Common Egg Bread

Common Egg Bread, The Kentucky Housewife, 1839.  This sounded very similar to a dish that we had eaten on our honeymoon in Williamsburg, so when I was browsing books for new ideas, I tagged it as a must try!

I used my new birch-twig whisk for this recipe, I must say it is nice. After beating the eggs well, add 4 cups of milk, salt and butter- I used 2 tablespoons.
The fine Indian meal (corn meal) is where it gets tricky.  Like most mid-century recipes there are no exact measurements. I ended up using about a pound of corn meal to make "a good batter".  It will be a thin batter, I guessed on this part, as it did not specify to what consistency this batter should be.
In a 400* oven it took about 24 minutes to get done.

The top looks similar to eggs that have been cooked a little too long, but it is a nice brown "done" color. It will smell just like corn bread! 

After letting it cool for a few minutes, I served my self a piece with butter- as directed! 

It was still pretty hot, but had a nice corn-bread taste. I think I may have used too much corn meal, as it did not have the light eggy taste I was looking for. Next time I will use less corn meal to see how the results vary. 

To Fricassee Eggs

I have been wanting to make these for a while, they sounded so easy. This recipe comes from The Virginia Housewife, 1838, pg. 89. There are few ingredients needed, eggs, bread crumbs, and that's really all.

So you start by boiling the six eggs, and letting them cool before peeling them. After peeling the eggs, I must admit that I forgot the flour & egg part, and just rolled them in bread crumb mixture.  I did not use lard to fry the eggs, instead I opted for vegetable shortening (its a little bit healthier).
They are fried until a nice golden brown. Use your judgement on how brown you would like them. I served mine with a bit of melted butter with parsley as I did not have any gravy, and did not make any.

They turned out great! DH stated "They're delicious!" Since this is essentially a soft boiled egg that is then deep fried, I was not going to try them as I am not a soft-boiled egg eater. But I braved them and tried one, and well, my taste stayed true and I did not like the soft boiled egg part. However, it is a quick easy recipe that can be cooked & served almost anywhere, kitchen or camp!

Egg Cups- A Breakfast Dish

This dish has become a household favorite. It is so easy to prepare, and it is very similar to modern deviled eggs.
The recipe, "Egg Cups- A Breakfast Dish" come from Housekeeping in Old Virginia, 1879.

I boiled 4 eggs, hard ( you can use as many as you like). After waiting for them to cool, they were peeled and halved. The yolks were mixed as described. I used ham as the meat this time, chopped it fairly small. I used about two tablespoons of butter, and salt and pepper to taste.  You need to mash the mixture for a while to get all the egg yolk mushed up and mixed with the ham, the butter/oil helps smooth out the mixture.

After getting the filling completely mixed up, it gets spooned into the egg halves. I have found that there is no neat way to this, and the filling is quite messy.

The recipe calls for a cream sauce over the eggs. I did not add the sauce to the eggs this time, as DH was going to eat them for lunch. The sauce is easy, put about half a cup of cream, with a little sugar (about at tablespoon) in a double boiler to heat the cream. The sauce does add a sweetness to the eggs if desired.