BE IT scrambled, fried or poached, baked into custard or whipped into a lemon meringue pie, for many of us our earliest food memories began with one of the most ubiquitous, simplest and most versatile ingredients in our larder: the egg.{% display:image for:article image:1 align:left width:250 %}
My first memory involves an egg that was hard-boiled by my grandmother,
Luna, in a mixture of water, coffee grounds and onion skins, which turned the milky hue of the egg’s shell a deep, chocolate brown. I remember her peeling away the shell and slicing the egg with a butter knife. She’d dip each half in a bowl filled with salted water and devour them in two bites, just as she’d done countless times growing up in her native Greece. Indeed, every meal I ate at her house began with one of her "brown" eggs.
Luna’s eggs were the first I’d ever eaten, but by the time I was an adult I had tasted them (knowingly and unknowingly) in hundreds of forms–as have most of us. Eggs have always been the world’s culinary shape-shifters, playing a supporting role in condiments and sauces such as mayonnaise and hollandaise or in desserts from meringues to cakes. But eggs also shine on their own as the lead actors in frittatas, omelettes and scrambles, or simply cracked over the top of a tartare or a salad.
Most varieties of hen’s eggs will work just fine for such dishes, but they’re not all created equal. Some cooks believe that brown eggs taste better than white ones, but the color of the shell merely reflects a hen’s breed. The origins of flavor rest in a hen’s diet, and most chefs agree that hens allowed to feed on grass, bugs and mud (yes, chickens will eat almost anything) produce eggs that taste superior to those from hens that are strictly grain-fed. And although it’s difficult to assess before they’ve been cracked, eggs with darker yolks boast better flavor–the deeper color means the chicken has had a chlorophyll-rich diet. Finding such eggs isn’t difficult–farmers markets abound with small-flock producers, and free-range eggs are common in most stores. (Portlanders are even allowed to keep up to three hens in their own backyards.)
Once you’ve hit on a superb batch, consider the classic French dish oeufs en meurette: Eggs are poached in red wine, gently placed on toasted brioche and smothered in a meaty reduction of wine, beef stock, port, bacon, mushrooms, shallots and butter. It may seem like a lot of work, but one bite reveals the egg’s infinite flavors–which are memorable enough to surpass even Luna’s eggs.
0
Share
