H.F.F. 5.2: Breakfast

  

The Challenge: Breakfast. Make a breakfast dish.

The Recipe: Fillet of Eggs from 365 Breakfast Dishes: A Breakfast Dish for Every Day in the Year

Mix in a baking dish the yolks of 10 eggs with a spoonful of wine and a pinch of salt. Cook for five minutes in a hot oven and let them cool; cut this preparation into 10 pieces and dip each one in fritter batter; fry them in hot fat for about 2 minutes. Drain and serve on a napkin garnished with parsley.

As there was no fritter batter given in the book, I used instructions from the Royal Baker and Pastry Cook (New York, 1902)

Plain Fritter Batter: 1 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 2 eggs, 1 cup milk. Sift dry ingredients together, add beaten eggs and milk beat till smooth.  

The Date/Year and Region: Philadelphia, 1901

How Did You Make It: One ~1/5 scale. I mixed two egg yokes with a scant 1 tsp of white wine and a pinch of salt, then baked it in a small glass dish for ~5min at 400F. The egg yoke puffed up while cooking, but deflated when cooled. 

I mixed up a half back of the fitter batter. When cool, I cut the baked egg yoke into two pieces, coated each in the fritter batter, and fried them in lard until the batter was cooked through. I neglected the napkin, but did garnish it with parsley. 

Time to Complete: Excluding cooling time, about 30 minutes.

Total Cost: <$1 for eggs

How Successful Was It?: Adequate. It mostly just reminded me of a fried egg (only lighter in texture). I expected something more like a egg cooked in a pancake, but I honestly couldn't tell much of a difference between the egg center and the batter around it in either flavor or texture. Between the wine, salt, milk, and flour there was a lot more than egg going on, but the only flavor that really came through was the egg (and a bit of salt).

For myself, I see no reason to make this recipe again, since I could just fry an egg instead. However, it could make an interesting addition to a cooking demonstration. Or a change of pace if I was cooking historic breakfast everyday (which is my personal hypothesis for why this recipe exists at all).

How Accurate Is It?: The second book, The Royal Baker, actually gave pretty detailed instructions for how to cook sweet and savory fritters. I think I did fairly well, except that I used less lard than I maybe should have. I also didn't have it "smoking", because the fire alarm is very sensitive in my modern kitchen. That could be an argument for trying fritters again on a fire outdoors, though...

Fillet of Eggs