RD201904

Eggs

A Force of

Nature—and

in Kitchens

By Kate Lowenstein

and Daniel Gritzer

I

n 1911, a newspaperman in Canada

named Joseph Coyle overheard an

argument: A hotelier and a farmer

were exchanging accusations about

who was responsible for the broken

eggs found in the latter’s deliveries.

It inspired Coyle to experiment with

a sturdy solution—made, of course,

of newspaper. A few years later, the

Coyle Egg-Safety Carton had taken off.

You’ll find me tucked into a very

similar model today, nested in fridges

across the world, ready to start the

day. And morning is when bleary-

eyed humans are most likely to pluck

me from that carton to coddle, bake, or

fry. People have favored me for break-

fast since at least 1620, when a British

medical writer by the name of Tobias

Venner suggested poached eggs with

vinegar in the morning. Four centu-

ries later, you awake to me in more

wonderfully varied forms than ever:

scrambled hard, scrambled soft, over

easy, sunny-side up, en cocotte, in a

hole, 100-year, Scotch, hard-boiled,

basted, even astride a strip of steak.

At any time of day, cuisines the

world over would fall apart without

me. In cooking and baking, there may

be no single ingredient as crucial as I

am, with the possible exception of salt.

You need me for custards and cream

sauces, meringues and soufflés. With-

out me, you’d be bereft of mayo and

hollandaise sauce, profiteroles, cream

puffs, batters for your cookies and

cakes, and certain pastas and breads.

50 april 2019

Reader’s Digest

I Am the

FOOD

ON YOUR

PLATE

le

vi

br

ow

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