Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1475

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Ingredients.—6 eggs, 1 tablespoonful of cream, 1 teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley, 1 teaspoonful of finely chopped chives, 1 teacupful of small dice of bread, clarified butter, salt, pepper.

Method.—Fry the dice of bread in clarified butter and drain well. Beat the eggs, add the cream, parsley, chives, fried bread and a good seasoning of salt and pepper, and pour the preparation into a stewpan containing about 2 tablespoonfuls of clarified butter. Stir over the fire until the mixture is thick enough to spread, then drop it in spoonfuls into hot clarified butter, fry, drain well and serve.

Time.—Altogether, about 15 minutes. Average Cost, 1s. 3d. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons.

Ingredients.—4 eggs, 1 oz. of butter, salt and pepper.

Method.—Spread a fireproof dish thickly with butter, break the eggs into it, taking care to keep the yolks whole, and season them lightly with salt and pepper. Put the remainder of the butter, cut into very small pieces, on the top of the eggs, and bake in a moderately hot oven until the whites become set, but not hard. Serve in the dish in which they were cooked.

Time.—10 minutes. Average Cost, 8d. Sufficient for 2 persons.

The freshness of eggs may be tested in several ways. One ingenious apparatus is a speculum, furnished with an interior looking-glass, which renders the egg sufficiently transparent to show it is fresh, infected, or really bad. If fresh, a clear disk is thrown; if stale, a cloudy disk with spots; and if bad, a dark unsightly disk is visible. Another method of ascertaining their freshness is to hold them before a lighted candle or to the light. If the egg looks clear, it will be perfectly good; but if there is a black spot attached to the shell, it is worthless. The former test cannot be put into practice when purchasing eggs in the ordinary way, and the latter test can only be applied at night time when an artificial light is burning. To an experienced buyer the size, weight and appearance of eggs indicate their value, stale eggs being considerably lighter than those newly laid. Eggs that cannot be relied on should always be broken separately.

Eggs contain, for their bulk, a greater quantity of nutriment any other article of food. In 100 parts there are 73.50 parts of water, 13.50 of proteids, 11.60 of fats, and 1.40 of salts. It does not, however, follow that eggs are always suited to weak digestions; quite