Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> Oh pshaw, on Fri 03 Nov 2006 10:07:42p, Janet B. meant to say...
>
> >
> > "skyhooks" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > Ward Abbott wrote:
> >>
> >> Why does everyone have horror stories about making gravy? We all know
> >> how to make a perfect béchamel sauce which is the basic, classic sauce
> >> technique.
> >>
> >> I hear these "MIL" stories and I can't comprehend WHY gravy continues
> >> to be an issue.
> >
> > For some peculiar and strange reasons, my former MIL put chopped hard
> > boiled egg in her milky turkey gravy. Thankfully, T-day happened once
> > only at her house (whew!), and notice that "former" is the key word!
> >
> > Sky, who still shudders when recalling that episode of T-day
> >
> > I saw that on the Paula Dean show. She puts chopped hard boiled egg in
> > her turkey gravy. Maybe it is a Southern tradition?
> > Janet
>
> Yes, chopped or sliced hard boiled egg is a typical addition to many a
> Southerner's giblet gravy. I would always ask my grandmother to leave out
> some gravy that didn't have egg.
>
> Hard boiled eggs seem to appear in many Southern dishes and, while I do
> like hard boiled eggs, I rarely like what they put them in. Case in point,
> a popular dish in the area where my parents grew up is "Ham and Egg Pie".
> It's comprised of largish bite sized pieces of country ham and hard boiled
> eggs layered in a pie shell with a white sauce made with milk and ham
> broth, covered with a top pastry and baked. It's enough to turn my
> stomach.
>
> --
> Wayne Boatwright
> __________________________________________________
>
> Cats must try to kill the curlicues of ribbon on
> the finished packages.
I think the southern tradition harkens back to older times. Hard boiled
eggs were a common addition to all kinds of meat dishes, forcemeats and
pies from Medieval through Victorian periods.
The recipe below for a stuffed fowl uses just the boiled yolks, but
many other recipes call for the whole egg. The whites were probably
used some other way, perhaps as a garnish, as it's unlikely they would
let them go to waste.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT FROM:
http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec52.htm
Goce or Capon Farced
PERIOD: England, 15th century | SOURCE: Harleian MS. 4016 | CLASS:
Authentic
DESCRIPTION: Goose or capon stuffed with eggs, onions, & grapes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORIGINAL RECEIPT:
Goce or Capon farced. Take parcill, Swynes grece, or suet of shepe, and
parboyle hem in faire water and fresssh boyling broth; And şen take
yolkes of eyeron hard y-sodde, and hew hem smale, with the herbes and
the salte; and cast therto pouder of Ginger, Peper, Canell, and salte,
and Grapes in tyme of yere; And in oşer tyme, take oynons, and boile
hem; and whan they ben yboiled ynowe with şe herbes and with şe suet,
al şes togidre, şen put all in şe goos, or in şe Capon; And then
late him roste ynogh.
- Austin, Thomas. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. Harleian MS. 279
& Harl. MS. 4016, with extracts from Ashmole MS. 1429, Laud MS. 553, &
Douce MS 55. London: for The Early English Text Society by N. Trübner
& Co., 1888.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GODE COOKERY TRANSLATION:
Goose or capon stuffed. Take parsley, swine's grease, or suet of sheep,
and parboil them in water and fresh broth; And then take hard-boiled
egg yolks, and cut them small, with the herbs and the salt; and add
powder of ginger, pepper, cinnamon, and salt, and grapes in time of
year; And in other times, take onions, and boil them; and when they
have boiled enough with the herbs and with the suet, all these
together, then put all in the goose, or in the capon; And then let it
roast enough.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ END EXCERPT
Aloha
Barb