Tips from the archives: Boiling an egg

"Have ready a saucepan of boiling water; put the eggs into it gently with a spoon, letting the spoon touch the bottom of the saucepan before it is withdrawn, that the egg may not fall, and consequently crack. For those who like eggs lightly boiled, 3 minutes will be found sufficient; 3 3/4 to 4 minutes will be ample time to set the white nicely; and, if liked hard, 6 to 7 minutes will not be found too long."

Mrs Beeton's Household Management by

Isabella Beeton. First published 1861

Everyone knows how to boil an egg, right?

Right? 

Apparently, not.

I'd always assumed there was just one way to boil an egg, and that was my way.  But watching my husband boil eggs this morning, I realised he uses a completely different method.

So I consulted the oracle of domesticity, Mrs Beeton, and it seems she sides with him.  While I had been labouring under the misapprehension that eggs were placed into cold water and then brought to the boil before starting the timer, Mrs Beeton and my husband put the eggs into water that is already boiling.

What do you think? Start from cold, or drop into boiling?

Taking stock of what we eat

“It is on a good stock, or first good broth and sauce, that excellence in cookery depends. If the preparation of this basis of the culinary art is intrusted (sic) to negligent or ignorant persons, and the stock is not well skimmed, indifferent results will be obtained”. From Mrs Beeton’s The Book of Household Management, S. O. Beeton 1861, Chapter V: Soups

Mrs Beeton has given me a wakeup call. For years I have extolled the virtues of making white sauce and egg custard from scratch, but avoided stock and gravies, and as my husband is equally challenged in this area we had destined our children to eating a range of chemicals that parade as stock-like substances.

Before our time the inability to make a stock would mean a household was denied many dishes unless you were in a position to have staff to make it for you. Oh how I wish I had staff. I dream about having staff.

I’m evidence of the evolution of the self sufficient home chef to supermarket hack. These days I can waltz down to my local supermarket and pick up a whole load of chemical food-like products which can be used in place of stock.

The trouble is the ingredient list looks like this:

Beef Stock Cubes: Wheat flour, salt, yeast extract, maize starch, flavour enhancers (621, 627 ie msg), colour (why?), vegetable oil, autolysed yeast extract, flavourings (including beef flavour – and I bet it wasn’t extracted from a cow...), sugar, onion extract, onion powder.

That’s not food. Not even slightly. What am I doing to my children?

So, despite memories of long hours of simmering and a fatty unappealing result, I thought let’s give this stock caper a go once more.

One night I cooked a roast chicken dinner. After dinner I gathered up the remaining carcass and meat and threw it in a pot of water along with the most wilted vegetables in my fridge. My secret here is that I put all this in my pasta pot which has a built in drainer (handy later believe me).

[This was my first attempt when I hadn't worked out about using the pasta pot...]

I simmered this concoction from the time after dinner until just before I went to bed. At that point I drained the stock, threw out the lumpy bits and put the stock into the fridge overnight. The next morning the fat had risen to the top and hardened. I simply scooped this off and voila four litres of chicken stock! Why had I thought it was so hard? The stock went into takeaway containers in the freezer. Easy.

But still I hear you decry this as too hard? Visit your local butcher. Many of ours make their own stock (they have the bones on hand after all). If a stock has more than four ingredients, or ingredients I don’t recognise, I don’t buy it anymore. My great-grandmother wouldn’t have, and now, neither will I.

[this is a photo of beef stock in progress. I'd learnt about using the pasta pot with internal drainer by then...]

Oh, and once I had stock on hand, suddenly gravies became so simple, soups easy. Who knew?

Any stock makers out there?