Eggs

When I was growing up I never paid attention to a lot of things my mother said. More fool me as she held a wealth of information that she had accumulated over her life time. I suppose she was given most of the tips from her mother or grandmother. In any case some of my mother’s tips do seem a bit dated. Never the less they are quite useful even today.

My interest in what my mother had to say began when I was going through a rather large box of my mom's old photographs. I had been putting off sorting them out ever since she passed away. But it came to a head when my wife said,

"You may as well throw all those old photos of your mother's away, you never look at them. They just sit there day in day out gathering dust."

Well that was my wake up call, so I started to sort through them. All the ones I wanted to keep I scanned into my computer. They look just as good in the computer generated album as they did in the real one. The rest I gave to a family member who was doing the "Family tree".

This now brings me to point of this story. Right at the bottom of the box of photos was a battered old notebook. I recognised the writing on it straight away; it was my mom's writing. In her tidy hand she had written in bold handwriting...

Tips and advice I think you should know.

So I started to read the notebook, on every page she had crammed it full of hints and advice. There was no real theme to each page. It was as if she had written it down as she was told the gems of information. I took it to show my wife and for once she was impressed by my mom. She couldn't put the notebook down. Eventually she finished reading the notebook, and then she said,

"You know your mom was very cleaver. Every hint, trick, household advice or any other useful information has been recorded in her notebook."

I said to my wife,

"That's a first, to say something nice about my mom."

I thought to myself that if my wife was impressed by the little gems of information in the notebook. Perhaps other people would find them of interest. So here we go my mom's ramblings about the invaluable egg.

1. Never wash eggs; it takes off the protective coating that protects the shell.

I don't know anyone nowadays who would wash an egg but that's mom's tip.

.... Just thought, free range eggs are covered in muck.

2. If any eggs are stuck to the carton, just wet the box. That should release the sticking eggs.

Don't you just hate that when it happens?

3. Checking the freshness of your eggs.

Break one of your eggs onto a plate. The yolk should stand proud, high and rounded. The white of the egg should be jelly-like when you look at it.

4. They should have a nice rough shell and feel heavy for their size.

5. in preparation for using your eggs.

It is best to use eggs at room temperature, so remove them from the fridge about an hour before you want to use them.

6. Cold eggs can curdle when cooked and they do not whip as well.

7. Cool hot mixes before adding your eggs.

8. Cold eggs may crack when being boiled.

9. When you want to whisk your egg whites.

Make sure your bowl and whisk are free from fat deposits. Any fat deposit will stop your whites whisking as well as they should.

10. To get a creamier scrambled egg and a cleaner basin.

You should butter your basin and cook the eggs over a pan of boiling water. With the help of the pre-buttered basin you will not have a messy pan to clean up afterwards.

I hope you have found some of my mom's tips useful. My wife has already asked me to publish more of them so that she can email all of her friends. So I have had my instructions from the boss. No doubt I will be publishing more of them in the future.