the shell, keeping yolks whole. Beat the whites to a stiff frotli, lay 186 EGGS the beaten white around nicely on the toast, drop yolks in center of white ring, sprinkle on salt and put in hot oven to bake a few min- utes. When taken out of the oven, pour a little melted butter on the toast. No 2. — Grease a pie-plate well with butter, break into it as many eggs as it will conviently hold, and bake until the whites are fully set and the yolks slightly hardened; slip them on to a hot platter, and drop bits of butter over them, w^tli a sprinkling of salt. TO BOIL EGGS. — Many fairly good cooks do not know how to boil eggs in the best manner. There are 2 good ways. One is to put them into cold water, gradually bring it to a boil, and as soon as the water commences to boil, they will be done. Another way is to put them into a sauce^pan and pour on boiling water enough to cover them; pouring the hot water on the eggs will lower its temper- ature a little; then let it simmer, not boil, until they are done, keeping the water about 180° to 185°. It takes longer to cook eggs in this way than when they are put into boiling water, but when done, they will be jelly-like instead of tough and leathery, and are more easily digested. The length of time to leave them in the water depends on the individual taste. An egg to be soft=boiled should not be cooked in boiling water, for then the albumen near the outside will become tough before the yolk is heated. To hard-boil an egg, it needs only to be left in the sim- mering water longer — say 20 to 80 minutes ; it will then be solid but not leathery; the yolk is more mealy when cooked 20 minutes then when cooked 10. Eggs for salads, etc., should be thus hard-boiled, and, when done, put in a basin of cold water a few minutes; then roll them on the table with the hand and the shell will peel off easily.Egg Nests