Poached egg

“ Take it up gently with a slice, cut away the ragged edges of the white, and serve either on toasted bread or on slices of ham or bacon, or on spinach, &c. A poached egg should not be overdone, as its appearance and taste will be quite spoiled if the yolk be allowed to harden. When the egg is slipped into the water, the white should be gathered together, to keep it a little in form, or the cup should be turned over it for 1 minute. To poach an egg to perfection is rather a difficult operation ”

“ Set pan on asbestos pad, cover and leave where the water will keep hot but will not boil, until the eggs are jelly-like. Remove carefully from the water with a small oiled skimmer and cut off the ragged edges with a biscuit cutter. Nothing is more offensive to the eye than a rough ragged poached egg.
Besides the usual toast, poached eggs may be served on cream toast, round slices of broiled trumese, on hash or creamed vegetables, or in shallow nests of boiled rice, mashed potato or spinach. ”

“ Poached eggs are prepared by breaking them into a small saucepan or stewpan containing about 1⁄2 a pint of boiling water, to which a teaspoonful of common salt, and, occasionally, a little vinegar, is added, and gently simmering them for 3 or 4 minutes, or until sufficiently firm to bear removal with a spoon or ‘slice.’ Another method is to employ melted butter instead of water, and to dress them either with or without stirring. ”

“ In poaching eggs in a frying-pan, never do more than four at a time; and, when a little vinegar is liked mixed with the water in which the eggs are done, use the above proportion. Time.—21⁄2 to 31⁄2 minutes, according to the size of the egg. Sufficient.—Allow 2 eggs to each person. Seasonable at any time, but less plentiful in winter.
EGGS POACHED ON TOAST.
TIN EGG-POACHER. EGGS, Poached, with Cream.
Ingredients.—1 pint of water, 1 teaspoonful of salt, 4 teaspoonfuls of vinegar, 4 fresh eggs, 1⁄2 gill of cream, salt, pepper, and pounded sugar to taste, 1 oz. of butter. ”

“ I have even known the eggs carelessly dropped on the bare ground in a corner of a potato-field, and have found the female sitting on her eggs in all the bright glare of a noonday sun in June, and to all appearance undisturbed by its brilliance. A more common situation for the eggs is a slight hollow of a bare rock, the dark weather-beaten shades of which, with its brown and slate-colored mosses and lichens, resembling both the parent and the egg in their coloring, are well adapted to screen them from observation or detection. ”

“ Soon he finds their oak-leaf nest and olive eggs. These the keeper readily buys; winking at what he knows to be dishonest. Plough-boys and farm-labourers have peculiar opportunities for egg-poaching. As to pheasants' eggs, if the keeper is an honest man and refuses to buy, there are always London dealers who will. Once in the covert, pheasants' eggs are easily found. The birds get up heavily from their nests, and go away with a loud whirring of wings. In this species of poaching women and children are largely employed. ”

“ If the eggs are fresh they will look most inviting, but the way of breaking and boiling them must be most carefully attended to, and care should be taken not to boil too many together; if the yolks separate from the white it may be presumed that the egg is not fresh, but it may be eatable, for the same thing may happen through awkwardness in poaching. ”

“ When they are ready to deposit, she is forced to place them whether she has mated or not. In case a mate has found her, a small pouch near the end of her abdomen is filled with a fluid that touches each egg in passing and renders it fertile. The eggs differ with species and are placed according to family characteristics. They may be pure white, pearl-coloured, grey, greenish, or yellow. There are round, flat, and oblong eggs. ”

“ Almost every hen-wife has her own special way of preserving her surplus eggs. For my own part I have tried several, but always found that the most simple was the best. Here are one or two sent me from an egg and poultry district:—Make a pickle of 1 bushel of stone lime, 4 lbs. of coarse salt, and about 60 gals, of water. Slake the lime first with a little of the water, and when all is mixed leave it till the lime has settled and the solution is clear. Draw off the water very carefully into a cask, or whatever you mean to put the eggs in. ”

“ Eggs, when not fresh, are more or less liable to disease. I might even say more. When not fresh, they are diseased. On this point we have the testimony of Drs. Willich and Dunglison. The truth is, that the yolk of the egg has a strong tendency to decomposition, and this decomposing or putrefying process begins long before it is perceived, or even suspected, by most people. There is much reason for believing that a large proportion of the eggs eaten in civic life,—except when we keep the poultry ourselves,—are, when used, more or less in a state of decomposition. ”

“ The average number of eggs produced has been estimated at from 1,500 to 2,000 per female; at first the eggs are white, but prior to hatching they turn a deep orange-red. Development is slow, the adult state being reached about three months after time of hatching; egg laying commences about five weeks after maturity, and continues for a period of about six weeks. There is only one generation each year, and all stages may be met with on the one plant ”

“ If the yolk be removed and dried, and the yellow oil separated, it will be found to form two-thirds of the substance. The whole weight in its natural state is about three hundred grains, of which three-fifths is water; of the white more than three quarters is water.
The yolk and albumen of a fecundated egg remains as sweet and free from corruption during the whole time of incubation as it is in new-laid eggs, and there is but little loss of water; whereas an unfecundated egg passes rapidly into putrefactive decay and perishes. ”

“ INGREDIENTS.—Eggs, water. To every pint of water allow 1 tablespoonful of vinegar.
Mode.—Eggs for poaching should be perfectly fresh, but not quite new-laid; those that are about 36 hours old are the best for the purpose. If quite new-laid, the white is so milky it is almost impossible to set it; and, on the other hand, if the egg be at all stale, it is equally difficult to poach it nicely. Strain some boiling water into a deep clean frying-pan ”

“ Whether spontaneous generation, if it occurs at all, occurs by the formation of an egg from which the animalcule is hatched, or by the immediate formation of the adult, Professor Clark does not attempt to say; but the French naturalist M. Pouchet, who is one of the foremost advocates of the theory, holds that an egg is produced first. If this is true we shall have a striking correlative to the proposition with which we began this paper: not only can living creatures be developed where no egg has been deposited, but eggs can be produced where there is no animal to lay them. ”

“ To sum up the available information on clutch size, the number of eggs is most typically 9, 10, or 11 and is more in large old females, than in small, newly matured females. In natural nests, even in those that are successful, there is often some loss of eggs, which are eaten by predators, or by the female herself, with the [62] result that the egg counts made by various observers average somewhat lower than the numbers actually produced. The loss during incubation cannot be measured readily since it is almost certainly sharply increased by the disturbance entailed in observing nests. ”

“ They appear to be vigorous when young, but running about as they do with other hens, any comparison as to egg production is mere guesswork. The ordinary farm poultry could be greatly improved by a more careful selection of eggs for setting. Eggs with soft shells, with a ring or crust on the shells, or with an uneven or rough surface, should be rejected. Very large eggs containing a double yolk are frequently set in hope of producing a very large chicken, two chickens, or a curious monstrosity. Such eggs very rarely hatch. ”

“ When this happens the Cow-bird’s egg is lost if incubation is far advanced; but if the eggs have been sat on three or four days only, then it has a good chance of being hatched and the young bird reared along with its foster-brothers.
4. One female often lays several eggs in the same nest, instead of laying only one, as does, according to Wilson, the Molothrus pecoris- 75 - of North America. I conclude that this is so from the fact that in cases where the eggs of a species vary considerably in form, size, and markings, each individual of the species lays eggs precisely or nearly alike. ”

“ Eggs of other individuals of the species, and even the eggs of Eumeces laticeps were accepted as part of the brood. Any of the experimental females would quickly retrieve one of her eggs moved a short distance outside the nest cavity. Even if the whole clutch of eggs were scattered about, the female would, over a period of hours, gather the eggs and return them to the nest cavity. This movement of the eggs is accomplished by rolling or pushing them in a loop of the body or tail, or, less frequently, by grasping an egg in the jaws, lifting it, and gently placing it in a new position. ”

“ The white of the egg consists of two parts, each of which is enveloped in distinct membranes. The outer bag of albumen, next the shell, is quite a thin, watery body, while the next which invests the yolk, is heavy and thick. But few housekeepers who break eggs ever distinguish between the two whites, or know of their existence even.
Each has its appropriate office to fulfil during the process of incubation or hatching; and one acts in the mysterious process as important a part as the other. ”

“ What is common to all eggs and essential to them all is that which corresponds to the yolk in the bird's egg. But their later mode of development, the degree of perfection acquired by the egg and germ before being laid, the term required for the germ to come to maturity, as well as the frequency and regularity of the broods, are all features varying with the different kinds of animals. There are those that lay eggs once a year at a particular season and then die ”

“ Even before the last egg is laid it is seen that a few feathers are scattered about the nest, and as incubation proceeds these increase in quantity. For the sitting bird covers her treasures over with down plucked from her breast; this she does day by day until a very considerable quantity buries the eggs. It is this down which has become such an important article of commerce. If the eiders are sitting under natural conditions the eggs are hatched in about twenty-six days, and the young birds are almost immediately taken down to the water. ”

“ The number of eggs within each pod varies greatly, some pods coritaining only half a dozen eggs, and others as many as one hundred and fifty. Each female also deposits several batches of eggs, each lot in a separate burrow and pod, before her egg supply is exhausted. Some species arrange the eggs regularly in the pods, while others cram them in haphazard. ”

“ Dress the eggs as above, giving them as good an appearance as possible, lay them into a very hot dish, and sauce them with some rich, clear, boiling veal gravy, or with some Espagnole. Each egg, for variety, may be dished upon a crouton of bread cut with a fluted paste-cutter, and fried a pale brown: the sauce should then be poured round, not over them.
Poaching is the best mode of dressing a swan’s egg, [157] as it renders it more than any other delicate in flavour; it is usually served on a bed of spinach. ”

“ Large eggs should be filled half full of water and well shaken. Eggs treated in this manner are perfectly clean inside and offer no inducements to insects to harbor within, a thing that they will surely do in eggs prepared in a slovenly manner. Having blown all the water out of the egg, take a soft cloth and wipe it dry, removing any foreign matter that may be adhering to it, taking care, however, not to rub off the number you put on it when collected, and also notice that you do not rub off any of the markings on it. On some eggs the pigment is only loosely applied on the outside. ”

“ The eggshell will now be beyond the reach of corruption; the membrane for ever retains its pristine whiteness, and no insect, for the time to come, will ever venture to prey upon it. If you wish your egg to appear extremely brilliant, give it a coat of mastic varnish, put on very sparingly with a camel-hair pencil: green or blue eggs must be done with gum arabic, as the mastic varnish is apt to injure the colour.
2342. Fishes
Large fishes should be opened in the belly, the entrails taken out, and the inside well rubbed with pepper, and stuffed with oakum. ”

“ Some eggs contain small concretions of the matter which forms the shell, as occurs also in the egg of the common fowl: this has given rise to the idea of stones in the eggs. Both male and female assist in the incubations; but the numbers of females being always greatest, it is probable that cases occur in which the females have the entire charge. Several eggs lie out of the nest, and are thought to be intended as food for the first of the newly-hatched brood till the rest come out and enable the whole to start in quest of food. ”

“ The number of eggs varies from three to seven, and are frequently laid long before the ice and snow have disappeared. “The eggs vary from oval to oblong oval in shape, are pure white in color, and somewhat glossy, the shell is smooth and fine-grained.” Incubation begins as soon as the first egg is laid, and both sexes participate in this duty, and occasionally both are found on the nest at the same time. At the nesting season the courage of both sexes is very marked. The male will fight with its talons, and even when wounded will still defend itself. ”