SCA Recipe of the day: May Eggs

6 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. tarragon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 slice white bread

Place six eggs into a pan of cold water and bring to a boil. After they've been boiling for 3 minutes, remove from heat, and chill rapidly in ice water.

Carefully cut a half inch hole in the shell at the large end of the egg. Cut through the white with the tip of a knife to expose the yolk. Remove the yolk and put it into a bowl (a turkey baster or syringe works well for this). Repeat with remaining eggs.

Mix the six egg yolks together with the extra one, add spices and return to egg shells. Plug the whole in each egg with a small piece of white bread. Place in pan of cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and chill in ice water for 2 minutes. Then remove the eggs immediately from the water, dry them off, and carefully remove the shell.

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Oh France, making things needlessly complicated since the 1500's! This is my first attempt at a period-based recipe, so obviously there was some trial and error. the eggs pre-boiled a touch too long, so I did not get as much yoke from each egg as I would have preferred. I think the trick there is that each stovetop is gonna have different heat settings, and just to keep careful eye on the water.

I tried to mix in a bit extra egg yoke to compensate for what I lost, though I think the mixture was still a little less than needed as I ended up with a thicker spice blend. A well, lesson learned! :) I left out the tarragon and substituted with onion powder, because I love onions, and I stuffed with wheat bread instead of white as I felt that was more "period correct" for what would have been added.

Feeling creative once completed, I dusted each egg with a different topping to try and see how that would work! One egg has a small coating of freshly shredded cheese, another a thin dribble of honey, a third with a small sprinkle of sugar and the last just plain.

OK, upon eating I can tell its a bit too much spice with the yoke content as assumed. Still really good, but I should have scaled back on the spice to match the yoke ratio. First egg I would rate as a B-. Cheese egg has a similar issue, the sharpness of the shredded cheese is heightening the spice so it's not all that great sadly. I'm sure cheese egg would be better with a yoke ratio higher, but its a D+. Sugar egg...ugh. That was a poor choice, the sweetness and the rough spiciness does not go well in the slightest so this egg is most definitely an F. On the honey egg, on the other hand, surprises the crap out of me. I was kinda holding my gut, thinking I was gonna have another sugar egg on my hands and I was kind of right. The sweetness of the honey doesn't go well with the spice mix, but the honey itself on the egg where the ratio is better actually works really well! I have a good feeling that if the yoke mixture is perfected, the honey egg will be an awesome taste so I'm gonna go and give it a C+ for the effort.