Eggs for Breakfast – 1890s

Thoughts:

Creamy, delicious eggs. Savory from the broth and mushrooms, with the slightest crunch lent by the onions. It’s not quite an omelet, nor yet scrambled eggs, but something like both, in that the chopped whites and yolks of hard-boiled eggs are combined in a thick, creamy sauce. It’s an interesting spin on eggs for breakfast, and a great way to use up any leftover hard boiled eggs you may have in the fridge. In fact, I bet it would be a terrific way to use up leftover deviled eggs from a party (if there is such a thing… I usually eat them all!). The mustard would be a welcome addition, I think.

I recommend expanding on the original recipe, and putting a hefty layer of the egg mixture on a slice of toast, topping with a sharp cheese, and setting it under the broiler for just long enough to melt the cheese. With this treatment, it can actually stand as a breakfast main course, rather than a side.

Recipe for Eggs for Breakfast

Boiling eggs: 10 minutes Prep time: 15 minutes

Serves 3-4

Cook’s Note: I haven’t the faintest idea where the bay leaf is meant to figure in, so I’ve omitted it altogether. If you like, I suppose you could let it sit awhile in the stock to pass on a bit of the flavor.

Ingredients:

6 mushrooms, diced (~1/4 cup)
6 hard boiled eggs, divided into whites and yolks, both chopped small
1 slice of onion, diced (~1 1/2 Tbs.)
2 Tbs. butter, divided
1 Tbs. flour
2 Tbs. cream
1 cup stock
salt & pepper to taste

Saute the mushrooms in 1 Tbs. butter until soft. Remove from pan and set aside.

Melt the rest of the butter, and add the flour. Stir until the butter bubbles and turns golden. Pour in the stock and cream and stir until it reaches a smooth consistency. Add the chopped egg whites, mushrooms, and salt & pepper to taste. Bring to a bubble, then crumble the yolks into the mixture. Turn off heat and stir to combine.

Butterbeer – Harry Potter

Thoughts:

I’ve never really held with the idea that the Butterbeer in Harry Potter is basically some sort of cream soda. No way. To me, that’s a very American interpretation, with artificial flavoring, and so much sugar that it becomes horrible.

My approach, probably unsurprising to many of you, was to dip into the historical cookbooks for my inspiration. And lo, from the late 1500s, there’s a recipe for “Buttered Beere”. Clearly this was what I needed to try.

My first reaction to the finished historical brew was one of surprise: The smell doesn’t quite match the flavor, so the first sip is not what you’ll be expecting. It almost smells like a sweet dough, as you might make for cinnamon rolls, with that combination of yeast, butter, and eggs. However, the flavor itself is one of creamy, spiced beer, with all the residual hops and tinge of bitterness that go with it.

The mixture thickens, not quite to the density of eggnog, but in a similar way. Served warm in a large mug, and redolent with spices, it’s an interesting and unique winter holiday beverage. Although I can’t quite imagine myself craving a big mug of this beverage on a regular basis, I’d certainly slap down two sickles for a pint at the Hog’s Head Inn or the Three Broomsticks!

Adapted Historical Recipe for Butterbeer

Take three pintes of Beere, put five yolkes of Egges to it, straine them together, and set it in a pewter pot to the fyre, and put to it halfe a pound of Sugar, one penniworth of Nutmegs beaten, one penniworth of Cloves beaten, and a halfepenniworth of Ginger beaten, and when it is all in, take another pewter pot and brewe them together, and set it to the fire againe, and when it is readie to boyle, take it from the fire, and put a dish of sweet butter into it, and brewe them together out of one pot into an other. -The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin, 1588

Cook’s Notes: For an extra indulgence, try adding a bit of cream or whole milk to the finished butterbeer. Add no more than a 1:1 ratio, and serve the adulterated version chilled, rather than hot.

Ingredients:

3 bottles of ale
1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 cup brown sugar
5 egg yolks (save the whites for something like meringue)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks

Heat the ale and spices in a medium saucepan, over medium heat. If it has a lot of foam, that should die down once it starts heating up.

In a separate bowl, combine the sugar and egg yolks. while whisking furiously, pour in a ladle-full of the hot ale. Whisk until it’s incorporated, then pour the whole mess back into the pot of ale, still whisking madly.

Keep the mixture just under a simmer, stirring until it thickens somewhat. Add the chunks of butter and stir until they’re melted. Whisk with a hand mixer (or a lot of arm strength), until a foam rises.

Serve hot, in heat-proof mugs.

Try Pots Clam Chowder – Moby Dick

“Queequeg,” said I, “do you think that we can make out a supper for us both on one clam?”

However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt.”

-Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

Thoughts:

Fabulous, if a little unconventional. The liquid reduces down, and the stewed potatoes begin to fall apart, such that the whole chowder becomes this dense concoction, much thicker than most chowders available at restaurants. Redolent with the goodness of spuds and onions, and just a hint of herbs, the chowder on the whole is flavorful and filling. Every so often a clam comes up in a spoonful, and is an extra treat.

All in all, this seems to me an ideal chowder for taking the chill off after a long spell at sea.

Try Pots Clam Chowder Recipe

Total prep time: 1 hour

Makes about 2-3 servings

Cook’s Notes: I didn’t need to add salt, as the salt pork provided exactly the right amount on its own, but a dash of pepper won’t go amiss. This recipe is adapted from one from Mrs. Rorer’s Philadelphia Cookbook, from the 1880s. This puts it just a few decades after the publication of Moby Dick, and on the right coast.

Ingredients:

25 clams, whole, in shells
1/4 lb salt pork, diced
2 cups water
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and diced large
1 onion, chopped fine
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. sweet marjoram
1/2 Tbs. parsley
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup milk
3 water crackers or 2 sea biscuits, crumbled
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour

Wash clams thoroughly. Into a largeish saucepan, pour 1 1/2 cups water, then add the whole clams. Put a lid on and simmer until the shells open. Take the opened clams out of the pot, reserving the liquid in a separate container. Any clams that do not open should be discarded.

Line the bottom of the saucepan with the diced salt pork. Now put a layer of potatoes on the salt pork, then a sprinkling of onion, thyme, sweet marjoram, parsley, salt & pepper, then a layer of clams, and continue until all the ingredients are used.

Add the water, which should be boiling and barely cover the whole. Cover and simmer for half an hour without stirring. Then add the milk and crackers, stir and cook ten minutes longer. Make a roux by melting the butter over medium heat, then stirring in the flour. Stir in a ladle or two of broth, then add the whole mix back into the chowder.

Serve hot, with extra biscuits on the side.