Woman’s Home Companion Cook Book – Part 4

 

 

The chapter on Eggs starts:

“Any good cook can solve the old riddle; the egg comes before the chicken. For chicken, popular as it is, is only one solution to the dinner or midday meat course; while eggs do duty at at every meal, from the boiled egg at breakfast to the lunchtime omelet and the dinner meringue.  Invisible but important, eggs thicken, leaven and enrich other foods.  In supporting roles they garnish salads, fluff soufflés and top pies.  Present-day cooks may smile at hold recipes beginning, ‘Take the whites of two dozen eggs’ but they heed nutrition experts who recommend one egg a day fro every member of the family – or at least four a week.  Insist on that, say the dieticians – be hard boiled about it!”

Eggs of yesteryear were graded and classified as Fancy, Grade A, Grade B and Grade C.  Can’t say I have heard of the grade fancy before and it seems you had to be from a family with a liberal budget to be able to afford them.

The paragraph Refrigeration reads:

“It is worth while to shop around and find a market where eggs are kept in a refrigerator, not on the open counter.  Eggs contain much the same food substances as milk  and meat; yet some people who would not dream of letting milk and meat stand around at room temperature still hold the notion that cold air is bad for eggs.  As long as grocers leave eggs on the open counter, especially in warm weather, consumers cannot be sure that the eggs they buy are of the highest quality.”

And under the paragraph about Care of Eggs, the following was advised:

“Place eggs immediately in the refrigerator – in the humidity controlled section if you have one.  It is money thrown away to pay for a well refrigerated eggs, then let them stand at room temperature at home.  The busy grocer at least has a rapid turnover of his stock; the home-maker’s box of a dozen eggs may stand around for a week.”

Amongst the recipes for scrambling, frying, poaching, baking and making souffles, is a recipe for a Rum Omelet, and once cooked reads:

“Turn omelet onto a hot platter and pour 2 to 3 tablespoons rum around; ignite and serve. Sprinkle with sugar if desired.  (Good as a late evening snack.)”

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