Eggs in Ramekins: TBT

ThrowBack Thursday: Old-timey recipes, modern kitchen

Image from TheGraphicsFairy.com

September 18, 2014  
Eggs in Ramekins
From The White House Cookbook, ©1929 edition

Scrambled eggs are a go-to standard for easy cooking, but sometimes you want something easy and fancy. Enter the baked egg. 


Approach
The recipe itself was standard fare for late 19th century presentation: it assumes you already know something about cooking. Baking in a "moderate" oven, and using a "suggestion" of onion. Pretty basic ingredients. It only called for minced parsley; I also added basil.

We've made baked eggs in the oven before using crème bruleé dishes. For no other reason than that they sit on the shelf mocking me in their underused status, I chose to use some little red Le Creuset crocks. 

Result
Baking for 10 minutes did not finish the dish, so my idea of a moderate oven being 350℉ may not be correct. Also, my modern gas oven probably does not compare equally with the wood- or coal-fired oven mentioned. I forgot to add the breadcrumbs before popping the crocks in the oven, and I would not recommend cheating like I did and using the kitchen torch to "toast" the breadcrumbs. They just burned. Next time I'd toast them in a pan with some butter and add them when the recipe says to. Or maybe not at all; according to resident tasters they didn't add much. 

Even so, the end result was tasty indeed and worth repeating.

The White House Cookbook, ©1929

The initial edition was released in 1887. By 1929, this version was considered modern and updated. I picked up this copy from an online auction. 

Throwback Thursdays features a recipe from an antiquey style cookbook. Hard to know what age to put on it, but you know an old-timey one when you see it. I have at least 10 oldies now, a number which, being greater than 3, implies a collection. It also means they need their own shelf in the cookbook bookcase.