Egg Soup
This classic, comforting Egg Soup is elegant in its simplicity. The rich broth, delicate egg yolk, and subtle seasoning create a harmonious blend of flavors. The vintage cookbook for this recipe claims Monte Carlo as the soup's place of origin. Whether or not the soup's origins can truly be traced, it does make very helpful use of stale bread, which can indeed have many uses, so don’t throw it away. Bread becomes stale when its starch molecules break down and rearrange into crystalline structures, a process known as retrogradation. This soup comes from With a Saucepan Over the Sea, published in 1902.
- 6 slices stale bread
- Sugar
- 1 pint light stock (like chicken)
- 1 pint milk
- 3 eggs
- 1 ounce butter
- Salt
- Pepper
- Nutmeg
- Parsley, chopped
Cut 6 slices of stale bread and dip them lightly in sugar. Put them in the oven to brown, and have ready 1 pint of white stock and 1 pint of boiling milk, blended with the yolks of 3 eggs and 1 ounce of butter. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg and a spoonful of chopped parsley. Pour over the slices of toast and serve, after keeping hot, for ten minutes.