HOW TO HAVE THEM JUST RIGHT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XX, 15 May 1897, Page 622

HOW TO HAVE THEM JUST RIGHT.

Although in these days not even the greatest of epicures imitates the luxurious old Roman whose costly feasts included eggs in great variety of kind and preparation, yet everyone likes to have his eggs cooked ‘just so.’ You can spoil the breakfast of one who prefers hard boiled eggs by giving him one underdone, and he who prefers them soft cannot find a hard-boiled egg eatable. It seems that Frederick the Great was a very ordinary, if not a small, man when eggs not properly cooked according to his ideas, were placed before him. On such occasions a tempest raged around the coffee-pot, so history tells us. But prevention is better than cure, and that very original man, John Randolph, invented and carried out a method of securing eggs just right which worked to a charm. As is the case in most country homes in the South, the kitchen was in a separate building at some distance from the house, and servants were plenty. When the ‘ sage of Roanoke ' took his seat at the breakfast-table there was a line of servants from the dining room to the kitchen. A watch was in the hand of the mother. ‘ In !’ exclaimed the statesman, and the word ‘ In ’ was passed from mouth to mouth until it reached the waiting cook, who dropped the eggs into the water. After the requisite number of seconds the holder of the timekeeper signified that the cooking was done. ‘ Out !’ went forth the word in like manner, and the eggs were quickly removed. . The system required six or seven servants to cook one egg, but Randolph was accustomed to declare that this was the only way he could get it cooked to suit him.